In this episode of Inner Peace, Better Health, we get very real about what happens when hustle culture, leadership expectations and spiritual truth collide. Christian author and podcast host Wanda Thibodeaux unpacks how Western ideas of independence, grit and constant performance quietly shape our identities, drive us into burnout and keep leaders privately exhausted while publicly “crushing it.”
Wanda walks us through her own story of trauma, a chaotic home with alcoholism and ninety hour workweeks that left her drained. She explains how grace, faith and honest self reflection helped her deconstruct those cultural scripts and rebuild work around calling instead of fear.
Together we dive into spiritual leadership, emotional honesty at work, micro pauses that rewire your nervous system and why real grace lets you delete the spreadsheet, own the mistake and still know you are worthy. This is a straight talking conversation for leaders and professionals who are done performing and ready to lead from grounded faith and inner peace.
Wanda Thibodeaux is a freelance writer, Christian author and host of the Faithful on the Clock podcast, where she helps professionals align faith and work without sugar coated platitudes. Based in Eagan, Minnesota, she draws on psychology, neuroscience and lived experience of trauma, burnout and healing to support leaders who feel spiritually disconnected inside high pressure cultures. Wanda’s work is known for being deep, practical and challenging in the best way.
Modern culture sells an “independence and grit” narrative that implies your worth comes from productivity and going it alone. This fractures community, discourages asking for help and sets people up for burnout.
Harmful cultural scripts often start early at school with “what do you want to be” instead of “who are you” and “how do you connect.” Later they show up as “fake it till you make it” and constant performance pressure.
Spirituality, especially in a Christian context, offers a counter story. You do not earn your worth. Grace says you are loved first, which lets you question the metrics and hustle patterns you have internalized.
Many leaders hit the goals they were told to chase, yet feel empty. That crisis point often becomes the doorway from “human doing” to “human being,” where grace, faith and honest reflection finally matter more than titles or quotas.
Wanda names a common leadership trap. Emotional intelligence gets used to manipulate people toward company KPIs instead of caring what individuals actually need. Real spiritual leadership holds space for vulnerability, not just performance.
Practicing grace in the grind is about micro pauses and community. Short, consistent moments of slowing down, body awareness and reaching out to “mental dirt shovelers” help rewire your nervous system and make inner peace a daily practice, not a weekend fantasy.
You can connect with Wanda and go deeper into her work here.
LinkedIn: Search for Wanda Thibodeaux to follow her leadership and faith based articles.
Author site. Visit wandathibodeaux.com for her books, blogs and long form writing.
Faith and work podcast + sister site. Explore faithfulontheclock.com and the Faithful on the Clock podcast for scripture based insights on aligning work with Christian faith.
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