Linda.

THE STARTING POINT

Where Linda started.

We first worked with Linda at the end of 2023. She was exhausted, and essentially just trying to get through each day. She would wake up feeling like a failure, compare herself constantly to other people, and feel like she was wearing a mask.

Physically she was struggling too: headaches, almost no appetite, jumpy and on edge, and she had lost her menstrual cycle. Emotionally, she would burst into tears easily, and she had started avoiding people. What she wanted was to feel excited about seeing friends again.

She named the two biggest things holding her back herself: mental exhaustion, and people pleasing. She was working as a VA at the time, with a growing sense that she no longer knew why she was doing any of it. She needed motivation, and underneath that a much bigger question: what do I actually want my life to look like?

WHAT WE DID

What we actually did.

There was a great deal of internal work to do. We started with her own definition of success rather than one dictated by what she could see other people doing, and asked what would actually have to happen for Linda to believe she was successful.

From there, we worked through her mental exhaustion, people pleasing, imposter syndrome and feelings of failure. We tackled the worry, self-doubt and belief that she was lazy, while helping her manage stress, have difficult conversations, set boundaries and let go of what she couldn't control.

And perhaps most importantly, we worked on putting some lightness back into her life.

Sometimes that last part was literal: one of her action points one week was to have a pillow fight. Linda did not need another productivity system. She needed to remember what it felt like to live. She had ideas about ghostwriting and about becoming a nail technician, and at the time both felt a long way from the life she was living.

Energised Leadership, from the end of 2023 into 2024. She came back later for Clarity Momentum, keep reading for more of her transformation.

“More aware of my mindset and the situations around me, especially distinguishing between what I can control and what I needed to let go.”

WHAT CHANGED

And this is where she is now.

She began to see the difference between what she could control and what she needed to let go of. She became willing to have difficult conversations instead of avoiding them. She built routines. She started going to the gym. She became more open to uncertainty, and to taking a chance rather than letting fear decide.

Her assessment moved from forty-two to sixty-five, and her mental score from fifty-nine to ninety-five.

She told us she started with no expectations at all, because of the state she was in, and that the first conversation was what let her see there could be change.

• Mental burnout score, 59 to 95
• Stopped avoiding the difficult conversations
• Built routines, and kept them
• Started saying yes to uncertainty

“I do not make excuses anymore to avoid difficult conversations.”