My Year of Oversharing

The following essay was presented during the InBusiness 2024 Women of Achievement ceremony by Karen Johnson, CEO and President of New Pathways for Youth, on October 15, 2024.

This year, I decided to share some things on the internet. And not on the app where people tend to share personal news—not Facebook, not Instagram, not even TikTok. No, I decided to share some stories about myself on the professional app—the place where we all swap our business stories—on LinkedIn.

It started with a story about my license plate. I wrote: “I love what I get to do and where I get to do it, so why not show my pride on my license plate.” And there was a photo of me leaning against my car with my “CEO” vanity plate. If you are bold and brash enough to be the boss, why not show it off?

My next post was about my new tattoo. How many of you have permanently inked your organization’s vision statement on your arm? I did—“Joy and Purpose.” It gave me the opportunity to talk about emotions, which is the core of the work we do at New Pathways for Youth. I shared: “My life has been full of lots of emotions—happiness, sadness, confusion, loneliness—and what always tethers me back to myself is finding my joy and purpose.”

This spring I did a lot of hiking to get in shape. One day, I finally decided to stop taking the lazy route around the mountain—the path I knew I could easily finish. Instead I took the path to the top—the one I wasn’t sure I had the strength to complete. I knew what my comfort zone was, and I was hesitant to risk failing. Maybe you can relate? And guess what? I made it all the way to the top. I actually surprised myself with how easy it was. My message was this: “The only way to reach the limit of your own potential is to stop challenging yourself.” This was true for my hike, and it was also true for my life.

With this newfound confidence of reaching the mountaintop, I decided to do some sit-ups. I rolled out my yoga mat, got settled in on the floor, bent my knees, locked my hands behind my head, and tried to do a sit-up. I couldn’t even do one. Me, a former college athlete, I literally could not hoist my body off a yoga mat even one time. It was humbling, it was humiliating. I shared this experience with a colleague, who reminded me that there is more than one way to strengthen your core. I wrote: “You only fail when you stop trying.” So, I bought a kettlebell and learned a new exercise. My core is getting much stronger.

And then came the topic I was most afraid to share. The “it’s OK to not be OK” post. The day I shared the fact that I had made an appointment with a mental health professional. I wrote: “The truth is that the last few months have been rough. I have been dealing with extra stress, with grief, and with some personal challenges—and my emotions have gotten the better of me at times.” For several weeks, I couldn’t get through a meeting without finding something to cry about. I lashed out at people for no reason. I was so distracted by personal things that I wasn’t able to focus on work. I knew I needed to talk to a professional. I thought long and hard about posting it on LinkedIn. Would my team and colleagues treat me differently? Would my board members and donors think I was weak or not up to the job? In the end, I decided to share my most vulnerable moment. I knew I wasn’t alone. The response I got helped me realize that it really is OK to be…human.

A few weeks later I went to visit my family in Hilton Head. My dad, my brother, my sister-in-law, and I hired a boat with a guide, and we went fishing. I caught a shark. And my shark was much bigger than the one my brother caught. So, yes, I had to post the photo of me holding a shark on LinkedIn. For one thing, I looked really cool. And it also gave me a reason to talk about our summer hours program and the importance of taking your PTO. For many years, I believed that never taking vacation time, that working 12-hour days, or that answering emails after hours were signs of my tireless dedication to my job. What that really showed was my utter neglect of my own mental and emotional health and my own lack of boundaries. Being a workaholic may have fueled my ambition, but it also sent a dangerous message to my team and my colleagues. Life can’t be all about work. Sometimes life needs to be about fishing with your family and catching the biggest shark.

Much of my energy this past year has been invested in losing weight. I shared that on LinkedIn too—and not because I was proud of it…but because I was embarrassed by it. I wrote: “I have lost 100 lbs in the last year. While that might seem like a cause for celebration, as I write it, all I can think about is the failure that got me to the point where I needed to lose 100 lbs.” I explained that this wasn’t the first time I had lost a significant amount of weight, only to gain it all back. I still have my plus-size wardrobe stashed away in the back of the closet “just in case.” No one—literally no one—wants to expose their weight challenges publicly. Breaking habits is hard. By acknowledging that in the most vulnerable way I hoped that others could relate it to their own challenges.

Throughout my life, I have believed the most important thing about me was my achievements. As a kid, I always wanted to make my parents proud by earning good grades and by being good at sports. Growing up, I thought the best way to make friends was to participate in lots of activities and to be the best at all of them. When I entered the workforce, I wanted my boss to notice me because I took on the most projects and worked the longest hours. Now, as a CEO, I want my team to appreciate me because I put them first and because I do everything I can to advance our organization. My whole life I have focused on what I have accomplished instead of who I am as a person. And, here’s the thing—I am really proud of what I have achieved. I mean, I’m a “Woman of Achievement” after all. But what I have failed to do too many times is to value myself and to take care of myself. And that needs to change.

I share all of these stories with a simple message—each of us is a work in progress. Each of us is worth the effort to make change in our lives. The very best thing we can do as leaders and as human beings is to take care of ourselves. To prioritize ourselves. To love ourselves. Every part of ourselves. That is a journey that has taken me a lifetime to learn. So, this year, in the midst of my oversharing on LinkedIn, I have been working on myself—on my head and my mind, on my body and my core, and on my heart and my soul. Because I am worth it.