It’s no secret anymore that our society has molded us into chasing impulses and constant sensations. And with that, it doesn’t just change our lifestyle and behaviors, it also starts to change and shape our brains and their neural structures.

That’s the power of neuroplasticity, your brain’s ability to adapt. But also the risk, when it gets used to reinforce behaviors that are harmful to our own wellbeing and overall health.

Constant stimulation leads to lower attention spans and more cravings to feel pleasure.

Why?

Because our brains get addicted to fast dopamine spikes.

Dopamine, a neurotransmitter mainly involved in our brain’s reward processing and responsible for motivation, gets released more frequently. But the more and faster a “drug” is able to release it for us, the more addictive it becomes.

However, if we want to feel pleasure, we also have to feel pain because both are produced in overlapping brain regions.

By avoiding discomfort, we also become less able to experience pleasure, and eventually need bigger and bigger extremes just to feel it at all.

That phenomenon is called neuroadaptation: you need more of “the drug” you started using to avoid discomfort and pain, just to feel the same level of pleasure.

Luckily, the brain’s ability to change and relearn new behaviors is available to us throughout our whole lives.

If we want to regulate and move into slower dopamine releases, we need to learn to sit through discomfort.

In this episode you’ll get:

• Insights on the term “popcorn brain”

• The role of dopamine in our brain’s reward system and its impact on how the brain is shaped

• The homeostasis of pleasure and pain

• How learning to sit through discomfort builds true resilience and helps you feel more pleasure

You don’t have to sit through this discomfort alone. I’m opening a special space to help you close that bridge to look at what you’re really trying to avoid, turn that into signals you can actually use, and learn how to stop constantly being “on,” productive, and performing.

It’s opening very soon, and I’d love for you to be the first to know.

Join the waitlist now

Imperfect, but perfectly me.

I hope you enjoy.

Thank you for being here.

With joy, Lisa

Music credits: TVARI

the face and voice behind ‘The Inner CEO with Lisa’

Two years ago I I left my secure job at a Fortune 100 company to do something a lot less secure and a lot more me: Spending my days looking after the Human behind the Hustle and building Collective Anchors, my company.

I bring together psychology, neuroscience and embodiment practices with over 6 years in fast paced corporate environments and over 10 years of personal practice. Not as separate toolkits or strategy only, but as one language for understanding how we actually change.

I’m deeply passionate about the brain, health and wellness and I believe anybody can become the happiest, healthiest version of themselves.

What I hope to build here is a space where you don’t have to constantly perform, compete or pretend to belong. You can come just as you are. That’s all you need.

Thank you for being here.

The Hill I’ll die on

Over the years I’ve watched Mental Health become a trend.

Something we talk about occasionally and in workplaces too often ignored or reduced to a tick box exercise.

It’s not and the numbers make that painfully clear.

Roughly 1 out of 4 people will face mental health challenges at some point in their life according to WHO.

Rates of anxiety, depression and burnout are at record highs.

Awareness alone isn’t enough. Knowledge needs integration and a bridge between the body and the mind.

I believe a lot of this is preventable once you understand how the two interact.

My mission is to help build that bridge so you no longer have to work against yourself.

We rarely need a big shift but a reminder of who we are and what’s possible for us.

If you wonder how that could look like for you and rebuilding that bridge between body and mind, I’m opening a special room for that shortly. And I’d love for you to be the first to know when it opens.

Sign up now

My Heart & Why

I know first hand what it feels like to be trapped in your own head, believing who you are and what you do will never be (good) enough.

From overthinking, the need to be perfect, to dealing with body image challenges at the age of 14.

I know exactly how convincing our own minds can be until the story you tell yourself starts to feel like reality.

But I also know that there’s a way out of it.

I’ve watched people close to heart struggle in silence because asking for help takes a lot of courage. It is tough and it needs the right space for it.

That’s what I don’t want for you or anybody you love.

It starts with prevention and with that first permission you give yourself that this can be also possible for you.

I believe that healing happens in the body just as much as in the mind. That’s why embodiment practices sits right alongside psychology in everything I teach.

I believe that you can turn your life around at any point, no matter what you’ve carried until now.

I believe it’s time for giving Mental Health the right seat at the table and address it in a sustainable & integrative way.

I’d love to know you!

This space is for YOU.

I want to hear from you. Below questions help me shape what actually lands in your inbox.

If you’d ask me two years ago right after I left my coporate job, whethter I’d be building this space, I wouldn’t have believed you.

That’s exactly why I’m so grateful for the chance to build a community where no mind is left behind.

Sides of my INNER CEO

I’ve always been curious about people, cultures and social behavior and I’m incredibly fortunate that my path has allowed me to explore that.

Being able to bring that to you through my work, writing & podcasts fills me with excitment and joy.

My energy givers: cooking and hosting small events, travelling around the world, being active through dancing, running and yoga/strength training, the sea.

My energy drainers: Excel sheets & huge junks of numbers, small talk, complex tech set ups, low attention to detail & standards

My zone of Genius: Being on stage, workshops & keynotes, turning complex ideas into small, doable steps

Ways to work with me

• 1:1 work with high performers on health, wellbeing and healthy performance.

• Consulting for companies building psychologically safe workplaces and addressing mental healtha t work

• Self-paced learning content with snackable, practical shifts

• A podcast where I share what I’m learning as I go

My credentials: I hold a psychology degree as well as certifications as agile coach, professional neuroplastician and 300hr yoga & meditation instructor.

Thank you for being a part of the Inner CEO with Lisa

Meet the version of yourself that leads from clarity instead of exhaustion. That version is closer than you think. For that I’m opening a special room and I’d love to help you close that gap so you don’t have to do this alone.

Join now

With joy,

Lisa

If you want you’re ready to stop performing and start integrating what you already know you’re exactly where you need to be. This is where you meet the Human behind the Hustle.

Subscribe now

We work, we perform, we thrive to get better. Ambition plays a crucial role in today’s definition of high performance and success.

