The other morning, a client reached out and said, “I just need an ear.”
In a span of a few weeks, she had:
- Landed new clients… only for them to suddenly vanish.
- Learned her assistant was stepping away due to burnout.
- Contacted a lawyer to file for divorce.
- Prepared to bury her mother.
All while still trying to run her business, hold everything together, and carry the weight of everyone else’s needs.
Her words hit me:
“A part of me wants to keep moving forward… and another part just wants to go to sleep. I feel flatlined.”
I paused. Then I said: “You can’t lead from flatline.”
The Lesson
We live in a culture that glorifies pushing through. Suck it up. Hold it together. Keep moving. But when your inner world is in free fall, pretending to “power through” isn’t true leadership—it’s survival mode.
Flatlining isn’t failure. It’s a signal. A sacred red light telling you: pause, create space, come back home to yourself.
Because you can’t sustainably lead clients, teams, or a business if you’re ghosting yourself.
The Insight
From the breakdown comes the breakthrough. But only if you allow yourself the radical act of self-love: to stop, feel, and create capacity within.
The outer world mirrors the inner. When you’re depleted, everything around you echoes that depletion. When you return to your center, aligned and resourced, the way forward always reveals itself.
Leading Beyond Limits
Leading beyond limits doesn’t mean being superhuman. It means choosing presence over performance, truth over tolerance, soul over survival.
Sometimes the bravest leadership move you can make is not another “bold action”—but giving yourself permission to rest, grieve, heal, and recalibrate.
Because from that place, your next chapter of leadership won’t just be stronger.
It will be truer.
Reflection Question:
Where are you ghosting yourself right now, and what would it look like to come back home to you?
DIVE DEEPER
When you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help you:
- For more ways to lead with clarity, alignment, and impact, grab your free guide: 10 Ways to Lead Beyond Limits.
- Book a 90-minute focused deep dive strategy session to identify your top growth area and key momentum levers that will Jumpstart your Business in the next 90 days.
- Inquire about my Women’s Leadership Retreat in Amsterdam (May 2026) where clarity meets confidence and vision becomes action.