When Capacity Becomes A Cage

Most of my life, I was celebrated for my strength. I was the one who could handle it—whatever it was.

Pressure? I could take it. Deadlines? I delivered. Pain? I buried it and kept moving.

And the world kept applauding.

But here’s what I didn’t see back then...the applause wasn’t for my aliveness.

It was for my ability to smile while I was burning out.

Because when you’re high-capacity, people stop asking how you’re doing. They just assume you’ve got it.

You become the go-to. The steady one. The one who can absorb more because you always have.

If that's you, I just want you to know....I see you.

I know how heavy it can get as the weight compounds, day after day.

And it doesn’t matter how strong you are—if your strength is built on self-abandonment, it’s going to collapse.

That collapse doesn’t always look dramatic. Sometimes it just looks like numbness.

Sometimes it looks like being physically present, but emotionally 100 miles away. Sometimes it looks like succeeding on paper and slowly dying on the inside.

And no one sees it—because everything still “works.”

That’s the danger of high capacity...it becomes the mask that hides your humanity.

We think burnout means we’ve failed. But often, it means we’ve been too good at surviving.

Too good at pushing through. Too good at performing stability. Too good at functioning while disconnected.

But what if your greatest leadership edge isn’t how much you can carry? What if it’s how good you can feel while you carry it?

That's the heartbeat of the work I do. Because I know what life feels like on the other side.

Not in doing more—but expanding within.

And just to be clear. This is not about shrinking your ambition.

It's about making sure your ambition doesn't shrink you.

The world doesn’t need more leaders who can hold it all together.

It needs more leaders who are willing to hold themselves—first.

So I’ll ask you what I had to ask myself...

What do you need—like really need—not to keep going, but to feel whole again?

And what’s one small step you can take to create space for that need to be met?

As always, I’m rooting for you. Let me know if I can help.

—Caleb

P.S. If this resonates, pass it on.