A note from Brett Mackey, founder of Paradigm Rhyme:
Paradigm Rhyme was formed on July 7, 2023…and the first blog on the original site was published soon after. At the time, I was on the front end of a large shift in my life experience and everything felt new and often exciting. I poured my heart into that first blog. It was cathartic to share, to release. In hindsight, it was an early important step towards reclaiming control of my life direction. In the months that followed I learned that I had a lot to learn, and energetically it was not the right time for me to be sharing or teaching. I was in caterpillar mode and getting ready to cocoon…sort of. Below I am re-posting the original blog that kicked off the Paradigm Rhyme discovery journey, which continues until today. As I write this updated preface to the original blog, it’s August 31 of 2025, and I’m finalizing copy for the brand re-launch of Paradigm Rhyme’s website, to better serve our growing community. In the years since this post was written, so many lives have already been touched on the journey, none more than my own. Paradigm Rhyme started with just me, but it’s quickly become a team and a network that are on a mission to do good. We are so glad that you are here. Without further ado…the blast from the past:
Original Post:
TLDR: I was a business executive and former Big 4 consultant focused on digital transformation in my prior paradigm. Now I am embarking on a journey to live openly, learn from guides, and create a new paradigm focused on purpose, passion, and calling.
When I went to bed last night I was an executive at a major US brand, committed to the corporate grind, and a deep belief that my decade of leadership at various large organizations had produced results that would continue to propel me up the corporate ladder. For better or worse, the past decade proved my values: grueling career centric mentality, relentless pursuit of promotion, leaning into my love of leadership, and finding ways to touch people’s lives as I navigated the beast.
What was missing across all this? Purpose. Passion. Calling. I knew there was a creative side dormant, and I longed for the time and space to pursue what I loved rather than focusing on status and wealth. Despite what my inner self knew I wanted, I had locked myself to the unending train of corporate advancement…and despite my better judgment continued to pump fuel into that engine.
Finding oneself out of a job through a lay-off is a perfectly natural part of the modern corporate ‘circle of life’, but before last week it was an experience I had not had during a 13 year sprint up the ladder where I rose from a technology analyst in a Fortune 100 insurance company (~4 years total), up through the Senior Manager ranks at a Big 4 consulting firm (~8 years total), and then becoming a Vice President at a major North American brand (~1 year). After experiencing the ‘setback’ of losing my job last week, my brain quickly drifted to the conventional wisdom: take a little time (but not too much time) to reset & update my resume, check-in with my network for help finding the next career move, and then jump back into the grind as quickly as feasible…lest I lose precious months of earning potential or ‘slow my momentum’. This sage wisdom from the religion of capitalism was definitely my first inclination..
…and yet a tiny voice deep within me was whispering something radically different, “Do you actually want to be on this business path that your ego is so desperate to get back to?”. The tiny voice made a solid point: I had spent the better part of the past 5 years complaining to my boyfriend that I worked too much and it was sucking away any hope of devoting time to topics I am passionate about. I had a long list of causes, artistic endeavors, travel, interests, spiritual practices, and people that I so deeply longed to dive into…but I continuously gave myself the same excuse for why I didn’t do this: I don’t have enough time. I had long succumb to a dull acceptance that because my corporate career afforded me the lifestyle to live comfortably, donate to causes I care about, allowed me to positively impact the people I worked with, and still provided enough time for me to be somewhat (though not fully) present for my family, my community, and my partner… this life was ‘good enough’ and I should just be grateful for what I had.
But what about what I didn’t have? What about the passions that I knew were at the core of my soul, that I allowed to die on the vine and slowly wilt away? Why should I limit my life to ‘good enough’, when there’s only one guaranteed trip on this planet and I have the potential to do so much more than ‘good enough’? I had been intentional about building my nest egg over the previous few years (after many years of less responsible over-spending), and I don’t have a family I need to feed. As I reflected on this inner guidance and gave it room to grow into bigger ideas, I felt a tidal wave of excitement and creativity hit me with a force that knocked my frown into a smile before I knew it.
