The quiet ache for more
"I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself"
Maya Angelou
As I approach the end of my corporate career and step into the world of entrepreneurship, I have been doing a lot of reflecting. Over the next 4 weeks, in the run up to this powerful life transition, I want to share some of my thoughts with you in the hope that they might resonate and spark something in you too.
My first reflection is about how the energy of ‘fine’ will keep you stuck.
There’s a particular kind of discomfort that doesn’t scream; it whispers. It lingers quietly in the background while you tick all the right boxes and smile in the right meetings. It doesn’t interrupt your day. It weaves through it.
For a long time, I have lived with that quiet ache. I didn’t even have the words for it at first. It was just a sense that something was missing, even when everything looked “fine” from the outside. I had a successful career and a very comfortable life. I was good at what I did and respected as a leading professional in my field.
But, underneath the surface, something sacred in me was slowly wilting.
I know I’m not the only one who’s felt it. That sense that you're living a version of your life that’s a few degrees off kilter with your truth. That subtle ache or nagging sensation that visits you in the in-between moments. On the commute, in the shower, while scrolling late at night.
That longing for something more, even when you don’t know what ‘more’ would even look like.
The myth of “fine”
I have realised that we get conditioned to strive for “fine.” We learn to value the stable, steady, predictable and pleasant. For a long time, I convinced myself that this should be enough. It felt selfish or ungrateful to want more. More aliveness, more meaning, more depth, more creativity, more freedom, more FUN.
But eventually, I realised something important. Being “fine” is not the same as feeling fulfilled. I didn’t come here to live a lukewarm life and I am certain that you didn't either.
Having helped thousands of people to explore and unlock their potential, I could not bear the thought of settling for fine and allowing my own potential to remain unrealised. So, I started listening. Not to the noise of the world, but to the whisper of my soul.
It didn’t give me a 5-year plan.
It didn’t promise certainty.
It just kept asking one question:
“What if there’s more available to you… but you’ll only find it on the other side of letting go?”
The turning point
It wasn’t one big thing that changed everything for me. It was a series of small moments that simply compounded over time:
The subtle feeling of dread that would creep in on a Sunday evening.
Sitting in a meeting and realising that my heart and soul were not in the room.
Someone calling me Joanne instead of Joanna. Again!
A growing sense that I no longer belonged.
It was in those moments that something shifted. Quietly. Irrevocably.
The cost of staying comfortable
Here’s a truth we don’t talk about enough. Choosing to stay in a life that doesn’t feel aligned has a cost even if that life feels “good enough.”
It costs your vitality.
It costs your joy.
It costs your connection to your intuition, your creativity, and your courage.
it costs you the limitless potential available to you and the opportunity to be your most authentic.
For me, the real turning point wasn’t a dramatic event. It was that slow, steady realisation that I was becoming someone I didn’t recognise. A woman who was simply existing, not living.
Surviving, not thriving.
I knew in my head, heart and soul that if I didn’t make a change, I’d wake up in five or ten years feeling even further away from who I really was. I knew I would look in the mirror and feel disappointed with myself for not giving myself permission to fully explore my own potential and possibility. I knew I would not be able to live with the feeling of regret for opportunity lost.
From longing to legacy
The moment I let myself fully feel that ache (not try to fix it, push it away, or numb it with endless spending) but to actually just feel it, was the moment everything began to shift.
It didn’t happen overnight.
It took deep conversations, tears, long walks, uncensored journaling sessions.
Grieving dreams that never came true.
Embracing new ones I never saw coming.
Giving myself the space to reimagine what freedom, success, and legacy could mean on my terms.
And slowly, that ache became an invitation.
A portal of excitement and possibility
A compass.
That’s when the vision for No Ordinary Woman arrived and the invitation to step up and lead.
That’s when I began the journey toward becoming the woman I am today and the one I’m still becoming.
To the woman who feels it too…
If any part of this story stirs something inside you, please believe me when I say:
You are not broken.
You are not selfish for wanting more.
You are not too much.
You are simply waking up.
You are beginning to remember that you were never meant to be ordinary.
And that ache you feel?
That subtle, sacred whisper?
It’s your soul calling you forward.
You don’t need to burn everything down overnight.
But you do need to listen.
And when the time is right, you’ll know.
You’ll choose courage over fear.
You’ll say yes to yourself.
And the life you’ve been quietly aching for will begin to reveal itself.
I’m just a few weeks away from the biggest leap of my life. Leaving behind everything that once defined me.
Stepping fully into my business, leading a movement of restless women, and launching a podcast that speaks directly to the soul of a women like you.
But, it all started with that ache and the decision to stop settling for “fine.”
It is time to remember you were never meant to be ordinary.
Something to consider…
Is there a quiet ache you’ve been ignoring? What might shift if you listened?
