A woman on TikTok said her full-time job has left her feeling less intelligent, lonely, and short on confidence, so she set herself three goals to turn things around. Her plan includes attending a networking event, reconnecting with an old acquaintance, and messaging a complete stranger, as reported by the Daily Dot. In her TikTok video, she said her job made her feel less intelligent because she no longer had the mental capacity to take in new information once her workday ended. She claimed the exhaustion kept her from building new job skills or even relaxing with a book or a new show. “I find that by the end of the day, any more information feels like my brain is going to explode,” she said. She said the fatigue had spilled into her personal life as well, leaving her lonely because she no longer had the energy to keep up with her friendships. She added that it had shaken her self-image, saying, “It has also given me a lack of confidence to believe in myself that I am good enough to make new connections and make new friends.” She gave herself one week to start changing it While posting about work on TikTok, she said she gave so much of herself to her job that she had nothing left for the people in her life. To change that, she planned to try three new things that week, starting with a networking event where she hoped to make a new connection. As part of that effort, she said she would cosplay as someone more confident. Her second goal was to message someone she knew but had not spoken to in a while. For the third, she planned to reach out to someone completely new to see whether it could lead to a friendship or a professional relationship. “I’m setting myself these 3 goals, and I’m not gonna rest until I do them,” she said. Several viewers said they related to her experience. One commenter wrote, “i feel the same. i feel so stupid, i used to be interested in so many things, i used to be curious. creativity has left me.” Another blamed capitalism for workers’ struggles, writing that the system keeps people “stuck in the same place with no room to grow.” Her account lines up with recent workplace research. Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2026 report found that 22% of employees worldwide experienced a lot of loneliness on the previous day in 2025, while 40% experienced a lot of stress. Loneliness was slightly higher among workers younger than 35, at 23%.