I keep thinking about something I read this week. “Devotion, not discipline, is the real driver of persistence.” That line stopped me.

Because so many high-achieving women I work with think the answer is more discipline. More pushing. More fixing. More forcing ourselves to “finally get it together.”

But what if the problem is not your discipline? What if the real issue is the meaning you’ve attached to the hard things?

That hit me deeply. Recently I edited my old saying to say this: (thank you, Talya)! “We are 100% responsible for the meaning we attach to the things we think.” Because two women can do the exact same thing and experience it completely differently. One woman says: “I have to work out.” The other says: “I’m choosing to take care of my body because I want to feel strong and alive.”

Same action. Different meaning. Different nervous system response. Different life.

This is what OWN YOUR EXPANSION means to me. Expansion is not just becoming more productive. It is learning how to relate to yourself differently while you grow. It is noticing when your Inner Bully turns effort into punishment. It is asking: What if this challenge is not proof I’m failing? What if this is evidence I’m becoming?

The article talked about how suffering changes when effort is connected to purpose. I see this all the time in my work.

Women do not burn out simply because they are doing hard things. They burn out because they are disconnected from themselves while doing them.

Disconnected from rest. Disconnected from meaning. Disconnected from joy. Disconnected from their inner wisdom and then lose their voice.

That is why devotion matters more than discipline. Devotion feels rooted. Discipline without self-compassion becomes self-abandonment.

And honestly? I think many of us were taught to survive by overriding ourselves. To keep going no matter what. To achieve it, no matter the cost. To push through instead of pausing long enough to ask: Does this actually belong to me anymore?

OWNING YOUR EXPANSION asks different questions.

What am I developing by going through this?

What matters enough for me to stay devoted to it?

What version of me am I becoming while I pursue it?

This October, I’m gathering a small group of women in Bodega Bay for my beloved Own Your Brilliance Retreat.

Not to teach you how to hustle harder. Not to optimize yourself into exhaustion. But to help you reconnect with your wisdom, your truth, your body, your voice, your clarity, and the version of you underneath all the pressure to perform.

We’ll slow down. We’ll breathe. We’ll create. We’ll tell the truth.

We’ll practice becoming women who no longer abandon themselves on the way to success.

If something in you said HELL YES while reading this, that’s worth following.

Conversations are now open for Own Your Brilliance Retreat · October 9–12, 2026 · Bodega Bay, CA. I only invite people described above. Want to join us?

Not for everyone. and may be perfect for you.