As human beings we need a purpose in life and a direction to go towards to feel satisfied.

Where it becomes risky though is when the lines between who we are and what we do get blurry. Suddenly what we do becomes who we are.

This trait is not unsual in high performers and ambitious individuals.

But it leaves no room for rest and recovery. We keep pushing and delivering until eventually we burn ourselves out because if we don’t that would mean we’re less worth.

Think about that for a moment. How often have you been asked or thought about who you are and not what you do?

The common question is ‘What do you do?’

Even when we get asked about ourselves, I would argue that the most natural response would be to give a verbal version of our CV.

This episodes offers an invitation to look beyond the roles & titles and addresses the important question of who you are and want to be besides.

In this episode you’ll get:

• The common trait between worth & outcomes in high performers

• How your environment shapes you and impacts your identity

• A personal example of how the shfit happens quietly and how to spot it

• Guided questions for your own reflection to get clarity on who you are

If you feel like there’s so much more to you than just your role or title, I’m opening up a special room for that. Where you don’t have to constantly perform or compete to be and feel worthy but where you finally get to know yourself behind the mask. And the best thing? You don’t have to do it alone, I’ll be walking right by your side.

Join the waitlist now

Imperfect, but perfectly me.

I hope you enjoy.

Thank you for being here.

With joy, Lisa

Music credits: TVARI

But here’s what I missed for years: Overused it stopped being one.

Keeping high standards is good. Wanting to deliver outstanding work as well. But when you overextend and overuse it, it turns very quickly very rigid.

Maybe you can sense where I’m going with this. It actually always starts small, so it’s easy to miss. Through repetition, it becomes a default your brain reverts to.

Along the way that can look like the following, but not limited to.

You start revising the email, copy, project. A few times, then so many times that you lose count.

You level up your own expectations. It feels manageable and achievable at first, then your brain starts using it as proof that you haven’t done enough.

You get irritated with yourself over small mistakes and slowly feel like you have to be constantly spot on and aren’t entitled to mistakes.

And before you notice it, you’re stuck in the perfectionism trap.

If this sounds familiar, come and join the community where I share tools and practices for exactly this. Every week for free, delivered straight into your inbox.

Subscribe now

It’s 11 pm and you’re still rewriting the email from 9 am for the sixth time.

So how do you actually know if you’re stuck in the perfectionism trap?

Here are five signs you might be in it.

1. You procrastinate because you’re afraid of mistakes

You know your standards. They probably only got higher with time. You want to do it right, you want to do it well. But there’s no space left for improvement, testing or getting it wrong along the way for one particular reason: You stop moving because you can’t allow yourself any mistakes. Here’s the question to ask yourself:

“How do you feel and react when other people make mistakes vs. when you do them?”

My internal monologue had a lot to say about the second part.

2. You overwork, but nothing feels good enough

You keep going after the work is finished. Just one more revision, one more edit, one more check. Here’s the part nobody tells you: More hours don’t make the work better and they certainly won’t give you the feeling that it’s enough either. Why? Simply because you can’t feel the difference between ‘done’ and ‘not done enough’ anymore so you default to doing more whilst the finish line keeps moving. Only that you’re the one moving it.

3. You take feedback too personally and your body shows it

In all honesty, this one was probably the hardest for me. Whenever I received feedback it felt like a personal attack. A knot in the chest before I even finished reading the comment, a tight throat but with so many things I could say before knowing where the other person was going with it. There were only two ways out. Either through defense or complete shut down. Constructive feedback is necessary because it moves you forward. But when you’re already obsessing over details, it stops being about the work and starts being about your worth. So one disagreement, one improvment suggestion and your body reacts like it’s a threat and forgets its information.

Once you can name your reaction, you start to understand the rest of the pattern. I break this down in a lot more detail for the people on my waitlist. Spots are limited on purpose, save yours today.

Click here to join

4. You’d rather sacrifice your sleep than hand it off

The thought of explaining the task, then giving it to someone else that might do it differently already feels overwhelming before you’ve even asked for help. So you don’t ask and tell yourself it’s faster to just do it. You stay later, you carry more and it feels like control. But your capacity is limited and whilst you might think you can do it better yourself, that’s not always true. It also leaves no room for people around you who end up feeling they’re not good enough for you either. And before you realise it, they also stopped offering.

5. You feel no satisfaction no matter what you do

You just closed a deal, project, got a promotion, moved to a new house or ticked another milestone off your goals list and then nothing. Maybe a flicker of happiness in the moment but that fades away as quickly as it came. Before you realise it you’re already onto the next goal. When people congratulate you, you downplay it with phrases like ‘It’s not that big’ or ‘I haven’t done much’. The problem with this is you could literally fly to the moon if we take it to the extremes but I can almost guarantee you that even this wouldn’t be enough. Because for you enough was never the point.

Imagine ending 2026 with that feeling of enough instead of exhausting yourself chasing the next milestone. You don’t have to get rid of your strengths. But you learn to spot exactly when they stop working for you and start working against you. For that I’m opening a limited number of spots and I’d love for you to be the first to know when it lands.

If that’s you click here to join.

So what can you actually do?

For a long time I believed that I had to do everything myself and I wasn’t allowed to enjoy what I’d achieved. That’s what got me to look at my own definition of ‘good enough’ and where my expectations actually came from.

This isn’t about getting rid of your standards. It’s about recognising when they’re a strength and when they’re becoming a blocker.

One specific tool that helps here is the 80/20 rule. 80% of what you do needs to be ‘good enough’. 20% is where your full attention and precision actually matter.

Next time you catch yourself slipping into the perfectionism trap, ask which bucket you’re actually in and sit with that answer for a few minutes before you act on it. Don’t go by the first thing your brain tells you, because it will naturally want to put everything into the 20% bucket. Imagine you’re taking a step away and look at the situation from a distant point of view, then choose. You’re allowed to be enough before you’ve proven it.

This is only one example of a strength turning into a saboteur. There are more and most of us are carrying at least one.

