33. When Slower is Actually Faster: What You Learn About Control, Change and Starting Over When the Plan Falls Apart cover art

33. When Slower is Actually Faster: What You Learn About Control, Change and Starting Over When the Plan Falls Apart

33. When Slower is Actually Faster: What You Learn About Control, Change and Starting Over When the Plan Falls Apart

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In this episode of the Expand and Impact Podcast, Violetta Znorkowski shares the raw reality of what happens when carefully laid plans fall apart—and how nervous system regulation, emotional mastery, and self-leadership allowed her to stay present and steady, even when life dismantled every plan.

After selling all her belongings and leaving behind five years of a comfortable life in Australia to move to Europe with her partner, Violetta faced a year of intense uncertainty: visa struggles, financial strain, family health crises, legal threats, and stolen trust. And while most women would have spiraled under the weight of it all, she applied the same practices she teaches her clients—proving that it is possible to remain grounded and clear, even in the most destabilizing seasons of life.

🎙️In This Episode, We Cover:

  • Control vs. Capacity: how attachment to certainty creates a hidden glass ceiling—and what to do instead.

  • Urgency isn't ambition: why "do more, be more" is your survival system talking, and how to shift into steady, decisive action.

  • The paradox of leadership: why slowing down often accelerates clarity, alignment, and sustainable impact.

  • How to cultivate nervous system capacity so you can handle uncertainty without burning out.

  • From "why" to "how": stop analysis loops and step into embodied skills that actually change your state.

  • Presence under pressure: how to use breath and meditation as high-performance tools—not as clichés.

  • Identity & success: how to want more without letting achievement define your worth (or drain your peace).
  • Presence > productivity: why being fully present for your life is the real gateway to peace, freedom, and sustainable success.

If you've ever felt:
  • You can push through, but it's starting to cost your presence, health, or relationships.
  • Change (even the good kind) spikes your anxiety or overthinking.

  • You ride the highs, crash hard, then rebound again.

  • You've built success on paper, but inside you're still sprinting to keep up.

  • You want impact and leadership without it costing your peace.

…this conversation will meet you right where you are—and give you language and tools to move forward differently.

Why This Matters

Most high-achieving women are praised for how much they can hold. They are often taught that the faster you move, the more you achieve. But what if holding more isn't the point? What if the real impact is learning to hold it differently?

Violetta reveals how the real growth happens when you pause, breathe, and build the inner steadiness to hold it all—the highs, the lows, and the messy middle.

Because success isn't just about what you achieve. It's about how fully you can be present to live it.


RESOURCES & LINKS:
⭕️ Join the Next Virtual Women's Circle (live sessions where ambitious women come together to normalize a new way of leading, living, and creating impact in work and life.) https://www.expandandimpact.com/womenscircleregistration

🎧 Get the free 6-minute Nervous System Reset Audio: expandandimpact.com/reset2025

🎉 Join the next Grow Forward live training: A powerful 2-day live event to break the burnout-fueled success cycle and grow into the leader you're here to be. https://www.expandandimpact.com/gf25

👉 DM Violetta on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/expand_and_impact?igsh=MTZrbXltcXJ4dTBoOA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr

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