When I became a school principal at 26, no one was there to teach me how to do my job. Or show me how to take care of myself while doing it.

So I didn’t. (Take care of myself, that is.)

Every day for five years, I threw myself into work. Between managing all sorts of problems, lunch duty, and meetings with the school board, my days were more packed than a can of sardines.

Even when I transitioned to a consultancy role where I helped schools and companies implement SEL to achieve peak performance in their environments, I was still doing too much. I overextended myself by pleasing people, performing, pretending, looking for approval from others, gaining titles and status, and running through airports nonstop. All while raising my three children.

In 2017, the burnout that had built up over years of overwhelm culminated in the form of breast cancer. (What followed were some of the bleakest months of my life.)

Nothing wakes us up like a crisis.

Surviving cancer the next year gave me a chance to rebuild my life so that the circumstances that led to it wouldn’t happen again.

Because here’s what cancer taught me:

It made me push the “stop” button on the busy-ness.

It made me realize that setting boundaries is essential to my self-care.

And it awakened me to the powerful force that is gratitude.

So here’s what I did:

I started a daily gratitude practice. I’d known that gratitude has a powerful effect on the brain from my background in neuroscience, but my practice helped me experience it in real life.

I returned to my career, but this time with margin carved out for self-care in the form of my morning routine (which involves intentional exercise, meditation and prayer, and prepping my nutrition for the day).

And I incorporated teachings on gratitude into my work with SEL and EQ in the workforce.

Now, I help leaders in schools and the corporate world implement practices rooted in gratitude as well as SEL and EQ so that they can excel professionally and take care of themselves.

Meaning: I’m here to fiercely champion you as you make the difference that you went into your career for, without the burnout.

Would you like to learn more about how to slay the dragon of over-functioning?