The Title No One Can Take Away

For most of my adult life, I knew exactly what to say when someone asked, “What do you do?”

I had a title.

For 35 years, my title told people where I worked, what I had accomplished, and where I fit in the professional world.

Then one day, the title was gone.

And I was left with a much harder question:

If I am no longer that, who am I now?

That question followed me through the in-between—the season after one chapter ended but before I could see what was coming next.

Eventually, I began to understand that losing my job title had not erased my identity. It had simply removed the most familiar way I had been describing myself.

My title was gone.

The woman was still there.

A Job Title and a Life Title Are Not the Same

A job title describes the position you hold.

A Life Title describes the contribution you make wherever you are.

A job title is assigned by a company, organization, industry, or circumstance.

A Life Title is revealed through the patterns woven across your entire life.

A job title belongs on your résumé.

A Life Title appears in the way people experience you.

A job title may give you authority in a particular role.

A Life Title reveals the authority you carry into every role.

A job title can be promoted, changed, eliminated, or taken away.

Your Life Title belongs to you.

That distinction matters because our roles are temporary—even the roles we deeply love.

Companies close.

Markets change.

Businesses succeed and fail.

Children grow up.

Relationships end.

Retirement arrives.

Life rearranges itself, sometimes without asking our permission.

When our entire identity is attached to a role, the loss of that role can feel like the loss of ourselves.

But the role was never the whole story.

It was simply one place where our gifts were expressed.

The Pattern Beneath the Positions

After my corporate career ended, I began noticing what had followed me through every chapter of my life.

The leader was still there.

So were the teacher, encourager, connector, creator, and guide.

Those qualities had never belonged to the company. The company had simply given them a place to work.

That is what a Life Title helps us recognize.

It looks beneath everything we have done and asks:

What have I consistently brought with me?

What do people naturally come to me for?

What do I notice that others miss?

What problems do I instinctively solve?

What changes in a room, relationship, or situation because I am there?

Your Life Title is not something impressive you invent for yourself.

It is something true you finally recognize.

How I Discovered Mine

Recently, I began developing the idea of a Life Title for the women I guide.

I wanted women to recognize who they are beyond the roles they hold, so I created a Life Title Guide to help them notice the patterns in how they lead, encourage, organize, create, care, and contribute.

Then the obvious question came:

What is MY Life Title?

When I looked across my life—not only at my career, but at my conversations, relationships, leadership, writing, and the work I am creating now—one pattern became unmistakable.

My Life Title is:

The Woman Who Makes the Next Step Visible.

When I first read those words, I felt recognized.

Not flattered.

Recognized.

Because that is what I have always done.

I listen to what someone is saying and often hear the possibility beneath her words. I see connections she may not see yet. I give language to what feels confusing and help her recognize one clear place to begin.

Not long ago, a friend was sharing stories from her extraordinary life in politics. She and a small group of friends call themselves the Blonde Mafia.

As I listened, I told her, “You need to write a book.”

I didn’t create the stories. I didn’t outline the chapters or explain every step required to become an author.

I simply recognized that a book was already there.

She immediately called the other women, and they began creating the outline.

I made the next step visible—and she moved.

That experience showed me the difference between something I occasionally do and something that is part of who I am.

My job titles were positions I held.

My Life Title is the gift I carried into every one of them.

Why Your Life Title Matters

Knowing your Life Title gives you something a job title cannot: continuity.

It reminds you that you remain yourself when your circumstances change.

It helps you recognize which opportunities align with who you are and which ones are simply distractions.

It gives you language for the value you bring, especially during seasons when you are no longer sure where you fit.

And perhaps most importantly, it helps you see the thread God has been weaving through every chapter of your life.

Your past roles were not wasted when they ended.

They were evidence.

They showed you your strengths, formed your wisdom, and gave your gifts places to develop.

Your Life Title gathers that evidence and reveals the woman who has been there all along.

For me, recognizing my Life Title brought my calling into focus:

I guide women to recognize the God-given dream already asking to be lived.

I make the next step visible so she can begin moving toward it.

That is bigger than any job I have ever held.

And it is a title no one can take away.

If you are ready to recognize who you are beyond the roles you hold, type TITLE in the comments, and I’ll send you my free What Is Your Life Title? Guide.

What contribution have you carried into every role you’ve ever held—and what might it reveal about your Life Title? Are you ready to discover your Life Title?