This past weekend, we hosted a spaghetti dinner for the boys’ varsity hockey team.
While I was planning, I asked my son Jack a simple question:
“How much food does it take to feed 20 high school boys?”
He didn’t even pause.
“Mom, whatever you’re picturing, double it. Then add more.”
He also warned me that the chicken tenders would be gone in the first five minutes, no matter how many trays we put out.
It made me laugh, but it also stuck with me.
That same advice applies to careers far more often than we want to admit.
Most people underestimate what growth actually requires.
They plan for the role, the transition, the job search, the practice, or the promotion based on what feels reasonable from where they’re standing. Then reality shows up and asks for more than expected.
More time.
More patience.
More emotional energy.
More persistence.
This is where a lot of capable people start to question themselves.
They assume that if the process feels harder than anticipated, they must have misjudged something or fallen behind. That belief slowly erodes their confidence, even when nothing has gone wrong.
You know as well as I do that careers are not tidy projects with predictable timelines. They are long, adaptive processes that stretch as you move through them. You can prepare well and still be surprised by how much is asked of you.
The issue isn’t that people want too much. It’s that they expect the effort to level off at some point, when in reality, growth tends to expand before it stabilizes.
So when is “enough” actually enough?
In my experience, success doesn’t come from reaching a place where everything feels fully resourced or comfortable. It comes from learning how to keep moving forward when things feel incomplete, uncertain, or still in progress.
The professionals who do this well adjust their expectations early.
They stop interpreting stretch as failure.
They pace themselves instead of waiting for conditions to be perfect.
They recognize that needing more support or time isn’t a personal shortcoming. It’s part of the terrain.
As career coaches, this is one of the most important lessons we can help clients internalize.
Not by pushing them harder, but by helping them understand that feeling underprepared doesn’t mean they are unqualified. It often means they are doing something that actually matters.
Much like feeding 20 teenage hockey players, you don’t get it exactly right the first time.
You learn.
You adjust.
And next time, you buy more chicken tenders!
If you read this newsletter regularly, you know I’ve spent the past six months building a course for career professionals.
We launched The Confident Career Coach System last Monday, and the response was overwhelming in the best possible way.
We had messages from coaches who felt seen. Registrations from people who had been quietly following my work for years. Conversations that reminded me why I built this in the first place.
In that moment, I felt something I don’t always let myself feel.
Enough.
The work landed where it was meant to land. I let myself pause and actually enjoy that achievement instead of immediately moving on to what’s next.
Maybe that’s the real takeaway.
Sometimes success isn’t about adding more, but instead, recognizing when you’ve done the work, letting yourself acknowledge the outcome is what matters.
If you weren’t able to register but still want to learn more about the course, you can find the details here - Registrations are now open for all.
Talk soon,
Heather