Picture an ordinary Tuesday a few months from now.

You finish the email and close the laptop instead of reopening it three more times.

Someone gives you feedback and actually hear it instead of defending yourself.

You enjoy your lunchbreak without the constant need to check your phone or be available.

You sleep through the night without going over everything you haven’t done perfectly that day.

That version of you is closer than you think. But knowledge without action is just knowledge. I’d love to help you close that gap so you don’t have to do this alone.

Join the waitlist

Have you caught yourself in the perfectionism trap? Tell me which sign hit closest.

With joy,
Lisa

It’s never too early nor too late to build a live you genuinely feel excited about. Maybe that version of you is closer than you think. If something resonated with you, you don’t have to figure that out alone. I’d love to help you close that gap and meet the healthiest, happiest version of yourself.

For that I’m opening a small room shortly and I’d love for you to be the first to hear about it when it opens.

Click here to join

Get more from Lisa Rosato in the Substack app

Available for iOS and Android

Get the app

Research has shown that in order to have a happy life, we only need 3-5 close people around us. The quality seems to rather matter more than the mere quantity. However, current trends tend to go the other direction with people feeling that they even have one person or less present in their lives to form a genuine connection with.

That brings new societal challenges with it as we are dependent on social, connection as human beings. We already see that risk showing in all time high numbers of loneliness. Often confused with being alone, yet quite distinct in its definition. However I do believe they both interact and contribute to the trends we’re seeing.

For clarity, being alone is defined as the physical absence of social connection or people around you, whereas loneliness addresses the absence of social connection although you are surrounded by people.

And that’s something I’ve seen an increase amongst high performers, too. Especially in fast paced environments, where we still operate under "pushing through" and "the more you can handle" as the definition of high performance, that competitive mindset is what makes our social connections suffer.

In addition, as you give more and get so focused on climbing up the ladder or nurturing your identity with achievements, the quality of the relationships you’re able to form or have in your life ultimately takes a hit.

But what do we need to create genuine connections and where have we gone wrong?

In this episode you’ll get:

• The difference between being alone and loneliness

• Current shifts and trends in society around loneliness and the attached health risk

• Elements that contribute to foster social connection

• How high performance and the lie around resilience contribute to loneliness amongst high achievers

• Guided questions for your own reflection to get clarity on what matters to you

I’m opening up something special shortly. A room with me to build the bridge between your ambition and the connection and life you actually want. You don't have to give up yourself or the people you care about. You just need to shift what’s important to you back into perspective.

Join the waitlist now

Imperfect, but perfectly me.

I hope you enjoy.

Thank you for being here.

With joy, Lisa

Music credits: TVARI

I’m wandering through the streets of Florence, soaking in the vibe, art & culture. As I write these lines, reflections come and go, the perfect timing to talk about this week’s episode topic: Boredom.

I know, it sounds pretty…boring.

But I realised that a bored mind is never boring. Let me explain this.

There’s no sugarcoating this. Truth is, we don’t like to get bored. In fact, we dislike it so much, and studies have shown it, that we rather give ourselves painful electroshocks than sitting with our own thoughts for as little as 15min.

Why is that so?

We’ve become incredibly good at always doing something and distracting our minds the minute we could tap into boredom.

Waiting for 5 min at the red light, look at your phone.

Commuting to work, look at your phone.

Going for a walk, look at your phone.

However, there’s something magical happening once you allow yourself and your mind to wander.

An area in your brain called the Default Mode Network switches on. A structure that is involved in self reflection, memory and imagining of the future. Helping you to become playful, creative, innovative and change perspectives.

And here lays the discomfort and the power at the same time:

It confronts us with questions around the meaning of life, our purpose and significance. Some of the missing links when we face depression or anxiety.

In this episode you’ll get:

• Insights on why we don’t like to get bored

• The role of the Default Mode Network in Boredom & Daydreaming

• How a disengaged mind can lower levels of anxiety

• Examples you can try out to allow yourself to wander

• The importance of finding the right level of boredom

P.S. What tiny creative itch or old hobby keeps coming back to your mind when things get quiet?Let me know in the comments.

Imperfect, but perfectly me.

I hope you enjoy.

Thank you for being here.

With joy, Lisa

Music credits: TVARI

Maybe you know that feeling too. It’s not that uncommon anymore. We like to divide our attention to multiple things at the same time.

Realistically, I probably only look at 5 or 6 of them most days. The rest just sits there. Open and waiting for my attention.

And they don’t get fewer, they just accumulate over time.

Here’s the thing. Your brain treats unfinished business the same way. Something lingering around, still open, still costing you a great deal of mental energy and space. Whether you’re looking at it or not.

Something we know we should close. But for some reason it stays open. Unfinished.

So we hold on and keep it, even to things we no longer need.

That same principle can be applied to everyday life. Whether that’s staying in a relationship, at a job you don’t like or keeping goals and plans you’ve outgrown and stopped believing in. And I get it, letting go is extremly hard.

Letting go is how you close the tab.

Why we rather hold on instead of leting go

It’s uncomfortable for one simple reason. We don’t know what comes after.

Your brain likes simplicity and predictability. It’s not built for spectacular decisions. Its main focus is to decide fast and spend as little energy as possible. So it defaults to what it already knows. Past experiences and its own stack of memories. The shortest route wins and it’s always ‘stay where you are, it’s safer here’.

The moment when you start questioning that, something pushes back.

For me it’s my inner critic that gets loud. Maybe that sounds familiar for you too.

‘It’s the wrong decision’

‘What if you never have another shot at this?’

‘What if it doesn’t work out?’

Here’s what I ask back now

‘What if it DOES WORK OUT?

Chances are 50:50 either way. What tips the scale is you, your decision and on your attitude toward it.

If you recognise yourself in any of this, this is exactly who I write for every week. Subscribe and I’ll send you the next piece the moment it’s live.

