Psychology expert shares her No. 1 tip on how to deprioritize work and live a purposeful life

Jodi Wellman, a positive psychology expert, was an executive leader for 17 years but realized that achieving the pinnacle of success wasn't bringing her any joy.

"I was, like many people, achievement-oriented. I tied my sense of self-worth to what I was doing, how much I was producing, what the name on my business card said, and I felt like I was stuck in the trappings of success, especially at the end of my corporate career," Wellman told CNBC Make It in an interview.

Wellman recently founded the wellbeing platform Four Thousand Mondays and authored the book "You Only Die Once." She previously held executive positions at companies like The Sports Clubs of Canada and Bally Total Fitness.

Despite being in an enviable position of success, she felt like she had reached a dead-end in her last corporate role as senior president of operations at Bally Total Fitness.

"I was probably at the end of what I could do with that company, my proverbial glass ceiling," she said. "I didn't have the opportunity to do more. I'd reached this sort of peak at that time."

Wellman said her whole identity rested on her career, so the feelings of hopelessness and fear were intensified as a result.

What she realized was that she had pinned all her hopes on finding meaning through work while overlooking every other aspect of her life.

One way to find meaning is by decentering work and prioritizing your life outside work.

"What if work was just a part of your big life?" Wellman said. "And that's where we just need, we need to put a little more effort into building a life outside of work that lights us up and delivers meaning too."

She explained that people don't have much agency at work where most tasks and duties are expected of them.

Instead, they can