When you Hit a Wall

I’m sitting here on a bright sunny morning in London, watching a clever crow figure out how to raid the bird feeder meant for smaller birds, and I’ve got absolutely nothing to write about.

You know that feeling? When you sit down to tackle something that usually flows easily, and suddenly it’s like trying to squeeze water from a stone. The screen stares back at you. The ideas that normally come so readily have simply vanished.

This happens to me with my writing. It happens with my morning journaling too—that daily brain dump that usually clears the cobwebs in my mind and sparks unexpected connections. Today, I’m groping for insights while that crow enjoys its ill-gotten breakfast outside my window.

Here’s what I’ve learned about these creative blocks, these moments when we hit the wall: they’re not actually about creativity at all. They’re about pressure. They’re about the weight of expectation—both from others and ourselves—to always be “on,” always producing, always moving forward.

For the women leaders I work with, this shows up in ways that go far beyond writing newsletters or morning pages. They hit walls when they’re exhausted from constantly having to prove themselves in rooms where they shouldn’t have to. When they’re drained from navigating unconscious biases that their male colleagues never even notice. When they’re tired of the additional emotional labour of managing not just their work, but how their work is perceived through the lens of gender.

These aren’t ordinary walls. These are the ones that shouldn’t exist in the first place, yet women leaders crash into them every day. The wall of having your ideas ignored until a man repeats them. The wall of being seen as “too aggressive” when you’re simply being direct. The wall of watching opportunities go to less qualified colleagues while you’re told you need “just a bit more experience.”

When you hit these walls repeatedly, something interesting happens to your creative and strategic thinking. It doesn’t just slow down—it starts to second-guess itself. Hello Imposter! You begin editing your thoughts before they’re even fully formed. You start playing smaller, thinking smaller, because the energy required to push through those walls feels overwhelming.

But here’s what I want you to know about hitting the wall: it’s not a stop sign. It’s information.

When nothing is flowing, when you feel stuck, when the path forward feels murky—that’s your internal system telling you something important. Maybe you’re pushing against the wrong wall. Maybe you’re using the wrong tools. Maybe it’s time to step back and remember that the most important breakthroughs often come not from pushing harder, but from pausing long enough to see the situation clearly.

That crow outside my window didn’t keep pecking uselessly at the feeder designed for smaller birds. It figured out how to approach it differently. It found the angle that worked.

Sometimes hitting the wall means you’re exactly where you need to be. Not because you should stay there, but because that wall is showing you where the real work needs to be done. Maybe it’s time to stop trying to fit into systems that weren’t designed for you and start questioning why those systems exist in the first place.

The women leaders who make the biggest impact aren’t the ones who never hit walls. They’re the ones who’ve learned to read what those walls are really telling them. They’ve developed the resilience to step back, reassess, and find a different way forward—one that honours both their ambitions and their authentic leadership style.

So if you’re hitting a wall right now, take a breath. Look around. Sometimes the breakthrough isn’t about pushing through. Sometimes it’s about finding your own way to the bird feeder.