What if your "stress" isn't one big mess, but three distinct types of challenges that require entirely different solutions?

In this episode of Glass Ceilings and Sticky Floors, host Erica Rooney sits down with Allison Graham, a leading voice on strategic resilience, and author of books like Take Back Your Weekends. Driven by her own journey through chronic pain and adversity, Allison offers a science-backed framework to help high-achievers stop sacrificing their sanity and manage challenges more efficiently.

Join them as they dissect the "tangled up stress mess" we all live in and learn how to separate Adversities (life-changing issues), Obstacles (repeat problems), and the endless Task Circle (the to-do list) so you can regain control and dramatically reduce unnecessary stress.

Inside the Episode:

• The Triple Resilience Model: Allison's revolutionary framework for separating your challenges:
  • Adversities: Catastrophic life events that require survival stress (and self-compassion).
  • Obstacles: Repeating moments of angst that you are paid to solve (requiring problem-solving).
  • Tasks: The endless to-do list that needs zero emotional contribution.
• The "Task Circle" Trap: Why expecting to ever close the loop on your to-do list is a fantasy that drains your capacity and steals your happiness.
• Stop the Spiral: How to use the "better word game" to neutralize your language (e.g., swapping "awful" for "mildly irritating") and reverse-engineer the emotional swirl of destructive stress.
• The X Then Y Fallacy: Why putting off happiness until after you get caught up or after the chaos subsides is a recipe for perpetual unhappiness.
• Taking Back Your Weekends: The biggest mistake high-achievers make—allowing others to control their schedule—and simple, strategic boundaries to reclaim your time.
• Awareness Over Judgment: Why approaching your bad habits with compassionate curiosity (e.g., "Hmm, that's interesting that I did that again") is key to creating lasting change.

If you're ready to stop the overwhelm and start approaching your life with strategic calm, this episode is your essential guide to building real, practical resilience.

🔗 Resources:

• Learn more about Allison Graham and her work, including the Live Your Best Life Club, at allisongraham.net.
• Connect with Erica Rooney on LinkedIn.

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What if the biggest barrier to gender equality isn't who does the dishes, but who has to remember the dishes need doing?

In this episode of Glass Ceilings and Sticky Floors, host Erica Rooney sits down with Allison Daminger, a groundbreaking sociologist and author of What's On Her Mind: The Mental Workload of Family Life. Allison's viral research shines a light on the mental load—the planning, anticipating, and managing of all the things—that disproportionately falls on women.

Join them as they dissect why even in "woke" partnerships with hands-on dads, women's brains never get to turn off. Allison reveals the societal structures and deep-seated norms that keep this imbalance sticky and, crucially, how we can start an honest, constructive conversation to create a more equitable home life.

Inside the Episode:

• Defining the Invisible Labor: The difference between the physical execution of a chore and the taxing mental work of planning and anticipating that precedes it.
• The "Nothing" Response: Erica shares a powerful personal anecdote of asking her husband what he was thinking about, only to receive the one-word answer that perfectly summed up the mental load gap.
• The Next Frontier of Equality: Why sharing the mental load is the final, sticky frontier in achieving true gender parity, even as men do more physical labor than previous generations.
• The Policy Problem: Erica and Allison connect the mental load directly to the lack of paid parental leave in the US, arguing that early exposure to a child's needs is key to long-term equity.
• Superhumans vs. Bumblers: Allison’s favorite part of her research, revealing why women are overwhelmingly perceived as the "superhumans" (naturally organized) and men as the "bumblers" (go-with-the-flow)—and why this is a harmful myth.
• The Truth About Changing Roles: Insights into how the mental load impacts women's career progression, and why couples with higher-earning women still often see the woman carrying the mental burden.
• The Unjudged Reality: A liberating conclusion: it's okay if changing the load is too much work, as long as you're clear-eyed and okay with the current arrangement.

If you've ever felt deeply frustrated by having to manage all the things for your family, this episode will make you feel seen, validated, and equipped to start the conversation you need to have.

🔗 Resources:

• Find Allison Daminger's book, What's On Her Mind: The Mental Workload of Family Life, wherever books are sold.
• Connect with Erica Rooney on LinkedIn.

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Finish the Year Aligned, Not Exhausted: How to Audit Your Energy and Reclaim Your Focus

What if finishing the year strong didn’t mean doing more—but doing what actually matters?

In this solo episode of Glass Ceilings and Sticky Floors, host Erica Rooney flips the script on “year-end hustle.” Instead of sprinting toward burnout, she challenges listeners to pause, take stock, and finish the year in alignment with their goals and energy—not perfection or pressure.

Through personal stories, humor, and actionable strategies, Erica lays out her simple yet powerful three-part year-end audit to help you separate impact from activity, identify what truly moves the needle, and stop letting busywork control your life.

Inside the Episode:

The Corporate Finish Line: Erica recalls her HR days—the endless reviews, budget meetings, and parties—and why women are conditioned to equate doing more with success.

The Three-Part Audit: Learn how to evaluate your self, your work, and your energy to prioritize what actually matters.

Evidence Over Emotion: Why “what gets measured gets managed” isn’t just a cliché—it’s the key to breaking free from hustle culture.

Energy Mapping: The color-coded strategy that helps you spot what fuels you and what drains you, so you can start scheduling your days for success.

Bridge vs. Cliff Activities: The powerful framework Erica uses to decide whether something propels her forward—or just keeps her spinning on the hamster wheel.

Weekly Reflection Ritual: How one 15-minute end-of-week check-in can lower your stress, boost happiness, and help you start every Monday focused and fulfilled.

If you’re tired of ending every year overwhelmed, this episode is your permission slip to slow down, realign, and finish strong on purpose.

🔗 Resources:

Connect with Erica Rooney on LinkedIn

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