Self-Induced Glass Ceiling: Are You the One Holding Yourself Back?
Jun 11, 2025
Ever feel like you're doing everything right—working hard, saying yes, showing up early, staying late—and still stuck?
It might not be your boss.
It might not be your resume.
It might be… your own invisible ceiling.
This week, we’re naming the thing so many of us don’t realize we’ve built: the self-induced glass ceiling. The limits we place on ourselves—not because we lack skills, but because we’ve filtered out possibility.
Whether you’re leading teams or leading your own career comeback, this one’s for you.
Emotion Highlight: Defeat
Defeat doesn’t always roar.
Sometimes it shows up quietly—when you stop raising your hand, when you shrink your ideas, when you decide that’s just how it is.
What defeat is really saying is…
“You’ve been fighting so long you forgot what you’re fighting for.”
When we don’t pause to recalibrate, we start accepting the walls we could actually walk around. That’s when defeat stops being a signal—and becomes a system.
Leadership Insight: The Filter Effect
As a leader, you’re constantly scanning for threats, outcomes, opportunities. But here’s a brain fact worth knowing:
Your senses take in a billion bits of data per second.
Your brain filters that down to just 10.
That’s a 100 million–to–1 ratio.
Translation? You don’t see what’s true. You see what you expect.
If your mental filter is set to “This team will never change” or “Corporate’s too toxic to fix”—that’s all you’ll notice. Every missed deadline, every disengaged eye-roll becomes proof.
The fix isn’t magical thinking. It’s conscious recalibration:
- Shift your filter to possibility.
- Reframe questions from “What’s wrong here?” to “What’s trying to emerge here?”
- Ask your team: “What’s one thing we could try differently this week?”
Leadership isn’t about controlling outcomes—it’s about choosing the lens that reveals solutions.
Career Empowerment: Breaking the Glass Ceiling You Built
Ever met a woman who’s working herself to burnout in a job she hates… just so she doesn’t get laid off?
Or someone who’s been passed over for promotion again and again… but hasn’t applied anywhere else because “it’s too risky out there”?
That’s the self-induced glass ceiling.
It looks like:
- Believing you have to stay miserable because it’s “safe.”
- Ignoring what lights you up because it doesn’t fit the “traditional” career mold.
- Convincing yourself there’s no other option.
Your brain is wired to find what it’s looking for.
So if you’re telling it, “I’ll never get out of this,” guess what it searches for?
Proof you’re stuck.
Flip the filter by saying: “I’m the CEO of my career. I’m open to aligned opportunities.” Then watch your brain start showing you what’s been there all along.
Shared Wisdom
“Argue for your limitations, and sure enough, they’re yours.” —Richard Bach
This week, ask yourself:
Am I protecting a limitation that I’ve outgrown?
TL;DR
Emotion of the Week: Defeat – A signal that it’s time to shift focus.
Leadership Insight: Your filters shape your reality. Choose them wisely.
Career Empowerment: You may be standing under a glass ceiling of your own making. Time to shatter it.
Golden Nugget: What limitation have you been defending?
