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Why high-performing professionals are more isolated than ever, and what boundaries in Why high-performing professionals are more isolated than ever, and what boundaries in friendship actually cost you when you don't set them. Read on in the latest edition if the Upward Coaching newsletter. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/you-set-boundaries-work-why-hesitant-them-friendship-nora--m1orf?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios&utm_campaign=share_via ❤️

You Set Boundaries at Work. Why Are You hesitant to Set Them in Friendship? Why high-performing professionals are more isolated than ever, and what boundaries in Why high-performing professionals are more isolated than ever, and what boundaries in friendship actually cost you when you don't set them. Last weekend, I ended a friendship.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/you-set-boundaries-work-why-hesitant-them-friendship-nora--m1orf

You Set Boundaries at Work. Why Are You hesitant to Set Them in Friendship? Why high-performing professionals are more isolated than ever, and what boundaries in Why high-performing professionals are more isolated than ever, and what boundaries in friendship actually cost you when you don't set them. Last weekend, I ended a friendship.

🚨 The Friendship Standard Most Leaders Set Too Low 🚨

Leaders set non-negotiables in business.

They know what they will and won't tolerate from clients, colleagues, and partners.

👆 Yet many have no non-negotiables in friendship.
That is why successful leaders often stay too long in one-sided friendships.
The fact is, very few people have non-negotiables in friendship.

👉 We'll walk away from a toxic client.
👉 We'll leave a bad partnership.
👉 We'll set boundaries with colleagues.

‼️ Yet somehow, we'll spend years maintaining friendships that leave us feeling unseen, undervalued, unsupported, or emotionally exhausted.

The older I get, the more I believe that healthy friendships aren't built on history alone.

This weekend I chose to end a friendship because there was no longer any mutuality or consistency.

Again and again, this friend would make initiate plans, then cancel at the last minute. This has been going on for 4 years now.

Eventually, I realized I wasn’t respecting myself or my time by continually rearranging my life and appointments for someone who wouldn’t show up.

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Nora Mokdad Burger | Leadership Coach

what inspired you to become a leadership and resilience coach?

Stress has become the modern-day pandemic.

In the aftermath of COVID-19, as the world reopened and adapted to a new normal, I saw many brilliant, ambitious, and successful individuals struggling with:

🔥 burnout
🔥 chronic stress
🔥 declining mental health

People are constantly striving for:

💚 fulfilment
💚 success
💚 happiness

But these are difficult to sustain when we’re running on empty, overwhelmed, and constantly rushing from one demand to the next.

🔦 I recognised a growing need for resilience — not only in my clients, but also among friends, family, and professionals in high-responsibility roles across the wider community.

That realisation inspired me to specialise in supporting leaders by helping them:

✅ prevent burnout
✅ build emotional resilience
✅ lead with strength, clarity, and confidence through demanding times

This was one of the questions discussed during my interview with Mat Elliott for Manning Global blog.

👉 You can find the link to the full interview in the first comment.

You built a successful life abroad. So why doesn’t it feel safe inside?

Your body doesn’t care how successful you are.

You can have:

✅ the business
✅ the income
✅ the stability
✅ the life you worked so hard to build
…and still feel on edge.

🪫 Still feel tired.

⛔ Still feel like something isn’t settling inside you.

Your nervous system tracks safety, not success.

Because your nervous system doesn’t measure success the way you do.
It tracks one thing:
💡 Do I feel safe?

And for many expats living through uncertainty, distance, and constant background worry…
🙅‍♂️ The answer is often no.

So your system stays in survival mode.
So what happens?

🔶 You keep showing up.
🔶 You keep performing.
🔶 You keep holding everything together.

But internally, your system stays activated. ☢️

Not because you’re doing something wrong.
But because your body is responding to stress load, not your achievements.

This is where so many high-performing leaders get confused.
“I’ve built a good life… so why don’t I feel okay?”

Because safety is not logical.
It’s physiological.
Without a felt sense of safety, success doesn’t create relief—
it keeps your nervous system in survival mode.

In other words: in stress. 🚨

Stress alone doesn’t create growth.

If you are an expat who have worked hard to create a wonderful life and family, but you still dont feel good, or worse, feel survival´s guilt because of what is happenning back home, let’s talk.

👋 If this resonates, DM me “SAFE”.

👉 I’ll show you where to start in a Free Strategy Session.

🚨The war isn’t ending. Your nervous system still has to hold it.🚨

50 days and counting with no end in sight.

What hits hard is the realization that this is the long run.

No quick resolution.
No relief is coming.
Just… ongoing uncertainty.

So the real question becomes:

💡How do you regulate your nervous system when the stress doesn’t stop?

For expats watching war at home from abroad, this comes with a very specific kind of emotional weight:

- A sadness that quietly sinks in and stays

- Anger that refuses to subside

- The loss of hope that peace or rebuilding is even possible

- Feeling oversaturated… almost disgusted by the news that never brings anything good 🧠

These are big & heavy emotions.

And they don’t just disappear because you have a job, responsibilities, or a life to maintain.

For many, this is where anxiety starts to spike;
especially during the workday, when you’re expected to perform as if everything is normal. ⚡

Yesterday, I worked with my client on two simple techniques to regulate anxiety in real time:

Simple—but powerful, if you actually use them:

1. Stop. Breathe. Be. 🌿

Pause what you’re doing.
Take a few intentional breaths (slow inhale, longer exhale).
Let your body settle before you continue.

2. Take 20 🚶‍♀️
When it's a bigger crisis at work and you feel stress hormones rush through your body—

Leave your desk. Step outside. Walk.
Even 20 minutes is enough to reset your nervous system.

When you come back, something shifts:

👉You regain the ability to respond instead of react.

No perfect conditions needed.

Just small, consistent resets in the middle of your day.

And honestly—no excuses.
It’s spring. Even 10 minutes works. 🌸

If this resonated:

👉Save this post so you can come back to it when anxiety hits. 📌

👉And share it with someone who’s quietly carrying all of this too. 🤍