Confessions of a Recovering Overachiever: My Letter to 2025
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Mentioned in this episode:
The moment my body forced me to recognise my overworking pattern
How different childhood experiences shape our relationship with work and achievement
Why overworking feels like safety (and what's actually creating your results)
A powerful framework for releasing this pattern while honouring your younger self
My personal letter from 2025 and the profound shift it revealed
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You know that feeling when you've just finished a 12-hour day, your to-do list is somehow longer than when you started, and there's still this gnawing feeling that you should be doing more?
Today, I want to share something deeply personal with you – a realisation that literally brought me to tears this week.
It's about that drive we have to work harder, longer, better... and why it might not actually be your ambition speaking, but rather an old wound trying to keep you safe.
The Pattern Reveals Itself
Let me take you back to last week.
I found myself, once again, with way too much on my plate.
Have you been there? That feeling of being stretched thin, but still saying yes to more?
Lots of different projects on my plate
Simultaneously updating both of the curriculums for CCBD and NEON
Initiating a big audience growth strategy
Looking at moving ALL of our tech stack into one “catch all” tech stack
Creating a new AI program
And I was having a conversation with a multi-million dollar/year friend of mine who truly has the SIMPLEST business model and she’s always a good mirror for me and she just asked me… “Jazze, why are you doing all of this?”
🤯 That simple question helped me realise the pattern. That more overworking = more control = more results.
Here's what happened next.
Within 24 hours of recognising this pattern, I made some radical changes.
I started removing things from my calendar, saying no to new projects I’d initiated.
And you know what's fascinating? The very next day, I woke up sick. It was like my body was saying, "Finally! We can exhale."
So with this forced slowdown, I’ve had a lot of time to think/reflect/contemplate at just how quickly (and unconsciously) these patterns can really start running the show.
The Many Faces of Overwork
Before I share my story, I want to acknowledge something important: This pattern of overworking, of taking on too much responsibility - it shows up differently for each of us, but the root is often the same.
It's an old wound trying to keep us safe.
Maybe you were like me - the kid who found control through achievement when everything else felt chaotic.
You threw yourself into your schoolwork, your sport, your career because this was all on you. You could control you.
And because you couldn't control any of the other chaos, this "over-dedication" became your safety net.
Today? You're the business owner checking Slack at midnight, showing up on every marketing platform, adding more projects to your plate because when you're taking responsibility and dedicating yourself to your work, it feels safer.
Or perhaps you were thrust into being "the responsible one" far too young. While other kids were playing, you were figuring out adult problems.
Today, that shows up as taking on everyone else's problems in your business, overdelivering until you're exhausted, checking client messages during family dinner "just in case," because responsibility and care have been tangled together since before you can remember.
Maybe you grew up watching money tear relationships apart, saw how financial stress changed the people you loved.
Now you find yourself saying yes to clients who aren't aligned, creating endless new offers "just to be safe," because part of you is still that kid who thinks if you just work hard enough, you can protect everyone from uncertainty.
Regardless of what you resonate the most with, here’s what we don’t realise when it comes to these patterns:
They don't know when it's time for them to be rewritten.
While there was a time when they were really helpful, we grow up, we become adults, we learn, we evolve, we develop new toolkits - but it's the same patterns that continue driving the ship.
The Origin Story
Let me share my story.
When I was 16, my parents lost everything in the global financial crisis. They had moved away, and I was living by myself in our childhood home, completing my Year 12 exams.
In that chaos, I found control through achievement. I threw myself into my studies because it was the one thing I could control. And it worked – I got great marks, went to law school, and built a successful career.
The problem?
I brought this pattern into my adult life and my business.
Because here's the thing – overworking HAD actually created results for me. It became my safety net, my proof that I was in control.
And even when I experienced burnout in 2020, this was a pattern that I struggled to “let go of” because it had served me SO WELL for almost 30 years.
My brain has never really been able to negotiate with the part of me that feels very convinced that this is the most appropriate course of action.
The Breakthrough
But this week, something profound shifted.
Instead of trying to convince myself to see things differently or being “at odds” with the part of me that feels really convinced that overworking = control = results, I realised something important…
That 16-year-old girl? She did exactly what she needed to do at the time. Those actions created safety amidst chaos. There was nothing wrong with that.
But here's the breakthrough – I'm not 16 anymore. And while that work ethic helped create my success, it wasn't the only thing that did.
The Real Source of Security
Your security – our security – comes from our inherent gifts. Not how many hours we log at our desk. Not how much pressure we put on ourselves.
It's our:
Innovative thinking
Deep compassion
Commitment to transformation
Natural problem-solving abilities
Ability to take decisive action
Desire to create real change
These gifts exist whether we work 3 hours or 15 minutes. They're part of who we are, not what we do.