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The real challenge behind letting go

For a long time, letting go made me really uncomfortable. Not just because it meant I needed to jump head first into uncertainty but because I had some limiting beliefs attached to it. Some of them sounded like that:

1. Letting go means ripping it off completely.

2. Letting go means being selfish.

3. Letting go means giving up.

You might recognised yourself in one of these too. It’s pretty common.

For me these became loud when I knew I had to take a decision concerning my career. At the time I was working for Amazon as Launch Expansion Project Manager, closely together with international stakeholders and leading my team. However I felt it didn’t align with my values and needs as a person anymore. It was a process that took me almost two years before finally taking the leap and letting go.

I don’t want you to have to wait that long. Here's what that looked like on the inside for me.

The more time that I sat on it, the more I

Ruminated

Overthought

Questioned it

All of that at the cost of valuable mental (and physical) energy.

But let me tell you from experience, the longer you keep that decision on delay, the tabs open, the harder it also becomes to close them. By ruminating & overthinking you actually expand the emotional cycle.

Our emotional cycles aren’t the real problem. They’re naturally only 90 seconds long. After a stimulus arises, we have an emotion, try to make meaning of it by reverting to our memories and react accordingly.

But we have an emotion over the emotion, prolonging that cycle. And the duration of going over the decision depends on your set of beliefs, the permission you give yourself and / or your interpretation of the situation.

If you want a fuller picture of what that looks like in practice, listen to the full episode, where I walk through more of the tools I actually use to let go

Share

Share it with someone who’s still holding on to something too tightly.

Upgrading your mental software

Letting go doesn’t mean you have to drop something completely. For that imagine it like that. You hold a spoon in the palm of your hand. And you really hold it tight. What I thought for a long time about letting go was that I needed to drop it. But you can also just open your hand, releasing the focus (grip) you have built by holding onto it. You can keep the spoon in your hand without clinging to it.

That’s not ripping it off, it’s loosening your grip. And that’s not selfish either. Walking away from what’s draining you is the highest form of self respect and self love. It doesn’t mean you’re abandoning someone or something.

And as for giving up, Neuroscientists have a term for that that can help shift your perspective on this. It’s called adaptive goal disengagement.

It’s your brain’s ability to redirect away from a path or goal you once set but that’s no longer working. Instead of trying desperately to control it, you don’t give up on yourself. You simply find a better direction.1

Every week I share more tools like these the ones that work when you feel stuck. If you want them in your inbox, subscribe below to not miss any of them.

Subscribe now

What you can do additionally

Name it and locate it. Instead of pushing the feeling away, locating it in your body can help to calm your brain’s natural (stress) response.

Write it down. Overthinking actually prevents you from moving and you already gave probably enough time to that. Putting it on paper actually frees up mental space.2

Visualise letting it go. Direct your barain to imagine that specific feeling attached to a situation or person and all the details leaving your body. It might feel uncomfortable at first as it’s a mental muscle we rarely train. But like with any muscle, it gets easier with repetition.

To circle back to the beginning. Yes some tabs might be best to get closed but not all of them have to be closed and maybe not all of them need to be, right away.

So if I could leave you with one key question it would be this:

What’s one thing you’re still gripping tightly that you could hold a little looser, starting today?

P.S. You always get exactly what you need.

With joy,

Lisa

If something in here stayed with you don’t let it just be a feeling. Subscribe and let’s keep going together.

Subscribe now

Sources

For a long time, failure was something I needed to avoid at all cost. Something bad that I wasn’t allowed to have. And so the internal judgment got louder and louder, until I realised that I was feeding my own internal beliefs.

The high achiever and perfectionist turned into saboteurs, preventing me from taking action.

Success and failure are concepts that can quickly get tied to our identity and with it to our self worth and acceptance. Before you realise it you become what you put out to the world.

However that can bear a great risk. Not only can you hold yourself up to immensly high standards but the succcess of others become a thread.

The ego’s job in all of this is protecting us and make us shine to take back some control. That often comes in form of extreme admiration, comparison, in worst cases rivalry and envy.

What it really is though, is an invitation to turn inward and question our own definitions, beliefs and attributes.

In this episode you’ll get:

• An invitation to look at your own definition of success and failure

• Insights on why other people’s success can feel like a threat

• How these concepts are tightly knot to identity and the risk that comes with that

• How envy and rivalry harm your overall wellbeing

• An opportuntiy to identify your own saboteur

P.S. What’s one thing that makes you really impatient? Let me know in the comments.

Imperfect, but perfectly me.

I hope you enjoy.

Thank you for being here.

With joy, Lisa

Music credits: TVARI

Audio version

I asked my uncle the same question three times.

The first time, he said that he was doing fine and was in a much better place. He was looking forward to their yearly vacation in the South of Italy, my family’s true home.

I sat across the table with him and my aunt, the three of us sharing the first dinner together in a long time. I looked at him and said nothing for a while. Then I asked again and got the same answer back.

When I asked a third time, I changed the question.

‘If you wouldn’t have that vacation coming, would you be able to maintain the same pace for any longer?’

He looked back at me and went quiet. Then he said ‘No. We would have needed to change something.’ And for the first time, I think he was truly honest. I could feel it and see it too.

That hit home.

Quite ironically, I’m in my hometown for a couple of days writing these lines. My aunt and uncle invited me over for dinner. Whenever I was there, we’ve always seen each other somehow, around the grocery shop they own or around family holidays. The usual mix of too many people, too many things to do and too many conversations happening all at once. Just not the kind of setting where you can actually talk.

But that one night, it felt like I really saw them for the first time.

My aunt und uncle are both Italian, that moved to Germany when they were kids. My aunt, my dad’s sister met her now husband at 18. My grandparents were very traditional so my uncle proposed and they got married young at the age of 20.

Since then they’ve been together for over 40 years and also built and run an Italian grocery store, following the family’s legacy. It’s that kind of store where you not only find olive oil, pasta and tomato sauce but the Italian flair and a taste of La Dolce vita, the sweet life, with it.

