From Overwhelmed to Clear-Headed
- Marcy Stoudt
- May 30
- 3 min read
Mindfulness Tools to Lead with Energy, Not Exhaustion
Overwhelm is one of the biggest threats to effective leadership. It clouds your thinking, shortens your patience, and drains your energy—often before the day even begins. But here’s the truth: no matter how full your calendar is or how difficult the people around you may be, you still have control over one thing—your response.
This is the foundation of living and leading Above Center®.
When you operate from Above Center®, you act from clarity rather than chaos. You make intentional choices instead of reactive ones. You protect your energy not by avoiding the hard stuff—but by preparing for it.
Below is a simple 10-minute exercise that helps you reset, refocus, and realign with your best leadership self. It’s a tool to ground you in the moments that matter most—especially when things feel emotionally charged, overwhelming, or just plain exhausting.
Step 1: Reset to Your Best Self
Before the day begins—or before a conversation that matters—pause and define how you want to show up. What energy do you want to bring into the room? What do you want others to feel when they experience your leadership? Presence starts with awareness, not output.
Step 2: Choose Your Challenge
Look ahead. What upcoming moment has the potential to knock you off course? Maybe it’s a meeting that brings tension or a conversation you’ve been dreading. Identify the trigger. Call it what it is. When you name the thing that drains you, you reclaim the power to lead through it.
Step 3: Protect and Reframe
Energy is renewable—but only if you protect it. Take a moment to prepare yourself before the moment arrives. Ask yourself: Is there a boundary I need to set? A conversation I need to have? A story I need to rewrite? Often, the person or situation that triggers us is operating from their own Below Center state. Reframing that story helps you lead with empathy, not emotion.
Step 4: Choose to Show Up
Now is the moment to align your actions with the energy you set in Step 1. Respond with purpose. Speak with clarity. Hold your boundary with grace. You don’t need the situation to be perfect—you just need to show up as the version of you that leads Above Center®.
Why It Matters
Most people prepare for what to do. Very few prepare for how to be. But how you show up—your energy, your presence, your response—is what defines your leadership more than any task you complete.
Above Center® isn’t about being unbothered. It’s about being unshakable.It’s not about avoiding hard things. It’s about doing hard things with calm, clarity, and conviction.That’s what makes your leadership sustainable. That’s what makes it real.
You don’t have to be perfect to lead well. You just have to be clear-headed.And that starts by choosing how you show up—on purpose.
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Marcy Stoudt is a seasoned sales leader dedicated to shaping the future of talent acquisition and executive coaching. As the founder of Revel Search and Revel Coach, Marcy collaborates with corporate clients to develop innovative strategies for attracting, advancing, and retaining top-tier talent.
During her 22 years at Allegis Group, Marcy was TEKsystems's first female Vice President. She led a team of 300 producers and delivered four consecutive years of revenue results at 18% CAGR, averaging $320 million annually. While at MarketSource, she established the Customer Experience Strategy for the Target Mobile outsourced sales team at 1,540 Target locations, fostering executive-level relationships with Target and Apple.
The Revel Coach™ Blog is provided for educational and informational purposes only and is not mental health, financial, business or legal advice. The information presented here is not intended to diagnose, treat, heal, cure or prevent any medical, mental or emotional condition. The information presented here is not a guarantee that you will obtain any results or earn any money using our content.