A Framework for Your Own Reflection
If you're resonating with this, I want to share the process that led to this breakthrough. Here's how you can explore this for yourself:
1. Acknowledge the Pattern
When did you first learn that overworking equals safety?
What was happening in your life at that time?
How did this pattern serve you then?
You can also work with tarot or even have a conversation with AI about this. You can use a prompt like this:
"Act as an intuitive business strategist specialising in identifying inherited success patterns. Consider my role as 'the responsible one' in my family system. Help me understand: 1) How this pattern served me in childhood, 2) How it's impacting my current business growth, 3) What new patterns would better serve my next level of success. After analysing each aspect, provide specific examples of how these patterns show up in my business and suggest practical steps for transformation."
And by the way, every Tuesday I write an edition of the Richness Without Sacrifice™ newsletter and I share an example of applying this framework (strategy, personalisation and AI innovation) and it includes a powerful AI prompt.
It was actually through pulling the 8 of Cups that I realised that actually, I don’t have to “reframe” things.
It’s ok to accept this for what it was at the time - a life saver, truly. I needed to find something that I could control at the time to help me feel safer.
It was exactly the right action to take.
In my Danielle Noel Moonchild Tarot, it literally says:
“There may be times when we reach challenging crossroads along the way, and with reluctance, we must leave something behind in order to move on... This is the new chapter, waiting to be written. Where would you like to go from here?”
2. Thank That Version of Yourself
Instead of trying to "fix" or change the past, send love to that younger you
Acknowledge how they kept you safe
Recognise that their strategies worked for that time but let them know that you’re an adult who has cultivated a lot of experience and different tools that she didn’t have at the time. And that you can now powerfully lead both of you into something new.
3. Create Space for Something New
Write a letter from your future self
What becomes possible when you trust your inherent gifts?
How does security feel different when it comes from who you are rather than what you do?
I wrote a letter from December 2025 me to current me. Here’s a little piece of that:
"Your security comes from your inherent gifts. Not how many hours you log at your desk or how much pressure you put on yourself. It is your ideas, your compassion, your confidence, your assertiveness, dedication, your ability to articulate yourself, your fast action, your desire to bring about real change for people that has created and will continue to create your results."
And then I pulled 3 tarot cards which felt SO resonant:
Strength card (reversed): “open your awareness to the higher gifts that reside within your heart. You are wise. Give yourself the benefit of the doubt and trust in your own strength”
Ace of Cups: “... a blissful phase of new beginnings and powerful activations that stir within you. These may be internal or external marking points; pivotal sparks of wisdom and awakening, or soul kinship and love that ignites a deep, instant recognition. This potent message also echoes the psychic wisdom that flows through you - encouraging you to trust its voice, for it speaks with a fluency of the ancient language and lineage of your spirit.”
The Emperor: “... his greatest power emerges and transmutes through the joining of his heart and intellect… This gentle strength brings harmony and peace to where there is conflict and separation in our world, which defines true leadership and innovation. The Emperor encourages you to cultivate and build from the root of this power, galvanising directly from the seeds of your heart."
A Final Note for 2024
As we wrap up this year, I want to leave you with this thought: Your brilliance, your genuine care for your clients, your innovative mind - these gifts are already creating the results in your business. Your work ethic is part of those results - but it isn't the only thing.
The security you're seeking through overworking? Your inherent gifts have been quietly creating it all along.
As we move into 2025, I invite you to experiment with trusting those gifts more. To notice when you're working from that old wound of "never enough" and to gently remind yourself: you are enough, exactly as you are.
I'm taking a break over the holidays to rest, recharge, and practice what I'm preaching here. I hope you'll join me in creating some space to exhale, to be with loved ones, and to remember that your value exists independent of your productivity.
Thank you for being part of this community in 2024. For sharing your stories, your struggles, and your victories. I'm deeply grateful for each of you.
Wishing you a peaceful holiday season and a 2025 filled with richness without sacrifice.
Until next year, Jazze 🤍
I'm also excited to announce that the Richness Without Sacrifice™ newsletter is now available!
Every week, I share real-world examples of this framework in action, including behind-the-scenes looks at how we're implementing it in our business and with our clients.
This post is part of our "Future-Proof" series. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to receive upcoming articles on:
Behind the Scenes: Scaling to $30-50k Months
Your Strategic Vision: Practical Steps for Implementation
I’m Jazze Jervis
Jazze Jervis is a business coach supporting high achieving service providers to increase their visibility, scale their brands and increase profits with *personalised* strategies, human design and astrology so they can experience “richness” without the sacrifice.
