Ladies,
What we are all trying to do is not easy. Did Laura Ingalls Wilder feel the same hustle culture cooking every meal and hanging clothing out to dry on the line?
I could diagnose every generation’s hardships, but as the world turns today, 46% of women in the workplace are feeling crispy.
Gallup shares that senior executive women (I’ll assume they are 40+ but there is no way to know) are reporting 56% high Burnout stating this impacts their Mental Health.
Allow me to do some simple Gen X math today. That’s over 36,000 working hours in your life so far, and you have about 20,000 left if you plan to work into your late 60s. This does not estimate for commutes or the second shift of mothering.
It’s a LOT.
Mel Robbins recently posted her 2026 workout where she goes as fast as she can on the hardest incline with a weighted vest and is not allowed to hold onto the treadmill railings.
There is a cliff women fall off of when disenchantment meets frustration, multiplied by physical exhaustion and disrepair.
You don’t need to know how to do your job, you need to find out how to avoid a meltdown.
Where we can grab the wheel. Start to let things go on autopilot.
Over 40, some parts of working get easier.
Problems cycle just with different people or new products. LBH, you look brilliant quickly problem solving.
Your work and industry Relationships are your superpower, calling in favors long overdue you are efficient.
You have have hired younger, fresher eyes to edit & help. Put them on duty even if they are lazier than you, who cares. Also, AI.
Let’s re-engineering how you operate.
You don’t need more discipline.
You need fewer points of friction.
You don’t need a new job title.
You need containment, support, and truth.
So let’s bring it back to what you can control—because control is what restores motivation. Here are my clients’ favorite ways we work on to regain control (and your avoid the cliff of motivational despair):
Your attention:
Ruthlessly decide what deserves your energy and what doesn’t. Get your priorities at work & home on your calendar. Reduce people and activities/projects that don’t. Delegate who attends recurring meetings, set up executive governance so you attend 1/5th of those calls. Or just start skipping “I have a conflict” so you go to 1/3 of the meetings. Shorten all 1.1s to 15 mins when possible.
Your hormone regulation:
Before creative problem solving, which energizes, comes stabilization. Sleep, breath, movement, nervous system care. A regulated body creates Clarity and momentum. Work to find out what has shifted in your body.
One next decision:
Not the five-year plan. Not the reinvention fantasy. One clean, executable decision that reduces pressure this week and this month alone. When we go too far out, we only see the forest, not the flowers in the forest.
