Saying What Matters 4 | Knowing When Something Needs to ChangeSaying What Matters 4 | Knowing When Something Needs to Change
The Millennium Counseling Center Podcast
Rahsaan Nurullah and Oren Matteson share stories of work stress, misaligned values, and pivotal moments that show when life needs to change. Their conversation touches on resilience, relationships, and learning to truly value one’s work and identity.
15:16•6 Jul 2026
Saying What Matters: When Small Crises Signal Big Life Changes
Episode Overview
- Pay attention when your reaction to something small feels much bigger than the situation; it may point to deeper stress or misalignment.
- Clarifying and ranking your values can reveal where your work or relationships are consistently clashing with what matters most to you.
- You can’t simply grind through a job that conflicts with your core values every day; leaving may be healthier than forcing yourself to stay.
- Hurting people you care about can be a powerful signal that your boundaries and values need rethinking and strengthening.
- Seeing yourself as separate from old expectations—becoming your own “cloud”—can help you fully value your work and commit to meaningful change.
“You can’t tough it out if you’re in complete conflict with the place you work. You just should not be there.”
How do people cope with the challenges of staying sober while life throws work stress, relationship drama, and identity crises at them? This conversation on The Millennium Counseling Center Podcast zooms in on those exact pressure points, using real stories to show how small moments can signal the need for big change. Rahsaan Nurullah shares a striking example from a hectic corporate chapter in 2018.
Caught between two wildly different workplaces and obsessing over a pair of Nike Off-White blazers stuck in delivery limbo, he finds himself "freaking out about some shoes" while handling multi-million dollar deals. That meltdown makes him realise, "This wasn’t about the shoes. This was about something else"—stress, control, and a lack of resilience.
From there, you’ll hear how he dives into learning resilience tools and, crucially, how a values hierarchy helps him see that his top work values—transparency, accountability, trust—are being "under assault every single day". His takeaway is blunt: "You can’t tough it out if you’re in complete conflict with the place you work.
You just should not be there." Oren Matteson adds his own turning point through a chance meeting with a stranger at a Chicago beef stand, who tells him, "You’re a cloud... you need to branch off and become your own cloud." That image pushes Oren to separate from old ideas about work, stop treating his counselling work like a hobby, and recognise that he’s "in the centre of that arena" when supporting life-altering change for clients.
Together, Oren and Rahsaan talk about hurting people when living outside their values, learning to show up better in relationships, and respecting your work as a serious part of recovery and growth. If a small blow-up has ever made you wonder, "Is this really about the thing I’m upset about?", this episode might be the nudge to ask what needs to change next.
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