I recently asked a group of leaders to name their three biggest challenges, and to tell me their highest priority right now.
I wasn’t surprised by the answers. And yet, they still broke my heart a little.
The most common problem named: feeling disconnected from my purpose.
The most common priority: finding alignment between my values and my work.
Name the problem, and you will often find the solution.’
We Haven’t Lost Our Purpose. We’ve Lost Ourselves.
In the Courage is Built Here™ work, Pathway 3 is Be Fully You: How to Live Authentically. And right now, more than ever, this pathway matters.
The never-ending to-do lists. The constant ask for more with less. The cut budgets, especially when it comes to investing in our people. The demands of the world pressing in from every direction. Our very full lives, which is really just a polished way of saying: busy and exhausted.
Somewhere in the middle of all of it, we lost ourselves.
Our purpose. Our why. Our alignment.
And here is the part that genuinely confounds me. Every yes we said, every task we crossed off, every achievement we celebrated, for ourselves and our organizations, we told ourselves we were doing it to be our best selves, to live in alignment.
So how come every room I walk into, I not only hear the exhaustion, I can feel it? The burnout that has gone bone-deep. The misalignment. The quiet, creeping absence of joy.
Where did it go?
It Is Not Lost Forever.
Of course not. I mean, I would go do something else for a living if it were.
What I am finding, though, is that the world’s definition of success, and the pressure most organizations are carrying right now just to survive, has convinced many of us that this is simply how it is. That this is how we must work. How we must live.
I don’t consider myself a relentless optimist. And I absolutely refuse to accept that.
People are yearning for meaning again. To feel seen at work. To actually have fun at work. To experience the kind of authentic connection that a transactional exchange will never give them. We were not built for this version of things.
And eventually, enough of us will have to do more than say “no more.” We will have to live it out.
Choosing connection over output. Living inside our values. Doing the courage work to come back to ourselves, because that is what brings us back to one another.
When we restory, we restore.
What Be Fully You Actually Looks Like
Living authentically is not a personality trait. It is a practice.
It is the meeting where you name what you actually value instead of defaulting to what is expected. It is the conversation you have been avoiding because having it means showing up as your real self, not your performing self. It is the moment you choose your integrity over your image.
It is small. It is daily. And it is the most important leadership work there is.
Because when you come back to yourself, your team feels it. The culture shifts. The trust deepens. Not because you gave a great presentation or hit a number, but because you showed up whole.
That is what people are starving for. And you already have everything it takes to give it to them.
A Courage Practice to Lean Into
What is one thing, or one conversation, you can have this week that brings your values, your full identity, your wholehearted authenticity, and your joy to your team?
Start there. One moment. One choice. One act of being fully you.
Ready to Go Deeper?
Be Fully You is Pathway 3 in the Courage is Built Here™ framework, a five-pathway approach to building the kind of leadership and culture that actually lasts. If your team is carrying the weight of misalignment right now, this work was built for exactly that moment.
Learn more about bringing Courage is Built Here™ to your organization here.