On wrapping up work that matters, and what it asks of us
There is a particular moment during the deep coaching work that I do not think I will ever quite get used to. It is the moment when someone who arrived carrying something enormous looks back and can finally see how far they have come, and you realise, sitting across from them, that something real has shifted.
This week, I had one of those moments.
I have been working with a particular client for sometime, someone who came to me barely holding it together beneath the surface. She appeared successful on the outside but was exhausted to her bones on the inside. She was showing up with the kind of tired that goes beyond needing a good night’s sleep, the kind that settles in when you have been carrying far more than your share for far too long.
I am not going to tell you her full story in this email, because it deserves more space and more care than that. But I want to start here, with this feeling, because I think many of you will know it from your own experience, from either side of it.
The weight we do not talk about
So much of the work I do exists in the gap between how things look and how things actually are. Leaders who are performing well and struggling quietly. Professionals who are giving everything to the people they serve and running on empty themselves. Founders who built something from passion and now cannot remember the last time the work felt light.
This is not a failure of character. It is not a motivation problem, though it can feel like one from the inside. It is what happens when the demands and pressure placed on a person consistently outpace the support, structure, and space available to recover.
And it is more common than most people admit, because the culture around us still rewards the appearance of coping far more than it rewards honesty about what is hard.
“Manage your energy, not your time.”
— Tony Schwartz
What this week reminded me
Coaching this client reminded me why I do what I do, and also why the kind of support that creates real change needs time, trust, and genuine depth. Not a workshop or a one-off call or a checklist.
It reminded me that the most valuable thing I can offer someone is not advice. It is a space where they can think clearly, be honest without consequence, and slowly begin to see themselves and their situation with more compassion and more clarity.
That is what good coaching and supervision does. It does not fix people but it creates the conditions in which people can find their own way forward.
In my next newsletter, I am going to share her story properly, with her permission and with the care it deserves. Because I think it will speak to a lot of you. And I think some of you will recognise yourself in it more than you might expect.
A question to sit with
- When did you last have a space, genuinely protected and without agenda, to think out loud about how you are really doing?
- What are you carrying right now that you have not yet named, even to yourself?
Georgie 🌿
Grow well. Stay true. People first, always.
If this resonated
If something here has stirred something for you, here is a gentle invitation…
I am hosting a free interactive webinar later this month, Who Holds You… Finding Your Direction. It is a safe space designed to give your clear steps forward in your growth, without the burnout.
There will also be a recording available for those that sign up who can’t make the live session.
- Tue 26 May
- 11am–12pm
- Zoom
Sign up here.
