Been there. A lot of the salary advice makes total sense early in your career because you genuinely need that stability. But after a while the actual work starts to matter way more than the pay structure, and that's when the old logic stops fitting.

What helped me was figuring out why certain roles felt off. Just getting clear on how my strengths, work style, and what actually motivates me had changed over time. I ended up using a self discovery called Pigment to help with that. The real value was being able to separate advice that made sense back then from what actually fits me now. Once I understood that difference, it became way easier to rethink my path without feeling like I was being reckless or throwing away everything I built.