One dark March morning in 2021, Jess woke up and thought if I go for a walk and get attacked at least I’ll get time off work.

This moment had been building for several months. I had started a new job which progressively saw my mental health decline. During my first appointment, my psychologist explained we should think of work as a dial. Most people will work at a 2 or 3 and push to a 5 or 6 when they need to. My baseline was an 8 and I’d been trying to push beyond a 10 for so long that the only way to get better was to completely unplug and figure out who I was outside of work.

The Self Paradox Framework organically developed as I spent months trying to figure out who I was outside of work. This work allowed me to articulate my mission to empower people to embrace their onlyness.

The term onlyness was developed by Nilofer Merchant to explain:

“that every one of the 7.5 billion humans on this planet has value to offer… You’re standing in a spot in the world that only you stand in, a function of your history and experiences, visions, and hopes. From this spot where only you stand, you offer a distinct point of view, novel insights, and even groundbreaking ideas.” (from The Power of Onlyness, p2)

Articulating my mission, and aligning my personal and professional self to fully embrace my onlyness, has changed my entire life.

Now, I want to help you do the same.