If you are a high performer, you likely got to where you are because you said “yes” to most of the opportunities that came your way.

With each “yes” came another chance to grow your skills and capabilities, and demonstrate your ability to deliver results.

Often the reward for doing good work is more work.

This is a good plan for career development and growth, but it’s not sustainable over the life of your career, because whether you acknowledge it or not, you do have limits.

There seems to be an inflection point about half way through a 40 year career where you have to come to terms with your limitations.

If you’re lucky, your body may signal this to you through the way it process stress and anxiety or a new-found willingness to hold better boundaries.

If you’re harder hit, you may have had a trip to the ER for severe health conditions or a panic attack.

Either way, you realize that things have to change and the current way of working just isn’t sustainable.

A good starting point is to re-examine your relationship with the word “limitation.”

It tends to carry a negative connotation, doesn’t it?

And yet there is divine goodness in our limitations.

It is an acknowledgement of our finiteness as humans.

It’s only after we can grasp this that we can really begin to understand what we have capacity for.

There is a necessary drawing of boundaries that must occur when we live in alignment with our capacity.

And while you may have incredible capabilities that have allowed you to push harder and work longer, when you take a beat to actually check in with yourself, you realize that you simply don’t have capacity for that anymore.

There is an incredible gift in embracing a finite capacity in your approach at work.

There will be things that you get to say no to. I get at first it may feel unnatural, but with some practice, I promise you will begin to like the way it feels.

What you’re feeling at this point is freedom.

Rather than testing the limits of your capacity, you honor them.

And when you approach your work knowing your input has a cap, the game is in identifying the strategic levers to pull to increase your impact without increasing your effort.

Managing your energy gives you leverage.

Expertise gives you leverage.

Wisdom gives you leverage.

Relationships give you leverage.

This is what working with ease looks like.

It’s a total game changer.

If you want to play the game of leverage, you and I should have a conversation.

Love,

Audrey