Leading Yourself from Devotion, Not Discipline

A way back to joy, alignment, and sustainable soul leadership

I always tell my clients that I do the work alongside them — and I mean it.

Over the past year, I’ve been deep in my own evolution. A journey of unwinding the ways I’ve led through willpower and obligation while remembering what it means to create from devotion. Not devotion as in effort or endurance, but devotion as in love:

Love for my work. Love for myself. Love for the vision I hold and the soul calling that chose me.

And recently, that devotion called me into something big: a book. A body of work that feels deeply alive and important, one that is meant to serve and teach and expand others into greater compassion, courage, and sovereignty.

But somewhere in the process, I froze. I got caught in the swirl of self-doubt: “Who am I to do this?” And the pressure of doing it “right” completely disconnected me from the very energy that had sparked it.

And then, I found myself speaking aloud something I didn’t realize I’d been carrying: 

I’m a great “doer.” But somewhere along the way, that doing has become over-responsibility and obligation. And above all, exhaustion.

I see this in so many of my clients and peers. We’re deeply capable, we care so much. And we know how to make things happen. But in that doing, we begin to lose ourselves. We override the signals, and we become the ones holding it all, at the cost of our own joy.

From Push to Flow

When discipline is rooted in control, it eventually breeds resistance. We wake up tired. We forget why we started and the spark that once lit our vision begins to dim.

This doesn’t mean we stop showing up. It means we show up differently in rhythm and alignment with who we truly are.

Devotion is not a lack of structure. It’s structure guided by soul. It’s the kind of sacred self-leadership that doesn’t require constant force because it flows from what matters most.

My mentor, Gaby Kowalski recently reminded me: “Discipline is the collapsed version of stillness. It tries to hold what hasn’t been healed. Devotion is the discipline of a soul-led path.”

That landed deeply.

Devotion invites you to hold yourself gently, yet powerfully. To honor your energy, your pace, your cycles. To keep your promises, not out of pressure, but out of love for who you are becoming.

Let the Joy Return

Here’s what I know: when we lead from devotion, we return to joy. We stop pushing and start listening. We begin to follow what lights us up, not what burns us out.

This doesn’t mean we’ll never face resistance again. It means we’ll meet it with compassion, not control. Curiosity, not critique.

And over time, this becomes a way of being. A leadership path that’s rooted, radiant, and real.

A Question for You

What might change if you stopped leading from discipline and started leading from devotion? What would shift if you built your schedule, your offers, your commitments not from what you “should” do, but from what feels true?

This is the kind of leadership that’s rising now.

And if you’re here, reading this, you’re already walking the path. Let yourself slow down and be led by love. Honor your needs and let devotion and joy carry you home.