We're Back! And...Sometimes The Bravest Move Is Setting A Ceiling

A long gap between recordings can look like silence from the outside, but from the inside it often looks like errands, work fires, and a calendar with zero breathing room. We’re back to catch up, and the catch-up quickly turns into something bigger: how do you live inside a season where you’re always choosing what to be behind on, and how do you do it without drowning in guilt?

One of us starts a new job and immediately gets thrown into an emergent situation that reshapes onboarding, workload, and expectations overnight. We talk about the upside of a pressure-cooker season at work: rapid learning, accelerated leadership growth, and the weird confidence that comes from realizing you can do more than you thought. Then we name the downside just as clearly: chronic stress, nonstop prioritization, and the feeling that you’re always one more “yes” away from breaking.

From there, we dig into the real question: where is the stop point? When do you decide you’re not going to raise your capacity again right now, and why does that decision so often feel like quitting? We explore limitations, boundaries, and the emotional hangover of FOMO even when your “no” aligns with your values. Along the way we share family updates, a surprisingly satisfying volunteering systems win, and a practical takeaway that changes everything: asking for help without shame.

If you’re navigating career transition, burnout, work-life balance, or the constant push to be more, come listen and reflect with us. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs a breather, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

Transcript

Theme Song And Hello

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Just nice to hear the brighten of a day. Quick chats and laughs, we're on our way. Got the scoop you didn't expect. Unpack snacks short but perfect. Funny tidbits and moments we share. Stories so light they'll float in the air.

The Hiatus And Real Life

SPEAKER_02 0:29

Hi. Hi. It's been so long.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

I know. I know. But I get to see you and I get to hear you and we get to we get to catch up a little bit. I know. I mean, to be fair, you and I have not been not in communication. Right because we just haven't been recording it. Right. Right.

SPEAKER_02 0:48

Yes. Yes. And it part of the long hiatus is because my even though we talked about like not gasping for air at the end of the year, I feel like there was a lot of busyness that just kept going. And so I didn't get to edit our first episode of this season until spring break.

SPEAKER_01 1:15

Yeah. We we are woefully behind. Which is like maybe a whole other thing to discuss. But um we're we're catching up. We're getting there.

SPEAKER_02 1:28

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:29

We're doing this. We're doing this. Proud of us. Yes. Because it's not like in this moment you and I are like, you know what? We have a free day. Let's um let's let's do some unpacking. Let's hit the podcast. Like that's not what's happening, to be very, very brutally honest. Like there's no part of us that is like relaxed and groovy right now.

unknown 1:54

Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:56

And I mean, I think we've both had moments of first of all, they have not been synchronous moments of freeness. Like yesterday I had time off, a little bit of time off that was unexpected. But it's like I spent it doing errands that I needed to do. Right. My family.

SPEAKER_01 2:14

Because that's the thing about this, and I'm just gonna say season because I'm hoping it's seasonal and not just a paradigm that we're gonna exist in forever. And you're talking life season, not life season, not fast season, not pod season. Is just that, like, at least for me, maybe this is ubiquitous, but for me, like it's just a matter of deciding what to be behind on. Mm-hmm. And I don't think that I have been like quote unquote caught up since I was in my professional pods and about to start my new job, which I did.

SPEAKER_02 2:53

Right.

SPEAKER_01 2:53

So that's October of 2025.

SPEAKER_02 2:56

Right. Yes. So that's a big and we do talk about we were we have a couple of episodes that we recorded after you started, but they won't when we start when our first episode of season two comes out, like it we recorded it before you started your new job. Yeah. Yeah. So exactly. We wanted to update our listeners for some big things.

A New Job That Hits Fast

SPEAKER_01 3:23

Yeah. So I started my new job um the very beginning part of October. And it was immediately a crush. Yeah, you know, and I will say that in a couple of different ways. It was a crush in that I started my new job is based out of California. I don't work out of California. Um, but I went to there to onboard and within 24 hours of starting, an emergent issue happened that I needed to abandon my onboarding more or less and focus on. And it has not stopped. Yeah. But on the other, in the other definition of crush, like I have really loved what I've been doing.

SPEAKER_02 4:13

You've been crushing it.

SPEAKER_01 4:14

I've been crushing. Well, remains to be seen. We're still building a lot of it, but um, it's been really fantastic. And I have learned so much and I have grown so much. And part of that is the kind of growth and exponential development that you can only get when it's a pressure cooker type situation, when you're kind of forced to. Because I think we as humans don't generally want to be under that level of stress. But I think you've you've had times in your career too where this has been the case for you, where it's been like you're put in a situation where you have no chance to not grow. Like you have you have to adapt and you have to rise.

SPEAKER_02 4:55

Yeah. I think anytime we are faced with our capacity, that happens. And so I so I think back to May, June of last year where I was really I really felt like I was the most my calendar had no breathing room or wiggle room at all. I remember that time. And it there is there's like a very specific feeling that comes of it. That's either like I'm gonna bust out of this shell that I have unknowingly put myself in, or I am going to be crushed by it. Yep. And hopefully the former and not the latter. And I I do think like it does happen where

Where Growth Turns Into Too Much

SPEAKER_02 5:40

things become too much. Right. And that's where our bodies tell us like you have to take a break, we get sick, we I'm super curious about that point.

