The Day Everything Broke (And Why That Was the Start)

There wasn’t a dramatic collapse. No explosion. No rock-bottom story that wraps up nicely with a bow.

It was quieter than that.

Like something snapping inside me that no one else could hear.

On the outside, life looked fine. I had a job. I had responsibilities. I had systems that kept me moving forward. But I was moving through a life that wasn’t really mine. A life built on expectation, obligation and autopilot. A life that ticked boxes but drained my soul.

Eventually, even that stopped working.

When Functioning Isn’t Living

There’s this strange moment where you realise you’ve been coping, not living.

You look back and see a trail of stress, fatigue and internal compromises. Things you swallowed. Parts of yourself you buried. Versions of you that were easier for others to digest.

That’s where I was.

Waking up tired. Coming home wired. Carrying tension in my gut and mind like it was part of the uniform. Life had become a game of “push through.” Just get to the weekend. Just get to the holiday. Just make it through this one more thing.

But the truth was—there was no “one more thing.” It was all the same. And I was losing myself in it.

The Quiet Snap

I wish I could tell you there was a single moment. One clear event that made me change my life.

But it wasn’t like that.

It was a gradual dulling. Then, one day, something just… gave way. I couldn’t pretend anymore. Not to my boss. Not to my partner. Not to myself.

I remember sitting in silence, staring at the wall, thinking:

“I don’t know what I want. I just know it isn’t this.”

It wasn’t depression exactly. It was disconnection. Like the life I’d built had outgrown me—or maybe I’d outgrown it. But I couldn’t keep walking through a life that felt like it belonged to someone else.

The Disorientation Phase

What followed wasn’t a grand rebirth.

It was confusion.

Days of questioning everything. Feeling aimless. Unproductive. Floating. I’d spent so long anchored to obligation that without it, I didn’t know who I was.

But here’s what I didn’t know at the time:

That space? That uncomfortable, floating, nothing-makes-sense space?

That’s where the real work begins.

The Real Beginning

I didn’t set out to “build a business.” I didn’t sit down with a master plan or some influencer’s 90-day funnel.

I started asking questions.

Who am I without the noise?
What matters to me now—not five years ago?
What if I could create something that helped me and others at the same time?

That’s when things started moving.

Slowly, I began exploring. Writing. Using AI to reflect, structure and organise the mess in my head. I created because I had to. It wasn’t about monetisation. It was about meaning.

And eventually, that meaning started taking shape. Empowerment & Elevation was born. Then The Dayz of David. Pieces of me, repurposed into something real.

If You’re at the Edge Right Now…

I know how scary it is to realise the life you’re living isn’t aligned with who you really are.

But that’s not failure. That’s clarity.

If things are breaking, maybe they’re supposed to. Maybe they’ve been held together by stress and survival and stories that no longer fit.

Let it break.

Because that’s where the truth gets in.

That’s where your story actually begins.

🔁 What’s Next in the Series:

Episode 2 – “Meeting the Machine: How I Discovered AI as a Tool for Freedom”

I’ll walk you through how I stumbled into using AI—not as a shortcut, but as a mirror, a map and eventually, a weapon.