Finishing Well Is The New Finishing Strong (A Trauma Informed Burnout Recovery Coach’s Perspective for High-Achieving Women)
Every December, the pressure turns up.
I’m sure you’ve seen it, the messaging is literally everywhere…
Finish strong.
Push through.
Do what it takes.
Now’s the time to go all in.
But for high-achieving women in high-pressure careers—the ones navigating constant emotional labor, decision fatigue, and nervous system overload— “finishing strong” doesn’t feel inspiring.
It feels like more work and it’s exhausting.
And if we’re really honest, it probably sparks more dread and paralysis than motivation and momentum.
Because “finishing strong” for those who already identify as the strong ones often translates to:
more hustle
pushing harder even when you’re already depleted
ignoring your body’s cues for rest
sprinting toward a finish line that keeps moving
operating beyond your capacity instead of honoring it
No wonder you feel exhausted before the new year even begins.
So here’s the reframe I want to offer you this season:
What would it look like to finish this year well—
not just strong?
The Difference Between Finishing Strong and Finishing Well
Finishing strong is about output.
Finishing well is about alignment.
Finishing strong asks:
How much can you squeeze in before the year ends?
How much can you knock off your checklist?
How can you outperform yourself or those around you?
How can you prove you’re still on top of everything?
Finishing well asks:
What do you actually need?
What supports the woman you’re becoming?
What allows you to enter the new year with clarity, steadiness, and capacity—not chaos and burnout?
One demands performance.
The other invites presence.
And for most women I work with, presence and calm are the things they crave most—but feel the least able to access. Not because they don’t want it, but because they’ve never learned how to hold it without fearing they’ll fall behind.
Presence requires slowing down.
It requires listening inward.
It requires honoring limits instead of overriding them.
And many ambitious women were never taught how to do that in a way that doesn’t feel like they’ll risk falling behind or dropping any balls.
Why Your Body Resists “Finishing Strong”
If you’ve been pushing through burnout or chronic stress for months (or years), your nervous system defaults to survival mode—a state that prioritizes protection, not productivity.
So when you add more pressure onto an already taxed system, your body responds with:
irritability
brain fog
dread instead of drive
emotional numbness or that “meh” feeling
fatigue that no amounts of sleep and caffeine can fix
the fragile sense that you’re an overstretch rubber band about ready to snap
These are the physiological signals that your body is trying to tell you: “I cannot sprint anymore.” “I need more regulation, not more pressure.”
When we ignore these cues…’finishing strong’ becomes an act of self-betrayal and finishing well becomes an act of self-leadership.
So What Does It Actually Mean to Finish Well?
Finishing well does not mean giving up, being lazy, or lowering your standards.
Finishing well means:
choosing a pace that doesn’t cost you your emotional or physical health
ending the year with intention, clarity, and capacity
shifting out of autopilot and back into self-leadership
showing up for your life in a way that feels grounded and like you are in the driver seat again.
To guide you there, here are three grounding prompts:
1️⃣ What’s one thing I want to release before the year ends?
Something heavy.
Something outdated.
Something you’ve been gripping tightly out of habit or fear.
This might look like:
a perfectionistic standard
a belief you have about productivity or rest
a responsibility you’ve outgrown
a draining habit
silent pressure you’ve been carrying alone
Releasing isn’t quitting.
It means choosing with intention what you have capacity, time, energy, enthusiasm to keep holding and what you can soften or put down for now.
2️⃣ What’s one thing I want to protect because it supports my peace?
High achievers often think relief comes from adding more.
But sometimes the real breakthrough comes from protecting what already works.
This could be:
your bedtime
a boundary around after-hours work
a simple morning rhythm
the emotional tone you want more of
the margin you created this year
Protection is an act of self-respect.
You protect what you value.
3️⃣ What’s one way I can honor my actual capacity this week?
Not the capacity you wish you had.
Not the capacity you think you should have.
Your actual capacity.
Maybe that looks like:
doing less
asking for support
delegating
postponing what doesn’t need your urgency
pausing before you automatically say yes
Honoring your capacity isn’t weakness.
It’s wisdom.
And it’s one of the most powerful burnout prevention tools you have that’s in your control.
Finishing Well Is the New Finishing Strong
You don’t have to prove anything to anyone.
You don’t have to earn your time off, your presence, or your peace this holiday season.
You don’t have to keep squeezing out more performance and accomplishment if your bandwidth, values and capacity have shifted.
You get to choose the kind of ending that truly fits you —
a softer one,
a steadier one,
a wiser one.
You can finish this year well — and step into the next with more inner capacity, clarity, and connection than you’ve felt in years.
If You’re Ready to Do This Work With Support
This is exactly the work I help high-achieving women do inside YOU 2.0 and in my private coaching: healing the survival patterns that fuel burnout so you can live, work, and lead from alignment — not exhaustion.
✨ If you’re craving support as you redefine what “finishing well” looks like for you, you can book a clarity call here.
These calls are a no pressure exploration that offer you grounded insight, honest direction, and a clear first next step toward a life that actually feels peaceful, supported and aligned.
Monica specializes in helping dedicated and ambitious professionals navigate high-pressure careers while breaking free from burnout by addressing the deep-rooted patterns and beliefs that drive chronic stress. Trained and certified in multiple trauma-informed modalities—including EMDR, Somatic Therapy, Polyvagal Theory, and TF-CBT—she integrates neuroscience and nervous system regulation into her approach. In 2023, she launched Business of Thriving to provide burnout recovery coaching, group programs, and workshops that equip professionals with the tools to build sustainable success.
While advocating for systemic change in the mental health field, Monica’s work focuses on helping individuals dismantle the internal beliefs and patterns that keep them operating within toxic systems—so they can lead the way in creating real, lasting change.
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