Ever felt strangely exhausted even when your life looks organised on paper? We dig into the quiet force shaping so many choices: the avoidance of discomfort. Not the dramatic kind, but the subtle, anticipatory flickers—a tight chest in a meeting, a delayed email reply after you set a boundary, the micro-pauses that make you want to smooth everything over. We trace how early praise for being helpful and reliable trained a deep habit of over-responsibility, and how corporate cultures double down on this by rewarding vigilance and punishing mistakes.
From there, we connect the dots between perfectionism, people pleasing, procrastination, and over-preparing. They look different on the surface, yet they share one engine: keep discomfort away. The result is the duck-on-the-pond life—calm above, frantic paddling below. Decisions slow down as we chase 95 percent certainty, energy gets siphoned into managing reactions, and even simple choices feel dense with risk. We unpack the critical mix-up between safety and comfort, and how the nervous system over-corrects by flagging everyday stress as danger.
What changes everything is tolerance. Not fake bravado or recklessness, but the skill of holding uncertainty without shutting down. We talk about building inner safety so your prefrontal cortex stays online when stakes feel high, and we use Barack Obama’s “51 percent certainty” as a practical anchor. With tolerance, boundaries simplify, decisions get cleaner, and energy returns—not because life softens, but because you stop organising around avoidance. You learn to feel a hard moment and move anyway, trusting you can re-decide on the other side.
If this resonates, hit follow, share it with a woman who needs it, and leave a quick review to help the show reach the right ears. Then tell us: what “good enough” decision will you make today?
Thank you for joining us today on the Balance and Beyond Podcast. We're so glad you carved out this time for yourself!
If you’re keen to dive deeper into our world, here are our socials where you can discover more about the toolkit that has helped thousands of women create a life of balance.
Website: www.balanceinstitute.com
Podcast Website: https://www.balanceinstitute.com/podcast
Email: jo@balanceinstitute.com
LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/in/stonejoanne
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/betterbalanceinstitute/
Instagram: @betterbalanceinstitute
Thanks again for tuning in, and we'll see you next time on the Balance & Beyond Podcast!