Every time I step foot into it, it catapults me directly back to my roots. The cappuccino you get served at the bar, the smell of fresh cheese and antipasti infusing the air, oldies playing in the background. A bit of chaos, a lot of heart.

I love that place so much, I can’t imagine it gone one day.

They’ve truly given everything to it. Working long hours, staying creative enough to compete with the supermarket chains, keeping the customer service and satisfaction on point.

But sitting across from them at the dinner table, I could also see the exhaustion behind their faces. Lately, that exhaustion has grown and they’ve both faced health challenges. I was worried about them, so I wanted to understand what was really going on. And that’s what often happens. We get so used to saying ‘I’m fine’ so quickly that we rarely think about whether that’s actually true. Most of the times, the conversation just stops there though.

Accepting it without questioning it and moving on. This time however I didn’t want to stop there.

There’s a sentence that I grew up hearing from them.

‘One day we’ll do that together’

I accepted that when I was a kid. I don’t do that anymore.

I hear this phrase regularly from clients, friends, even used it myself too. But with that change of perspective I’ve also come to believe it means exactly what it sounds like.

A NO, just packaged in a different way.

If you’ve caught yourself saying ‘one day’ about something that is important to you you’re exactly who I’m writing this for. Subsribe below if you are ready to enjoy life and work without feeling guilty.

Subscribe now

The hidden cost of high performance

Whether you run your own business or are an ambitious professional, the pattern I see is the same. Work hard, prove you can handle it and give it all. I’m ambitious too.

Seeing them pouring their heart into their business for so many years, I grew to believe that’s what entrepreneurship had to look and feel like.

And that makes sense. You build something from scratch and it becomes part of you and your identity. So naturally, you want to give it your absolute best.

Now that I’m building my own business I think about that ingrained belief constantly. I’ve seen that same behavior slowly install itself in me. Maybe partially because that’s what I grew up with, maybe because of my own combination of high achiever and perfectionist.

The pressure was real. I needed and wanted to make it work. But with that the same question I asked my uncle at dinner popped up:

‘Is this actually sustainable? And why does success always seem to come as a trade off between a thriving career and a rich personal life?"

That realisation shifted something within my mission. Towards figuring out how people, whoever they are and whatever they’re building can create a life that lasts without paying for it with their health or the people they love.

Because somehow, we’ve accepted that this only works if we sacrifice something else for it.

I’m here to prove that wrong.

I’m the first to tell you that you do not need to decide between your ambition or your health. You deserve to have both! Subscribe if you no longer want a trade off.

Subscribe now

The answer my uncle gave wasn’t really about the vacation. It was an admission that without that yearly getaway, the pace and the set up weren’t really sustainable. That something underneath stopped working.

That’s the hidden cost. It always catches up and then it’s not so hidden anymore. I’ve watched people I love and care about live by that same instinct. The recovery is always harder than it needed to be. However we can learn to catch it early enough to adjust course.

If any of this landed for you, I want you to sit with these three questions:

1. Can I maintain the lifestyle I currently have for another 6 months, 1 year?

2. Am I able to be present with my family & loved ones without feeling guilty?

3. How am I currently prioritising my own health (physically & mentally)?

We ended up talking about more after that. In mid conversation, he added that it felt like having ‘two hearts beating simultaneously in his chest’. One for his business not wanting to let go, the other one craving to finally enjoy life. That’s the balancing act we rarely talk about. So we addressed possible changes, finding time again and the right prioritisation. The sweet spot between a thriving career and a rich personal life through small steps with big impact.

I don’t think that ‘one day’ should be left to coincidence. By consciously making room for it, taking one decision at a time it can be built into the everyday moments.

Until ‘One Day’ becomes ‘That’ Day. And I’m so glad that I had it with my family.

P.S. Which ‘one day’ have you been delaying? Let me know in the comments.

With joy,

Lisa

If something resonated with you here don’t just let it be a feeling. Every week I write about small shifts and decisions that keep ‘one day’ from turning into never. Subscribe below I’ll send you the next one directly to your inbox.

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This quote made me really think. Not only about how we deal with patience but also where and over what we might loose it and how can we get more of it.

The concept of patience goes back to our childhood. If you think about when you were a child, or if you have your own now, it’s something you get trained on.

As kids we have a different notion of time and so we can get really quickly really impatient. Just think back of certain events like Christmas or Birthdays or long hours in the car before arriving at a new place.

However, what kids really are excellent at is expressing their impatience. And that’s also where our potential lies.

In adult life, this ability and mental flexibility to wait somewhat gets lost by instant gratification and accessibility.

So this episode really puts the focus back on how we can retrain that mental muscle by looking at different types of patience and ways to feel more comfortable around waiting.

In this episode you’ll get:

• Insights on the shift that happens between childhood and adult life

• 3 different types of patience

• Why it’s important to differenciate between patience and passivity and how to find the sweet spot

• Ways to cultivate more patience towards yourself

• The key element needed for growth

P.S. What’s one thing that makes you really impatient? Let me know in the comments.

Imperfect, but perfectly me.

I hope you enjoy.

Thank you for being here.

With joy, Lisa

Music credits: TVARI

Since it was right after the holidays, I thought the train would be quiet, unconsciously because I was hoping for that break. But it was the opposite. I found myself in a completely stacked compartment. It was hot and sticky, more people trying to squeeze in even though there was visibly no room left. Needless to say that it wasn’t the most comfortable feeling, being packed in like that.

But it made me think of something that happens in daily life too.

Picture that same stacked train, only now it’s your mind. You’re the owner of the train. And the people trying to squeeze in are your thoughts, your worries, your obligations and your expectations.

As the train moves through its stops, more and more of them climb aboard. We stack ourselves with more tasks, more obligations, more expectations. And we set the bar higher and higher, maybe to prove we’re good enough, that we’re capable and that we can handle it.

The cost of that always shows up eventually. Maybe through foggy thinking, feeling overwhelmed or being constantly tired. Our attention follows the same principle as our physical energy. It’s not unlimited and the more we use it the more it wears down.

