I collided with a tractor-trailer on my 39th birthday. It was a wake-up call.

"My son, Xavier, less than a year old at the time, was fast asleep in his crib while I worked on a policy document as midnight approached. I was relatively new to my position at a Minnesota-based nonprofit that helps survivors of gender-based violence, and I wanted to demonstrate my value to the organization. It was a shared document with other team members, so many could see that the timestamps indicated that I was revising it at 11 p.m."

"One of my colleagues, a mom of teenagers, tried to coach me in a soft, gentle way. "You don't need to be in here so late," she said. "You need to get some rest." I was ambitious and constantly pushed myself Instead of listening to her, I manipulated the system. I started setting my late-night emails to schedule-send so they arrived at 9 a.m. the next day."

"Triple-checking that the Ts were crossed and the Is were dotted was second nature to me. Women, especially Black women, are so often trying to prove ourselves because we want to show we belong. For me, it goes back to my parents and community saying that we have to do twice as much to get half of what everyone else has. It felt especially true for me in my 20s and early to mid-30s."

Christina Jones balanced a fast-paced legal and nonprofit career while feeling constant pressure to prove her worth. She often worked late nights and manipulated email timestamps to appear productive to colleagues. Cultural expectations and family messages reinforced a need to do more, especially as a Black woman. A car collision on her birthday underscored that life is short and prompted reassessment of priorities. She left traditional roles, pursued entrepreneurship, and founded a nonprofit and management consulting firm. The new business enabled a better work-life balance and greater emphasis on family while continuing to serve survivors of gender-based violence.

Read at Business Insider