My Self-Reflection Has Been Misdirected

For the last few months, I’ve been pushing myself to spend way more time self-reflecting on who I am.

My issue has been the fact that I keep self-reflecting on Caterina Sullivan, young businesswoman, not Cat, the person behind the businesswoman.

As a public figure, I have found it difficult to separate myself from my work. When I think about the person I am, I think about my work and my hobbies. I think about what I ‘do’ not how I think and feel. And it’s been working for me on a surface level. But things like this can only work so long before they totally back-fire. And that’s the stage I’m dealing with now.

I haven’t been able to separately take time to self-reflect on Cat, who she is, what she’s been through and how that affects others, especially the people close to her. I have been going at such a pace, always focusing on the next big project or on getting my physical and mental health right that I have forgotten to check in with me and how I’m doing and check in with the people supporting me and how they’re doing.

I’ve been able to give a lot to people in very superficial ways — cook for people, take people to lunch when they’re down, listen as people bounce business ideas off me — but I haven’t been able to completely put my life aside and focus on how the people close to me are feeling on a…