SPEAKER_01 5:51

And not maybe from being sick necessarily, but from the point at which you say, I myself am choosing to not push this further. I myself am choosing to put a ceiling on my call it whatever you will, development at this time, growth, capacity, stretchiness, flexibility, whatever, whatever kind of label you want to put on it. But I feel like that is a is an inflection point that many of us, definitely people in my generation, definitely women in my generation, struggle to call because it feels like it feels like failure. It feels like a quitting. Yeah, it feels like you're quitting. You're quitting on yourself. You're saying, like, I can no longer do this. And like that is something I think we've been more or less told not to do, like kind of from birth. Like, don't quit on yourself. You're you're capable of anything, like in the best possible way, maybe. But I think even things in a good way can be stretched to be to turn to be the mirror image of what they are, which is not healthy, not positive, not what we need in our lives.

SPEAKER_02 7:09

It's always a balance.

Birth Transition As A Metaphor

SPEAKER_02 7:11

And what's coming to mind for me is uh transition in birth, uh-huh. Where oh I have seen it a couple of times lately on my social media where it's uh probably because it was Mother's Day, so it was like topically relevant, time temporally relevant. But in birth, there comes a point when a a woman says, I can't do this anymore. And that's the point at which you know birth is imminent because it's like so much. And kind of the the f nice feel or nice story part of it is like because the person you were couldn't, you have to become somebody new in order to. And so there's like birth and death happening kind of at the same time, and and I think when we experience these really intense transitions in life, there's an aspect of that too. That like, yeah, we have to choose to be somebody we haven't been yet because the person that we were can't do the thing.

SPEAKER_01 8:22

Yeah. Yeah. But making that decision when it's within your your grasp as a person to say, like, I'm choosing not to to go more, to do more, to raise my capacity more. Or maybe you're just saying, like, I can't. I mean, that's even harder, right? Like, I can't, I'm not meant for that.

SPEAKER_02 8:50

Well, we all have limitations.

SPEAKER_01 8:51

I think I know, but that's the thing, is like we're kind of told not to have limitations.

SPEAKER_02 8:57

Sure. And we are all still human. So I think it's like that's where the trade-off is of like I'm

Family Updates And Older Kids

SPEAKER_02 9:09

not gonna pursue that because what I have is enough. Right.

SPEAKER_01 9:15

And I think that gets right back to the ye oldy saying, I am enough without that.

unknown 9:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:24

I'm plenty without pushing myself further. Exactly. And I think that's probably why that slogan, whatever you want to call it, tagline, exists is because at some point somebody said had to say, like, I don't have to be that next version. I'm enough right here, right now with what I'm doing. My capacity that I have developed, the strength that I have gained, the knowledge that I have accumulated is enough.

SPEAKER_02 9:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:51

Call on it.

SPEAKER_02 9:53

Yeah. And and I think that like that doesn't mean that we don't grow. You know, like saying I am enough does not mean that you're never gonna take on a new idea or and maybe it means taking a breath.

SPEAKER_01 10:10

Maybe it means I'm not doing that right now because I have been stretching myself for a long time, whatever that time period is. Cause it probably is different for every person. Maybe it's 15 years for a person and maybe it's eight months for somebody else. But like I'm going to take a moment at this level, not taking a step back necessarily, but at this level, I'm gonna take some time and get homeostasis here before I go to the next, the next whatever level. Which like it's so silly to even think of this as levels or ascension or descension or anything like that.

unknown 10:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:47

But I think, you know, it's easier when you have a visual, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 10:50

Yeah, for sure. Yeah. So you've tested some capacity.

SPEAKER_01 10:57

Oh, yeah. In a big way. I have definitely done more than I thought I was capable of, which is like that's the counterpoint to it all. Is like, well, you've already done stuff you thought you couldn't do. Who's to say you can't do this too?

SPEAKER_02 11:09

Yeah. I think.

SPEAKER_01 11:10

But it's like it's you know, it's the whole bend don't break thing.

SPEAKER_02 11:13

Right. And to what you said earlier, I think it's just a choosing.

SPEAKER_01 11:17

It's like just a choosing at that point. So that was supposed to be the update to say that I have a new job. I think we took that in a different direction. But do we have other stuff we need to update?

SPEAKER_02 11:29

I think I think I'm trying to think of what is new in our world that is gonna clean up. We don't have any new children. No new children. No new children. That is stable. We're sticking at a half doz between us. Same number of children. They're all older now, of course.

SPEAKER_01 11:46

We are all older, which has actually been like, oh, that's been nice. In in many ways, that has been nice. In some ways, it's been a challenge. But getting to the point where you don't have to be on top of the youngest kids as much, and you can let them to some degree do what they're gonna do with some broken eggs in the process.