As I meditated, wrote, and took counsel from trusted friends…the significance of this moment and the potential path forward became clear:
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- I had been yearning for change but was too afraid to exit my prior path
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- The universe had forced my hand, giving me the gift of time and a chance at rebirth
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- I had almost missed the presence of this gift entirely, as I was so focused on clinging to the old paradigm
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- Now, a clear choice lay before me: continue with the old or forge something new
I choose new. While I am at the initial stages of forming what the new paradigm looks like…I have created a malleable structure to guide this new journey. The journey is for self discovery, and not for profit. I created a budget to validate that I could live without being a burden to others, and I am giving myself 12 months for the initial discovery journey. I will invest time into achieving better outcomes for causes I care about. I will explore my spiritual side in a way I’ve literally always longed to. I will not take another traditional job until I have completed this journey. I started a LLC so this journey has the opportunity to grow into something more, if that is what is supposed to happen.
I don’t know where I am going to be at the end of this exploration, but I catch glimpses of what I would like it to be, and I am in the process of digging into this desire so I can manifest it…it sounds like freedom and rhymes with purpose. It’s a life where I make decisions on meaningful outcomes to pursue on my terms, and where values aren’t a buzzword or mask to cover up reality…they are truly embodied and personified by what I do each day, each moment. It is a future where I build a legacy that I know my niece and nephew would be proud of.
Recently I listened to a Tim Ferris podcast called ‘How to Design a Life’ (what a concept) where he interviewed Debbie Millman. It was a spell-binding and meaningful 2.5 hour journey across failures, chance moments that changed everything, brutal life setbacks of the most horrifying kind, public and private embarrassessments, and through it all an endearing and humorous story of absolutely massive success by a human who showed so much persistence, despite her natural inclination to run from failure. Debbie’s story of failure and rebound is an archetype I will explore deeply through ParadigmRhyme.
In the weeks and months ahead, ParadigmRhyme will be my forum to tackle the topics of passion, purpose, and calling…..I am going to lean heavily on guides that I respect, published content that speaks to me, and spiritual practices that go back thousands of years. I plan to:
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- Reflect on the extensive content I’ll be absorbing from respected authors, profound spiritualists, and other impactful content creators
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- Share original interviews that I will be conducting with the ‘guides’ of this journey…people I’m lucky enough to know and who have great stories and enduring lessons to teach us
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- Publish poetry, an outlet I use to express my feelings and observations
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- Blog!!! Please come back regularly and follow this journey
If you’re interested in these topics or perhaps have a desire for your own paradigm shift, I hope my journey can be beneficial to you, and perhaps you’ll even decide to join me on it (or take your own new journey). If you took the time to read my first blog post…I am genuinely grateful for your interest. I would love to hear from you if you have ideas, feedback, tips, or anything else that’s on your mind (contact info at bottom of the page).
If you want to be part of this journey, please subscribe to the blog and consider following our new instagram @TheParadigmRhyme.
One note before I wrap up the week 1 summary: I am incredibly grateful for my life situation and I know that the journey I am on would be less feasible for many people. Although I was not raised in a home with a lot of excess finances sitting around, I got lucky with my own access to education and the well-funded career I built after completing college. I know that for many people riding the modern career train (or is it roller coaster?), the daily grind is a necessary course of action to keep families fed, retirement accounts growing, and health insurance intact. I also recognize how much passion people display when pursuing their calling, and for many folks that is the corporate world… this can also be an act of love and an act of selflessness to provide for others. There is so much I respect about the well-structured and highly efficient modern business world, and my journey is not to undermine or bash business as a whole…it is simply a demonstration that I think there’s a different path for myself beyond the mainstream corporate ladder. I will speak to these topics further in upcoming weeks, but I want to ensure that I openly acknowledge the privilege I have that enabled me to take this journey. I promise to not take that for granted as I create a new paradigm, a transformed life, and a different path to abundance.
The discovery journey is officially launched!…and none of us know where it will end. To kick-off the first full week of the journey, I am heading across the boarder to Mexico with plans to spend time in Tepoztlan and Mexico City. Wishing you love, gratitude, and an open heart.
-Brett
