You do too much that no longer serves you. And that costs you time, energy and freedom

You have a top career that many dream of. Successful in business, in your field or in a company you built all by yourself. You have proven that you can perform, lead, build. The outside world sees the successes. They see the power, the status, the network you have built. But behind that image is another reality at play. 

You feel that you are being lived. That your agenda determines your day. A full agenda, but an emptiness inside you. Because the same challenges he faces, the long-running projects that repeat and pile up. The rut is in, you have been missing the challenge for ages and your energy is draining away faster than you would like. It seems as if your freedom grows as your success grows, but in reality the peace and space is shrinking. You are always busy, but often not with what really matters.

The mask of success is treacherous. You show the outside world that you have everything under control, but inside you find that the price is high. You work hard, you have impact, but you lack peace, fulfillment and the feeling that your choices are truly free.

This is the paradox that so many women with top careers or their own businesses get stuck in. 

Everything seems perfect, but inside gnaws the question: is this it?

Last time I wrote about why top women choose a Life-First Business. Today I take it a step further: how to stop getting bogged down in busyness and mediocrity and radically choose the 20% that defines your freedom. Because settling for how things are now is at your expense. You leave your potential and value behind and get bogged down in fullness, fragmentation and fatigue. Due to lack of challenge, time for yourself and energy.

And all that will only get worse as long as you don't dare to choose. Because not choosing equals loss of freedom, impact and energy. Not choosing is like waiting in a waiting room...waiting or worse hoping for better times. That not choosing is actually also a choice: the choice for mediocrity and predation.

In my previous Empowered Letters, I cited my Integral Growth System™. A perfect system that makes concrete that you have more in you and that so much more is possible. Integral growth in all areas: personal, business and financial. 

In this new Empowered Letter, I link this to Pareto focus. To show you that my Integral Growth System™ is not about doing more, but about knowing exactly which 20% leads to growth in Health, Wealth and Freedom.

The illusion of working harder

Our lives and work are tied to systems, to patterns of thinking and doing. You think: if I keep going a little longer, soon there will be space. If I finish this project, there will be more balance. If I finish this client assignment, I can slow down. But really, that moment never comes. Because there is always the next project. A next client. The next opportunity and challenge.

Working harder does not lead to more freedom. Working hard for too long does lead to exhaustion, both emotionally and physically. You don't lack discipline, you have too many commitments, you don't set hard and clear boundaries, and you seek confirmation of your success outside yourself. And as long as you believe that more is the solution, you remain trapped in your own success.

The real question is not: what can I add? The liberating question is: what can I delete so that I make room for growth?

Mediocrity gives no fulfillment

Being busy feels important. Full schedules give status. But it is an illusion. Busyness is not proof of worth. It is often a cover for mediocrity. Ask people around you how they are doing and most will say they are busy. And that is settling for mediocrity that you then call "success. 

It sounds harsh, but this is exactly what I see in so many women I coach. Smart, ambitious women who seem to have everything in order, but in reality get bogged down in activities that achieve nothing. Currently not for the good of themselves. They are caring, serving and running from appointment to appointment. They do many different things (business and personal) and take on many (side) commitments because they have to. They say yes because it is expected. Their days are full, but their life energy leaks away and their soul is empty.

That is the real trap. Not failure, but getting stuck in a life that seems good enough. A career or business that runs fine but is not fulfilling. A success that feels like a prison is like a life lived in a rat race and golden cage.

The power of radical focus

And the way to break this pattern is to choose. Not choosing more, but choosing less, simpler and growth. Fewer activities, but more results. Fewer obligations, but more freedom. Fewer distractions, but more impact.

The principle is simple by employing your Pareto focus: Eighty percent of your growth comes from twenty percent of your actions. Because the problem is that namely, you spend eighty percent of your time doing things that hardly make a difference, the impact you want and can make. That's why you're busy but not moving forward. That's why you're tired, even though you love what you do.

The solution is radical choice, letting go of the things that no longer serve you and focusing on your time, energy and money: spending it on those things and people that really matter. That takes guts and courage to let go of eighty percent of what you do so that you make one hundred percent room for the twenty percent that makes a difference.

Your current status

Ask yourself honestly: where is my time, energy and money flowing away? Which activities and people feel important but are not producing anything, no longer contributing to my goals? What would happen if I cut all but three activities?

The answer to those questions is confronting. Because it means saying goodbye to certainties, to patterns and systems in which you have lived and worked for years, distancing yourself from people who no longer serve you. Parting from habits, parting from expectations you have lived up to for years. It takes courage to choose what really matters, what you are here to do and want to leave behind. This is exactly what sets you apart from the rest.

