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The Courage to Stop Climbing

Editor’s Note

This piece is a follow up to Third Time’s a Charm, where I explored my long held plan to pursue a doctorate and questioned whether it still aligned with who I am and how I want to live and lead. What follows is the clarity that only comes after sitting with an unanswered question long enough to hear the truth beneath it.

I have wrestled for a long time with whether or not to pursue my doctorate.

In Third Time’s a Charm, I wrote honestly about standing at a familiar crossroads, once again asking myself whether I would go through with it. I examined the pull of a lifelong goal, the quiet expectations that follow leaders in education, and the belief that maybe this time I would finally see it through. What I did not have then was a final answer. What I have now is clarity.

I have decided not to pursue my doctorate.

Make no bones about it. This was always the plan. Becoming a “doctor” felt like the natural pinnacle of a career in education and leadership. The thing you did to prove you belonged. Somewhere along the way, that goal stopped being about growth and became about validation. READ THAT AGAIN.

I have spent much of my professional life proving I was good enough. Working harder. Saying yes more. Measuring myself against unspoken standards of what leadership is supposed to look like. The doctorate became one more way to keep climbing, even when the climb no longer served me.

At this stage of my career, the cost is too high. The mental strain. The physical exhaustion. The financial investment. All while I am leading a school community, building culture and programs that matter, planning for retirement in less than three years, nurturing the relationships that ground me, and finally learning how to integrate work and life in a way that fuels my soul instead of draining it.

Pursuing a doctorate right now would be rooted in the wrong reasons. And I am too tired to keep proving something I already know to be true. I AM ENOUGH.

I do not need another degree to confirm my worth.

There are exceptional leaders with doctorates. There are ineffective leaders with doctorates. Not having one does not diminish my ability to lead with integrity, empathy, courage, and deep care for children and communities. Those qualities have never been conferred by letters after a name.

Choosing not to pursue that final degree is not quitting. It is choosing alignment. It is choosing rest. It is choosing the version of leadership that values presence over prestige and meaning over momentum.

When I wrote Third Time’s a Charm, I was still standing on the ladder, wondering if the next rung was where I belonged. Writing The Courage to Stop Climbing feels different. It feels like stepping off with intention. I am no longer chasing a title, a credential, or someone else’s definition of success. I am choosing alignment over approval, integration over exhaustion, and purpose over proof.

I do not need to keep climbing to know my worth.


#TheAuthenticAdvantage #Leadership #Courage #ChoosingPeace #AuthenticLeadership #WomenInLeadership #Enough #Boundaries #PersonalGrowth #LeadingWithHeart


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