Here’s the part I think we skip past:

You don’t have to wait until the compartment is full to get off.

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What I observed over time reflect a similar loop on our journey through life.

We wait until we physically can’t continue, then we try to fix it with a holiday or some other kind of escape. We come back refreshed, promising ourselves that this time it will be different only to find ourselves back in it within a couple of days. The cycle repeats but the problem at its core stays.

So that bears the question

‘What if we instead, learned to notice the signals earlier and built small pauses into everyday before our copartment is already full?’

Because in all honesty, at this stage you’re just surviving and not thriving.

And a brain on survival mode shows a clear deactivation of our prefrontal cortex, the brain region in our brain known for logical and rational thinking.

What I realised though is, the shift doesn’t have to be dramatic at all. In fact, the smallest ones bear often the biggest impact as our brains love simplicity for its low energy consumption.

So it can be as simple as checking in with yourself around

1. Is everything you’re carrying actually yours to carry?

2. Once that’s identified, then follow up with: What can you let go of because it’s no longer moving you forward?

If you want a fuller picture of what that can look like in practice, listen to the full episode here where I share some of my personal go to tools to allow my brain that reset.

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Rest is more than just sleep

I know what you’re probably thinking now. That you already know this. That you should sleep more, rest more.

Fair point, however it’s not always about knowledge because we have plenty accessible. But are you actually doing it?

Sleep is only one form of rest. There are other ways too. But mainly rest isn’t the same as doing nothing.

It’s about giving yourself room instead of stacking one more thing on top. It’s what let’s your brain think clearly and actually process what’s happened instead of just carrying it around unfinished.

If you don’t know where to start, try these:

Get up and go for a 10min walk in nature without your phone. Neuroscience research shows that a walk in nature can improve memory performance and directed attention as it helps the specific brain region to rest and recover. When we are walking in green spaces the stimulation is softer and requires your brain to filter and mange less of it.1

Once you come back from your walk or before your jump into your next meeting, take 5 minutes and check in with your breath. Try out the physiological sigh. Inhale deeply, followed by a sharp second inhale through the nose, then exhale twice as long through mouth or nose. The extended exhale reduces physiological stress and can lead to improvements of mood. When practicsed over time it can have an even greater impact than mindfulness meditation. 2

Lastly, here’s my favorite. I used to have endless to do lists without ever realising what it cost me in terms of mental energy. Because every task that’s still on your to do list is like an open tab in your brain requiring your attention. The more is on there, the higher the mental demand and energy that gets consumed. If you feel like yours is getting longer and longer, try to cut it down to 5 tasks that actually move the needle.

Every week I go deeper on how you can lead from within not just perform it through tools and simple hacks that actually work. Subscribe free so you never miss it.

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The goal here is to find tools that are easy to integrate and maintain even when life gets busy. Be creative and experiment. Remember the simpler, the better. And don’t underestimate the effect these can have on your compartment.

Below is a summary of the 7 types of rest originally introduced by Saundra Dalton-Smith, MD, author of Sacred Rest: Recover Your Life, Renew Your Energy, Restore Your Sanity. 3

Pick one and try it out today and most of all to make it really stick, build it out in what suits you as a person! Focus on small steps to stay committed throughout time and something you can easily maintain. Only then add onto it.

On a scale from 1-10 (10 is the highest) how full is your compartment right now?

P.S. You always get what you exactly need.

With joy,
Lisa

If something in here stayed with you do not let it just be a feeling. Subscribe and let’s keep going together.

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Wow, what a week it’s been!

When I was planning this week’s episode I had a couple of topics in mind. However, this week felt particularly intense - emotionally & physically.

You know, just one of THOSE weeks.

And that matched also the conversations I had throughout.

What I often see is posts from people where they share experiences or lessons they’ve learned once that tough period is over.

And that makes sense because our brains have a delayed response rate and digest situations later - not whilst facing the eye of the storm.

Which is great and helpful. But you can still feel like a complete outsider if you face a tough time. Our brains are excellent in making us think we are alone in it and society reinforces that.

You are not.

So with this episode, I hope to open the door to conversations where we actually can feel vulnerable and name what’s there. And that has nothing to do with positivity.

It’s about honesty, community and authenticity. Until no mind is left behind.

In this episode you’ll get:

• The difference between type 1and type 2 emotions

• Why sharing can feel uncomfortable and healing at once

• Why mental health and resilience isn’t about positivity alone

• The foundations to build connection

• Ways to stay grounded through tough times

P.S. If you were truly honest, how have you been this week? Let me know in the comments.

Imperfect, but perfectly me.

I hope you enjoy.

Thank you for being here.

With joy, Lisa

Music credits: TVARI

And although I smiled when finally finding the courage to do so, it did show.

To be quite honest with you I’ve been pushing it away for some time. One of my best friends came up with the idea and recommended it. He was also an entrepreneur and did 10 years in Comedy.

He kept saying that it would be a life changing experience. I’m not going to lie, it definitely got me curious. However, every time I wanted to go, fear crept coming in.

I found myself immediately in overthinking mode. Finding a million reasons why I can’t go, shouldn’t do it or how it might not change anything. But here’s the thing. The more you give those thoughts room and let your brain talk you out of it, which it always will by the way, the harder it becomes to overcome that fear.

And so I wanted to change that and understand why it was causing such an intense reaction.

If you’ve never been to an improv session, it works slightly different than general acting or theater classes. Compared to the latter, in improv, you might have guessed it by the definition of the word itself, you have to improvise.

No scripts.

No time to prepare.

Simply responding to whatever comes at you in that moment.

And that’s what I was secretly worried about. Because of one fundamental thing I was not giving myself permission for.

For more insights, tools & resources on finding your voice, unlocking your full potential and building a thriving life and career in an authentic healthy way, join the community.

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What I actually found once I stopped hiding

My brain wanted to predict every outcome. Trying to take control over something that was incontrollable in the first place.

