Unshakable Confidence: Helping High-Achieving Women Lead with Calm, Clarity, and Confidence—at Work and in Life

68: The cost of Waiting: why things don’t change until you do

• Coco Duan, Fortune 500 Senior Executive Turned Life & Leadership Coach • Episode 68

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As we approach the end of the year, many high-achieving women find themselves exhausted, overwhelmed, and quietly hoping that next year will be different.

Maybe you’re telling yourself:

  • “Things will feel better when work slows down.”
  • “Once the kids are older, I’ll have more time.”
  • “After the promotion, the raise, or the job change, I’ll finally relax.”

I hear this all the time—and for years, I told myself the exact same story.

In this episode, I share the real cost of waiting. Not from theory, but from lived experience.

I take you back to 2017, when I was a senior leader working 60+ hours a week, constantly pushing, performing, and holding everything together on the outside—while my nervous system was completely maxed out on the inside. I was successful, driven, and capable… and deeply exhausted. I kept waiting for external circumstances to change, believing that then I’d finally feel better.

They didn’t.
 And I paid the price for waiting.

In this episode, we explore:

  • Why waiting isn’t laziness or lack of discipline—it’s about nervous system safety
  • What functional freeze really is, and why so many high-achieving women are stuck there
  • How endurance and high pain tolerance can quietly keep you trapped
  • Why change feels threatening even when you desperately want it
  • The two most important steps to stop waiting and start creating real change

I also explain why insight alone isn’t enough—and why true transformation requires co-regulation, not more pushing, forcing, or self-help in isolation.

If you’ve been telling yourself, “I’ll deal with this later”…
If you’re productive but unmotivated, successful but unfulfilled…
If a part of you knows you don’t want to repeat another year like this—

This episode is for you.

You don’t need to wait for life to slow down.
 You don’t need to endure more than you already have.
 And you don’t need to do this alone.

If coaching feels like the kind of support your nervous system has been waiting for, I invite you to book a free one-hour consultation with me. The link is in the show notes.

Let’s make 2026 a true turning point—grounded, supported, and no longer driven by waiting.

Thank you for being here with me.

  • Coco Duan helps high-achieving women executives who secretly doubt themselves to build calm confidence and create success that feels truly fulfilling.
  • I'd love to invite you to take the next step toward building your calm confidence. Book your FREE one-hour consultation call here: https://calendly.com/cocoduancoaching/1-hr-consultation
  • Or email me at Coco@CocoDuanCoaching.com with the subject line: “Consultation.”
  • Let’s discover what’s possible for you. 💫