The beautiful, nourishing desire for friendship and community grows right alongside our fears of rejection, inadequacy, and vulnerability. They're part of the same ecosystem. We can choose to avoid the whole path because we're afraid of the poison ivy – which means missing out on the beauty of the ferns. Or we can walk carefully, mindfully, knowing that both exist and we can navigate this terrain because it's what matters to us.

Here's my central point: If you know that your career is tied to money and earning (and let's be honest, for most of us it is), then you can't gain career clarity until you have financial clarity.

That can be a really confronting idea. It means facing numbers you might have been avoiding. It means having potentially uncomfortable conversations with yourself or your partner. It means questioning some of your spending habits and asking whether they truly align with what matters to you.

But if you approach this work with compassion, curiosity, a willingness to learn, and grace — by giving yourself room to lower your expectations of behaving perfectly around money — I think the process can be incredibly liberating.

Financial clarity doesn't mean becoming a perfect financial planner overnight. It doesn't mean never buying something just because it brings you joy. It means developing a relationship with your money that's based on awareness rather than avoidance, on curiosity rather than shame.

“For high-achieving women especially (even when we don’t feel like our achievements are ‘enough’), this distinction becomes increasingly blurry. We've built successful careers through disciplined thought, careful analysis, and meticulous planning. We've learned to trust our critical thinking above all else, which can disconnect us from the wisdom of our bodies.”