Because let's face it. You read my Empowered Letters and that means you're not someone who will settle for mediocrity any longer. You want to lead with impact. You want to grow in profit as well as in freedom. You want a life that is true to who you really are. Full, forward and unlimited freedom.

The price of not choosing

If you continue to dodge these questions, the price remains high. Your business or career spins on, but you do not grow integrally in all areas, because personally and financially you leave much to be desired. You long for freedom, but do not experience it. You continue to be lived by agendas, clients and expectations. You keep looking for balance, but only find more busyness. Balance is still hard work to stay balanced, but when is something balanced. And certainly not sustainable balance. 

Not choosing means keeping yourself small in a life that seems big.

The wealth through radical choices

When you do choose, when you have the courage to take off the mask of busyness, everything changes. You create a business or career that works for you, rather than against you. You experience freedom, not because you have less ambition, but because you choose to do the right thing. You work with clients who energize you, not just pay you. You have room for strategy, creativity and peace of mind.

That is the richness, the added value, the reward of radical choices. Less ballast, more meaning. Less noise, more results. Less having to, more freedom.

From radical focus to freedom

This is the core of Scale to Freedom. Six months where you stop doing everything yourself and learn how to scale your business or career with strategy, systems and team. All from a Life-First Business Strategy. No empty promises about working harder or more discipline, but concrete steps that help you lay the foundation for sustainable growth on a personal, business and financial level.

In Scale to Freedom, we work 1:1 together to create a future where you are no longer caught up in the eighty percent that takes away your energy, but where you fully build on the twenty percent that gives you freedom, profit and fulfillment.

This is not a quick trick. It is a transformation. From hard work to smart leading. From success as mask to success as freedom. From a life that happens to you to a life you shape yourself, live fully, be fulfilled, be challenged and grow forward.

Take a radically honest look at where your time, energy and money are leaking away. Let go of what no longer serves you, even if it feels exciting. Choose a future where your freedom and growth no longer oppose each other, but reinforce each other.

Freedom requires responsibility

You know better than anyone what it is to take responsibility, to lead, to perform. But now is the time to take responsibility for yourself. For your energy, for your freedom, for your future.

You don't have to go harder. You don't need more. You only have to choose the right twenty percent.

There lies your freedom, your impact, the fulfillment you long for again. Ambitions no longer at the expense of your life and health, but the freedom to live and do business on your terms from peace, space and results.

Life first, supported by successful business second.

This is your time to not only be successful, but to live fulfilled and enriched from the inside out. And no longer be led and lived the other way around. Because you built a business. Now you get to build a life.

One Life. Lead it. Live it.

Love,
Gerdi
Your success and freedom. My mission.

When you're ready:

✅ More time, energy and freedom for yourself and grow your business?  

Scale to Freedom - Premium 1:1 trajectory of minimum 6 months 

Integral growth in three areas:

• Personal: more peace, direction and fulfillment
• Business: scalable growth, innovation and leadership
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✅ The ELLLE Board Network

Pilot - Start September 1

The ELLLE Board is the place where women with a vision come together to grow integrally: personally, professionally and financially. Here you transform not only your business, but more importantly yourself and your legacy. 

Life, Leadership & Legacy on your terms from peace, direction and a deep sense of fulfillment.

For whom.

• Established women leaders & entrepreneurs who want to reach their next level in business AND in life. Searching for the right place to connect from authenticity for deepening, enrichment and fulfillment. 
• Top women who want to maximize and strategically leverage their own valuable IP, network and potential. Simplify to multiply.
• Women who want to build their legacy and really make a difference.

Because you want to get more out of life and continue to grow profitably on a personal, business and financial level.

Duration Pilot: 4 months (September 1 to the end of 2025)

The investment for participation in the pilot of The ELLLE Board amounts:

€4,000 excl. VAT until August 31, 2025

This is a one-time pilot investment. After that, The ELLLE Board will continue as a full-fledged annual program in 2026.

Women who register before Aug. 15 will receive:
- Access to the full pilot (September through December)
- Two live days (ELLLE Round Tables).
- Four online sessions (ELLLE Boardrooms).
- The private ELLLE Community Platform
- A personal 1:1 strategy session with Gerdi

Notice:
For women entering the premium 1:1 program Scale to Freedom before Sept. 1, 2025, participation in the pilot of The ELLLE Board included as an exclusive bonus.

As Leader of Your Future = Living and Entrepreneurship on Your Own Terms

P.S.. Are you The Next ELLLE? Ready to lead your life and your business and grow profitably in all areas? Send me a personal message or plan instant conversation with me.