You’ve worked so hard to get here. The career you’ve built, the reputation you’ve earned—it all matters. So when things feel off, your first instinct is to work harder. Push through. Keep going. That’s what’s always worked before.
Except now, it’s not.
Maybe you’ve noticed:
~ You used to feel sharp, but now you second-guess yourself in meetings.
~ You replay conversations, wondering if you said the right thing.
~ You’re holding it together on the surface, but underneath, you’re exhausted.
And yet, the answer that keeps coming to mind? Just keep going. Try harder. Work more.
The Problem With Just “Pushing Through”
The high-achieving, competent leaders I work with don’t struggle because they aren’t good enough. They struggle because their old coping strategies, perfectionism, people-pleasing, powering through, used to work but aren’t sustainable anymore.
You think: If I just get on top of things, I’ll feel better. But the truth is overwork fuels the very stress and self-doubt you’re trying to escape.
Here’s what I see happen time and time again:
~ The more hours you put in, the more exhausted you become, and exhaustion breeds self-doubt.
~ The more you overthink, the less clearly you see situations, so you make less confident decisions.
~ The more you try to control everything, the more overwhelming it all feels, until you’re left wondering if you can actually handle the job at all.
This cycle won’t fix itself. But that doesn’t mean you have to drop everything or lower your standards. It just means you need a new way of working.
A Smarter Way Forward
1. Cut through the mental noise. Not everything on your to-do list actually matters. What’s truly important vs. what are you doing out of habit, obligation, or fear of falling behind? If it doesn’t move things forward, it’s clutter.
2. Rebuild your confidence. Your ability isn’t the problem, your perception of your ability is. Confidence isn’t about feeling ready. It’s about trusting yourself to handle whatever comes up, even when you don’t have all the answers.
3. Redefine success. If “always being on top of everything” is your definition of success, you’re setting yourself up to fail. What if success wasn’t about proving yourself, but about creating a way of working that actually works for you?
You’ve already proven yourself. Now, it’s about making work work for you, so you can stop second-guessing, stop overworking, and start leading with the confidence you already have.
Book a free introduction call to find out more about how I can help you reclaim confidence and control to excel at work and enjoy life: https://calendly.com/karen-karenhaguecoaching/intro
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