Bring The Joy Back

I cried watching Alysa Liu skate at the Olympics.

It wasn’t the gold medal.

It was her face.
Her energy.
How free she looked on the ice.

If you don’t know her story, she was a prodigy. The youngest U.S. champion at 13. Tipped as the future of the sport, and by 16, she’d retired. Burnt out. Done.

She’s spoken about falling out of love with skating and feeling the weight of pressure and expectation.

And then, she went on a snowboarding trip.
No judges. No scores. No expectations.
Just fun.

Somewhere on that mountain, she found her way back to joy.

When she came back, it wasn’t to prove anything.
It was because she wanted to be there.

This time, she was doing it on her terms, and you could feel it.

And I thought about women in music.

You probably joined the music industry because you love music.

You remember the first album you bought.
Your first concert.
The posters covering your bedroom wall.

I know I did.

But somewhere along the journey that love of music can get tainted and turns into pressure.

Budgets.
Chart positions.
Tickets sold.

I see so many women in music holding everything so tightly.

Their reputation.
Their role.
Their voice in the room.

And somewhere in all of that, the joy got squeezed out.

Watching her, I thought:
This is what happens when a woman stops living by the ‘shoulds’ and starts doing it her way - for the joy of it.

What if you don’t need to grip so hard?
What if easing up changed everything?

What if you zoomed out, remembered who you are beyond the job title, and let some joy back in?

The women who do that don’t lose their ambition.

They become magnetic.

Maybe the question isn’t, “How do I get further?”

Maybe it’s, “How do I bring the joy back?”

If this resonates, and you’re ready to explore what bringing the joy back could look like in your career, you can book an exploration call below.

Let’s find a different way forward.

Always in your corner,

Sarah