You have a plan. You believe in it – mostly. But at 3am, the doubts come anyway.
Did I miss something? Is the team doing its job? Will it work out?
Cortisol does its thing, thoughts circle, and by morning you’re running on four hours of sleep, trying to perform confidence.
This isn’t a discipline problem. It’s not about better sleep hygiene.
What’s actually happening: during the day, you function well. Confident. Clear. In control.
And at night, when the control stops, everything you ignored during the day – the doubt, the frustration, the not-knowing – comes up. Because it was never resolved.
The way through isn’t to push the doubts away harder, or to “switch off” better.
It is to give them your attention – during the day, even briefly. A few minutes of acknowledging: I don’t know right now. This is a lot. I need more time.
That is not a weakness. That is where you stop fighting yourself, and that energy becomes available again. For sleep. For clarity. For the next decision.
This is exactly what we work on in Executive Advisory – not by analyzing, but by reconnecting it to what your body already knows.
Where the tension sits. Where the energy goes.
And how to lead from there, using your energy for you, not against you.