Broken

I thought I needed to be fixed. What I really needed was to stop believing I was broken.

I have chased every self help book, productivity hack, and mindfulness app like they were the holy grail. I kept trying to fix myself, my habits, my mindset, my flaws as if I was some kind of busted appliance waiting for a repair technician.

But what I eventually stumbled into is I wasn’t broken. I was just convinced I was.

That belief that something was wrong with me kept me in a cycle of endless tweaking, optimizing, and becoming my best self. Every rough edge felt like a defect. Every off day felt like proof. Every stumble screamed see, you are not enough yet.

And then one day it hit me what if the problem wasn’t me, but the story I was telling myself?

I didn’t need fixing. I needed permission to be whole as I was. Not perfect, not flawless, not endlessly polished. Just whole.

When I stopped believing I was broken, everything shifted. Challenges didn’t mean failure. Imperfections didn’t mean defects. Growth became about curiosity, not repair.

It turns out, the biggest freedom comes not from fixing yourself but from unlearning the belief that you need fixing in the first place.

Because you were never broken. You were always just… you.

Work has a way of amplifying this I must be fixed mindset. We sit through performance reviews that highlight gaps more than strengths. We compare ourselves to colleagues who seem to have it all together. We convince ourselves that the quirks that make us different the introversion, the neurodiverse tendencies, the nonlinear ways of thinking are flaws that need to be smoothed out. Even the well meaning corporate wellness programs can send the message  you’d be thriving if only you downloaded one more app and learned to breathe correctly at your desk.

But workplaces don’t thrive because everyone’s perfectly adjusted. They thrive because people bring their differences, their edges, and their humanity to the table. What looks like a defect in one setting might be the spark of innovation in another.

When you believe you are broken at work, you shrink yourself. You avoid risks, hide ideas, and second guess your voice. You start editing yourself before anyone else gets the chance. But when you stop buying into that belief, you show up with more clarity and confidence and ironically, you often perform better than when you were hustling to prove you weren’t defective.

Leaders especially need to take note here. Your team doesn’t need to be fixed. They need to be seen. They need space. Space to grow, to stumble, to bring their whole selves without feeling like an itemized list of issues. Coaching is great. Support is necessary. But stop treating people like performance review projects.

Workplaces don’t need more perfect people. They need more whole people. They need people who know they were never broken to begin with. And sometimes the bravest thing you can do is stop waiting for someone to hand you a fixed version of yourself and start showing up as the one you already are.

ღ Chi