Stop Chasing Success - Start Embodying it Instead.

Who Do You Want to BE as the Leader of Your Life?

For years, I wasn’t running toward my life—I was running away from it.
And I’ve sat at the table with hundreds of leaders who feel the same.

Many of us are asking the same question lately:
What is the true cost?

What is the cost of our work on our time, energy, relationships, quality of life, and sense of belonging in this world?

It was a chilly night in November 2021. I was on a bus to Caroline, Alberta, squeezed into the middle seat between two complete strangers, their unspoken thoughts filling the quiet air.

“How did I let myself get this far?” 

That night, at a retreat, I flipped open a guidebook to the first page:

"What is the vision for your life?"

I’ve always been a visionary—a goal-getter, a turn-water-into-wine kind of person. But as I wrote my vision on paper, I felt the weight of how out of alignment I had become.

The cost of striving was more than I wanted to pay.

Over the next seven days at the retreat, I confronted truths I’d been avoiding for years:

• The patterns of self-sabotage, self-abandonment, and self-destruction that kept me running on empty.

• The stories I told myself about needing to do more to be “enough.”

• The way my work, as fulfilling as it could be, was draining the vitality from my life.

I was done running away from my life.

The Well Within

In ancient times, the well sat at the center of a community—a gathering place for water, the essential resource for life. If the well ran dry, the community suffered.

Today, your well is your inner life force.

For years, I had let mine run dry, pouring everything out for others while neglecting to fill myself back up. I realized the only way to sustain my work, my relationships, and my joy was to tend to my own well—intentionally, daily.

This is what I’m inviting you into: A space where we gather over truth.

Where we ask the hard questions and share the honest answers.
Where we stop running from our lives and start running toward them.

Creating Your Own Manifesto

One of the most transformational moments of that retreat was crafting my life manifesto.
It wasn’t about goals or achievements; it was about defining who I wanted to BE.

Here’s what mine looks like:

Last updated: January 7, 2024

• My presence is my success.

• I am peaceful, steady, and joyful.

• I lead with compassion and vulnerability.

• I keep promises to myself and own my word.

• I prioritize my relationships and move at the pace of peace.

• I am the leader of my life and I take ownership for my success.

• I am safe with me.

This manifesto became my guide—a daily reminder to align my actions with my essence.

Your Turn: Who Do You Want to Be?

Bring to mind a goal you’re working toward:

• A business milestone.

• A financial target.

• A dream project.

Now ask yourself:

Who do I need to be to actualize that vision?
Who do I want to be in the pursuit of it?

Here are a few prompts to help you get started:

• The characteristics I want to be known for are…

• Loving myself, I feel…

• In my relationships, I feel…

• My relationship with work feels…

• I feel most alive when I am…

• When I’m not in the room, people describe me as…

Write your manifesto in a place you’ll see every day. It’s not a rigid checklist; it’s a living guide to becoming the leader of your own life.

About The Well

The Well is a gathering place.

In ancient times, the well represented a community’s vitality, a source of sustenance for all. Similarly, this space is about nourishing the social and emotional resources we need to endure and thrive.

Through my written words, audio riffs, and podcasts, I’ll share personal experiences, musings, and lessons on life, business, identity, love, freedom, and joy. Reading this will feel like flipping through pages of my diary—a space for truth-telling where you might nod, laugh, cry, and think: “I’m so glad she feels this way too.”

This is a space for coming together over our shared humanity. A quieter, safer space—beyond the noise of social media—where we walk shoulder to shoulder in love and liberation.

Reflection Questions:

• What does success look and feel like for you?

• Where are you running away from life, and what might it look like to run toward it instead?

• How are you tending to your own well?

Repeat after me:
“What I see is up to me.”

Titles change.
Directions shift.
The world evolves.

But the way you choose to BE? That’s entirely in your hands.

In love + leadership,

MB