Repair the World Without Breaking Yourself

You Can Care Deeply About the Work and Still Be Paying Too Much for It

We tend to admire the person who stays late, keeps going, takes on more, and never lets anyone see what it costs them. Somewhere along the way, hard work became proof that we care.

On October 29, I’m sitting down with Becky Margiotta, author of Impact with Integrity: Repair the World Without Breaking Yourself, to challenge four ideas many of us have absorbed: work has to be hard, suffering makes us effective, emotion is unprofessional, and being polite matters more than being real.

Come If You Are Carrying One of These

• I care deeply about what I do, but the work is taking more out of me than I expected.
• Slowing down sometimes feels like caring less.
• Everyone is being polite, and nobody is saying what actually needs to be said.
• I am good at containing my emotions. I am less sure I am actually dealing with them.
• I keep taking on more because saying no feels like letting someone down.
• I want to keep doing meaningful work without exhaustion becoming the price of admission.

If you recognized yourself in even one of those, that is the hour.

Here Is Something Becky Gave Me for Free

Becky asks us to question the rules we have absorbed about meaningful work. Does it really have to hurt to matter? Does suffering make us better at what we do? Is having emotion at work actually unprofessional?

Her premise is simple: if we want to create meaningful change “out there,” we also have to take responsibility for what is happening “in here.” The work matters. So does the person doing it.

What You'll Walk Out With

• A different way to think about hard work. When does effort serve the mission, and when have we simply learned to treat struggle as proof that we care?
• A healthier relationship with emotion at work. Not letting emotion run the room, and not pretending it has no place there.
• A way to care deeply without giving yourself away. How to keep doing meaningful work without making self-neglect part of the job description.

This is not about caring less or lowering your standards. It is about asking whether breaking yourself is actually helping you do the work better.

Why Becky

Becky graduated from West Point, served as a Signal Officer in the U.S. Army, became the first woman to command in her special operations unit, and was the fourth woman admitted into a special mission unit. She later helped lead the 100,000 Homes Campaign and today co-leads The Billions Institute.

What interests me most is where all of that experience led her: inward. Impact with Integrity is about doing important work without making overwork, silence, suffering, or self-neglect part of the price.

Bring the work you care enough about to exhaust yourself over. Send your question when you register. I would especially love to hear from those trying to make a meaningful difference without losing themselves in the process.

Becky’s book, Impact with Integrity: Repair the World Without Breaking Yourself, is available now.

Live and lead well,

~traci