SPEAKER_02 12:10

But um Yeah, our youngests are four now. Yeah. And for in our household, that means that the kids are playing together more, which is kind of cool. We have a couple of recent occasions where our oldest has had story time, and the oldest, the middle, the youngest are all kind of bundled together on the couch and they're reading. And my oldest loves to read, and she's um, she does the voices and is very expressive. And so that's been fun. I love that.

Cookie Mom Systems And Skills

SPEAKER_02 12:46

I did Cookie Mom again, even though I said I didn't think I was going to. So that's an update. I did it, and it was it was so much better this time. Uh in part because I only did one troop instead of both troops, and I reused the structure that I made last year, and two of the systems talked to each other this year, which was so proud of you. Thank you. I had a better sense of ordering, so I only had to do one extra pickup of cookies.

SPEAKER_01 13:22

It's such an, you know, it's such a interesting thing when you take all of your professional skills and apply them in a different way than you're used to doing. Um, I haven't found as many applications for my for my skills outside of my job. Um, but I try. Um, I'm not so good at the volunteering as you are. That's something I I think I could improve upon. But again, like capacity being what it is. Um Exactly. I will say for me, I have definitely

Asking For Help Without Shame

SPEAKER_01 13:55

learned in in the scope of all of this that we're talking about, that I have to be able to ask for help. And I think I've been better about asking for at least articulating it, whether or not I actually get the help is sort of a different thing. But I have absolutely been and I've I've actually had no problem with it. And maybe that's when you know you've reached a kind of accelerated point or a a higher point, is when you say, like, oh, I'm not capable of doing all the things that I used to do and whatever it is that I'm currently doing. So I need help. I need to outsource, I need to rely on other people, I need to and in addition to that, haven't felt any shame about it either.

SPEAKER_02 14:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:41

Like I have been able to ask for it and just been like, no, I literally, I literally can't do this. Like I can't bend space and time. So that's been interesting from a prioritization standpoint. Yeah. Of like, here's the things I can do. I think of I think of that. I mean, Pirates of the Caribbean is really not known as like a seminal piece of work, generally speaking. But I think there are a couple of actual poignant pieces to it, not to mention it's very funny and entertaining. But Johnny Depp's character, Captain Jack Sparrow, says there's only two things, what a man can do and what a man can't do. That's I think actually very philosophically poignant. And so, like, I get to that point where I'm just like, there are two things. There's things I can do and there's things I can't do. I cannot move things that are at the same time to not be at the same time. I have to choose and I have to prioritize. And that's what I can do and what I can't do.

SPEAKER_02 15:45

Yeah.

Boundaries, FOMO, And Hard Choices

SPEAKER_02 15:46

And I think kind of going back to what you said earlier about guilt, like I think sometimes we want to not have to choose. Like in an ideal world, they would just be at different times and we'd be able to have our cake and eat it too. And this is which is a weird saying, by the way. That's such a weird phrase. Have your cake and eat it too. Like, of course, you would want to eat your cake. Why would you get cake if you couldn't eat it? I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 16:14

Does it go back to like the Marie Antoinette misquote about let them eat cake? Is that is that where it comes from? I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 16:19

Yeah, probably. Uh anyway, so like that would be an ideal world. And then in this less ideal world, there is reality where we have to choose. And that, in my experience, never feels good. Like, and so I think where I get hung up is like I want to not feel the FOMO. I want to feel really good. And even if I'm very clear on my boundaries, like I'm not gonna, we've talked about this before. Like, I'm not gonna attend that thing in the evening because it overstresses my family situation. Which times is it worth it? Yeah, which times is it not? Like I have to I have to feel confident in the no because it's aligned with my values, it's aligned with my prioritization, but it like that icky feeling doesn't necessarily go away. It's and but it's like when I look back, I can say, oh yeah, I acted with integrity in that moment. Yeah. But yeah, so sometimes I wonder if like the internal feeling of whatever it is like shades or puts a cover on the event, if that makes any sense at all. Like my frustration of the thing in the moment makes me look back and be like,

Season Two Timeline And Goodbye

SPEAKER_02 17:46

oh, that was so frustrating. It's like, no, I was just frustrated in the moment if it colors it. So anyway. That happens. Well, I know we said 15 minutes and we're over 15 minutes, but I know it's a good little update for our listeners of where you can find us and where we've been.

unknown 18:06

Where we've been.

SPEAKER_02 18:08

Um season two, we'll start releasing episodes. And so this this catches you up, but you're gonna hear some stuff that was recorded before and just know.

SPEAKER_01 18:18

And then there'll be like a lightning fast forward button, and it'll bring us up to date with where we are. Yeah. You got it. Well, it was so good to talk to you and see you, and thanks for coming back, listeners. Can't wait to do more.

SPEAKER_00 18:37

Just the Lisa here to brighten your day. Quick shots and laps, we're on our way. Got the scoop you didn't expect. Pack snacks, short but perfect. Stories the light uploads. Pac snacks, we're always prepared. Always prepared.