Because that was what it was used to. And that’s what gives us security when we are facing uncertainty. So the autopilot went fully on wondering:

What if I don’t know how to respond and go completely blank? What if I look like a fool and everyone sees it?

Spoiler alert: That did not happen.

Turns out, it beared the greatest lesson of all. Even if it was uncomfortable at first to see. But real growth rarely happens inside our comfort zomes. I certainly wasn’t the only one because I’ve seen that behavior from friends, family and ex-colleagues, too.

We’re very good at making the perfect plan. What we’re often missing are the strategies that help us react when life doesn’t follow it.

Strategies That Actually Help When Nothing Goes According To Plan

Listen to the full episode here to learn more about what actually helps.

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After the session ended, one of the other participants said something that sticked with me until today:

Come as who you are and work with what you have.

I was forced to trust myself. Needing to give myself permission to go with the flow. That’s the part I think most of us skip past.

Where in your life are you over-preparing for something?

P.S. You always get what you exactly need.

With joy,
Lisa

Lisa writes about healthy performance, inner leadership and identity that goes beyond the surface and touches the root instead of only the symptom. Subscribe for weekly insights and tools for the human behind the hustle.

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‘It’s nice when you have such strong confidence and self awareness and grew up with that’.

That sentence did something to me.

Because I didn’t. I wasn’t always like this.

What you try to hide bears your biggest gift

To be quite frank with you this is probably the most vulnerable post I’ve ever written and put out there. But I finally decided that it’s time to talk about it.

Healing doesn’t happen by ignoring the hard parts in your life but by learning to integrate them into your story. Not as definition of you, but as part of you.

Growing up I always felt different. That kid that felt more than others and knew things before they got verbalised. Soaking in lots of details and emotions without questioning whether they were mine. I couldn’t explain why, I just did it.

It took me 25 years to find out that nothing was wrong with me and understand what was happening behind the surface.

If you want more insights and tools about finding your voice, understanding who you are and how to build a life and career that feels aligned and authentic to you, join as a subscriber.

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I grew up in a household that blended two cultures. My mum German, my dad Italian. So I learned cultural nuances, coliving and identity impact from a very young age.

But I also learned something else that I carried around and was never mine in the first place.

‘You do not speak up and you do not draw attention’.

There was either too much emotion or no emotion at all. No middle ground. So eventually I kept quiet and internalised that my emotions weren’t that important.

Looking back now, I also understand that nothing was done intentionally. I received a lot of love and encouragement from my parents and I still do to this day. I’m very grateful and love them. They just didn’t know better either at times.

Through my childhood I internalised that concept of needing to make it right for everyone around me. To do everything to keep the harmony, to be liked and somehow also accepted and seen.

Quite ironic isn’t it?!

What I didn’t understand at the time was that it quietly erased me. And that ultimately lead me to reject myself. As I grew older, peers fought to be different than others at all cost. I was a teenage girl who tried to fight off the differentiation that became more visible.

I was tall, had curves and looked very mature for my age. Different.

And we didn’t want to be different.

So I did everything to control that. To wanting to change my body and the external image at all cost to cover up for the void I was feeling inside.

I didn’t know at the time that the void came from the inside and from all these years of putting others ahead of my own needs, opinions and thoughts. Believing that my voice didn’t matter.

I share weekly tools and techniques rooted in psychology, neuroscience and backed with my personal experiences with an aim to help you become the healthiest, happiest version of yourself. Subscribe now to be the first to receive these in your inbox.

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The point I want to get about here is that I know how much your head can make you believe that something is wrong with you. Convince you that you’re not good enough. And how that can distort your reality to a point where you believe it.

Unresolved, that feeds into how you show up at work, in your friendships, romantic relationships and overall for yourself.

And maybe it has been there unconsciously for you too.

You take all responsibility on yourself in conflicts. You don't disagree publicly, even when you really want to.

Instead you stay quiet, put everyone’s expertise and words above your own. Getting caught up in a constant comparison trap and the fear that no matter what you do, you miss out and it won’t be enough.

And as harmony and belonging weights heavily, you stay longer in situations or with people even if it costs you your peace, health and happiness.

Over the last 10 years I worked to get to a point where I didn’t define myself through my physical appearance, learning to accept myself. To put boundaries and sticking to them if people or situations were threatening my peace of mind. To not define myself through achievements or being liked and to follow my true self by speaking up.

I would almost argue that it’s a lifelong process and some aspects are easier than others. And that is okay too.

Don’t expect yourself to undo years and years of reinforcing these patterns within a week. That is simply not sustainable.

But slowly, I can guarantee you this: you start focusing on what you can control. You feel empowered to walk away from situations or people without that nagging feeling of guilt. You say no without needing to justify it. And putting yourself and your foundations first becomes non negotiable.

So yes, it starts with awareness, but then healing comes with embodiment. And that requires one step at a time.

If I can do it, so can you.

Ultimately, if I could only leave you with one key takeaway from my own journey it would be this: You have a voice of your own. And you are allowed to be yourself without fearing that it could take away the love and appreciation.

P.S. Which line in here hit closest to home for you?

With joy,

Lisa

For more content around how to build an authentic, thriving life and career, join the community and get access to weekly podcasts and articles. I can’t wait to see you there!

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What brings you joy and do you actually make time for it in your day to day?

Wooow, tough one right?!

But I want to talk about it because it’s important and I’ve noiced something happening ot me personally and to people close to me:

The more focused we get on a goal or project, the higher the chances we drop the things we actually love doing.

For me these are things like dancing salsa or cooking for friends. And I hadn’t done that because I was headsdown launching my business.

You need things that bring you joy, things that fulfil you, not just things that look good from the outside. Joy is the thing that still shows up when life gets hard.

Otherwise you’re running after something that might look aspiring but leaves you completely empty.

Cultivating joy and implementing moments of happiness are one of the most useful things you can do while chasing ambitious goals.

In this episode you’ll get:

• How chasing high performance can quietly kill your joy

• The definition of joy vs. happiness

• Why going back to do things you love can feel uncomfortable at first

• Why mental health isn’t about only positivity and how that connects to joy

• How to actually find out what you love

P.S. What gives you energy? Let me know in the comments.

