Podcasts · Secluded Thoughts

232. I avoided vulnerability at all costs until life gave me no choice (Part 2)

29 Mar 2026 · 53 min

I'm gonna be honest about what it actually feels like to be placed on a pedestal you never asked to be on, why vulnerability felt like the enemy for most of my life, and what God had to take me through in 2025 to break all of that out of me (and he was not gentle about it).

This is part two so if you haven't watched part one please start there, but in this episode I'm getting into everything I actually learned coming out of that season because there was a lot.

We'll discuss:

• Why not everybody deserves access to your vulnerability even when you're actively working on it • The difference between people making deposits versus withdrawals when you open up (and how to tell which one is happening) • What I actually changed about my standards and my relationships to protect myself going forward

If you can relate to this, know that the high achiever conditioning doesn't just stop at your vulnerability, it affects your ability to actually pursue the things you want in life because you're so used to performing. Once you remove that conditioning from your identity, it opens up a world of possibilities you couldn't step into as that performative version of yourself. For coaching to remove the high achiever conditioning from your identity to step into your next level, enroll in the Spring cohort: https://secludedthoughts.com/identity

[Substack] Diary of a High Achiever: https://diaryofahighachiever.substack.com/

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Links in the notes 4

• https://secludedthoughts.com/identity
• https://diaryofahighachiever.substack.com/
• https://redcircle.com/brands
• https://redcircle.com/privacy

The episode on the publisher’s site ↗ (opens in a new tab)