At some point, being the woman who can handle everything stops feeling impressive and starts feeling exhausting.

In this episode, I’m talking with Cherylanne Skolnicki, founder of Brilliant Balance, about what she calls the peak of complexity—that season when your career is demanding more, your family is demanding more, your ambition is still very much alive…and your available capacity is basically gone.

We talk about why the same operating system that helped us climb professionally eventually stops working, why so many women become the default person for everyone and everything, and why letting go can bring up guilt, judgment, FOMO and a whole lot of control issues.

Cherylanne also shares practical ways to start changing the pattern—without lowering your standards, losing your ambition or waiting for life to magically calm down.

You’ll learn:

• Why successful women hit a “peak of complexity”
• How to rethink your week when there’s no time left over for you
• The four emotions that make letting go so hard
• A better way to think about boundaries
• Why delegation usually feels harder before it gets easier
• How to decide what actually needs to be yours
• The question: “Am I uniquely qualified to do this?”

If you’ve built the career, the family and the full life—and you’re wondering why it still feels like too much—this one is for you.

Chapters

01:05 The Gen X Promise of “Having It All”

04:10 Why Cherylanne Left the Corporate Ladder

11:35 The Complexity Curve

14:30 When the Way You’ve Always Operated Stops Working

17:05 The Peak of Complexity

19:40 Why You Need a New Operating System

21:20 Treat Your Week Like Your Life in Miniature

24:15 Put Yourself Into the Week First

27:25 Becoming the Default Person for Everyone

29:15 Guilt, FOMO, Judgment and Control

31:55 Boundaries Other People May Not Like

34:25 Delegating Without Lowering Your Standards

36:25 Small Experiments That Create More Capacity

38:05 No One Is Coming to Save You

Links

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Brilliant Balance

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Instagram: Cherylanne