Imperfect, but perfectly me.

I hope you enjoy.

Thank you for being here.

With joy, Lisa

Music credits: TVARI

I was looking at my calendar on the phone, the little reminder note popping up that I’ve scheduled in the beginning of the year quietly asking ‘Resignation?’

There it sat. Suddenly putting me in front of a decision that was long overdue. But let me start from the beginning.

I was successful on paper.
Could travel around the world.
With family & friends close by. My career looking smooth.

I’ve been with Amazon for almost 4 years as Launch and Expansion Project Manager.

I was responsible for ensuring that learning programs for business owners we partnered with, met local standards and requirements. Led a small team and looked over the wider learning team’s projects whilst building a Mental Health subcomittee of 14 volunteers from scratch.

Things were seemingly going well and I was in plan for the next promotion cycle later in the year.

I worked hard, had fun and made history.

Yet I felt I was building a cage that wasn’t for me.

I was craving IMPACT.

That feeling brought back a promise I made after my studies in psychology when I decided against becoming a psychotherapist for one specific reason. I wanted my work to be preventative before people got sick and change the system that caused it.

And yet here I was, caught in a system contributing towards pushing people to the edge, accepting that mental health was a once a year tick box exercise and an environment that modeled success comes with sacrificing your health.

6 days later on June 30th 2024, it just clicked.

That was it.

I left. With nothing lined up.

I would lie if I’d say I wasn’t nervous. Wasn’t questioning whether that was a smart move. Because after all, I live in a culture that values security and rewards you when you stay inside a box.

But I never belonged in that box in the first place. And I felt it the moment I handed in my resignation. The huge weight that has been secretly sitting on my shoulders lifted. I could finally breathe again.

By the way this isn’t about telling you to leave your job or that this is the only way out.

This is about learning to listen to yourself and trusting your gut. About creating your life in a way that feels like you don’t need to escape, hide from or going against yourself.

And mainly about being bold to vocalise when something feels wrong for you and isn’t aligned instead of questioning yourself if YOU are wrong.

You’re not.

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I carried that feeling for almost 2 years. But you know how it is sometimes. You talk yourself out of it, take the vacation and convince yourself afterwards that it’s not that bad. And you just tell yourself to ‘keep it together’.

But let me tell you from experience, that nagging feeling inside won’t go away. If you know, you know. I knew it, long before I gave myself permission to admit it.

You might wonder now, but what changed? Was there a tipping point?

For that we need to jump back a little. My ‘wake up’ moment came in the form of a 3 month sabbatical I took at the end of 2023. And that quickly turned not only into one of the best decisions of my life but also into the most transformative discovery of my self.

You can’t see through the eye of the storm when you’re directly facing it.

I realised that I was frustrated and wanted to change. And that frustration cost me more energy over time. But what I didn’t see in the moment but came out so clearly during my time off was this:

I was delaying a decision. And I learned an uncomfortable truth.

No decision is still a decision.

Just one that doesn’t move you anywhere and keeps you stuck in the middle. And whilst connecting to raw nature, travelling through 6 African countries, having endless conversations with locals and taking a 200h yoga & meditation teacher training, I finally allowed myself to ask the questions that mattered most:

Is this the life I want to live? Is this the best use of my skills, knowledge & what I value?

The answer was no.

And so I came back with a clear intention. Either things are improving or I’ll leave to get closer to what I truly want.

It still took me a couple of months afterwards, but you know now how the story ended.

Since then a lot has happened and at the same time I feel this is only the beginning. And I wouldn’t trade it for anything. But that is probably a story for another time.

With this I wanted to give you a little glimpse into my journey, the journey of a woman that quit her secure job with nothing lined up because deep down she knew that she wanted to do more. Wanted to work preventatively, wanted to help people to prioritise their health and lead them towards a happier, healthier life.

When I talk to ex-colleagues and friends still working in corporate it always seems like a trade off.

You work hard, you endure the raising expectations. The pressure, the uncertainty and the rapid changes. And for that you have to make sacrifices, often taking a toll on your health.

But I learned that no job or situation should cost you your physical or mental health. There’s a human behind the hustle.

If you feel at a turning point, have been dreading a decision or just know you can’t continue like this for much longer but just don’t know how to get started, I got your back.

I know it’s scary. I know it’s hard to stand up for yourself when all you’ve ever done is blending in and playing by the rules.

But you only have that one life. And you owe it to at least try to make the best out of it and see how good it gets.

So I don’t think it’s a coincidence if you stumbled across this article. And if I can only leave you with one question it would be this:

Do you currently have a life and work that brings you genuine excitement and fills you with energy?

Welcome to the Inner CEO with Lisa.

I am so glad, you’re here. And my biggest aim is to help you

Cultivating Presence, Elevating Performance, Owning your Power.

With joy,

Lisa

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We push through, we hustle and do more and more and more. But what is actually ‘enough’?

Our definition of high performance has shifted significantly in the last decades and we tend to equalise it with busyness and being able to handle it all.

But the term itself is actually more nuanced and complex. Because as much as we like to define it through pushing limits and making sacrifices, we somehow ignore that it should also be sustainable and balanced.

Because you cannot pour from an empty cup. And you can’t build on weak foundations.

This epsiode offers a deep dive into what high performance is or is not and how to build it in a healthy way so it supports us longterm in thriving for our goals and aspiration.

It’s not a trade off. And it’s not about choosing between ambition and rest. It’s about learning to be smart and combine both to maximise output and impact.

In this episode you’ll get:

• An opportunity to define what success and performance means to you

• How we tend to set ourselves unrealistic expectations

• An invitation to look at your inner critic

• How to use the seasons method to build healthy performance

• What compassionate discipline is and how it can help to be more sustainable

Imperfect, but perfectly me.

I hope you enjoy.

Thank you for being here.

With joy, Lisa

Music credits: TVARI