You Can’t Water the Roses If You’re Stepping on the Hose.
A metaphor for the invisible weight leaders carry — and the four pathways back to flow
As I sit here reflecting on Labour Day in Canada — a holiday meant to honour rest, dignity, and fair work — I can’t help but notice how many of us are still labouring under invisible weights.
Perfectionism.
People-pleasing.
The belief that our worth comes only from what we produce.
I call it stepping on the hose.
The roses are your leadership, your relationships, your dreams. The water is your energy, wisdom, and love. But every time the saboteur brain convinces you to push harder, perfect more, or please others, it presses down on the hose — choking off the very flow designed to nourish what matters most.
The paradox of leadership
Here’s the paradox: most leaders aren’t actually short on strategy or knowledge. They’re short on self-trust.
Conditioned to believe there’s a “right way” to lead — and that someone else has the answer — many leaders keep seeking external validation, running on adrenaline instead of alignment, carrying the weight of proving themselves.
The cycle is exhausting: working twice as hard to prove what’s already true, while disconnecting from your inner authority — the very source of your power.
I know this because I lived it. I still remember the morning I put my head on my desk and whispered: “I can’t do this anymore.”
That was my hose moment.
Four pathways back to flow
When I created a list of 150 ways the Be the Light community supports leaders, what I really saw was 150 ways of liberation. And when I grouped them, four pathways emerged:
🌱 Inner Growth — untangling the places where you’ve cut yourself off from your own wisdom. Trusting yourself again. Returning to alignment instead of adrenaline.
💬 Collective Wisdom — freeing yourself from the myth that you should have it all figured out alone. Leadership is relational, not solitary.
🔧 Practical Tools — giving your energy direction, like a nozzle on the hose. Tools and frameworks become language and anchors to move from analysis paralysis to aligned action.
🌟 Ripple Impact — liberating your influence and legacy from performance and proving. Modelling vulnerability. Expanding your definition of success. Leading from truth, not performance.
What happens when you step off the hose
When you take your foot off the hose and let your authentic energy flow, you don’t just transform your own experience — you shift the culture around you. Families feel it. Teams feel it. Communities feel it.
Leadership doesn’t have to mean labouring harder. It can mean letting the water flow again — liberating your voice, your choices, your energy, and ultimately your impact.
This isn’t a one-time decision. It’s a daily practice of remembering and choosing differently.
Because the water — your wisdom, creativity, and power — was always yours.
The question is: are you ready to take your foot off the hose and see what blooms?
An invitation to step into flow
Because the truth is, leadership doesn’t have to feel like carrying invisible weights. You don’t have to keep pressing harder, hoping one more ounce of effort will finally make it easier.
The hose was never broken. The roses were never incapable of blooming. The only shift required is loosening your foot, trusting the water to flow, and remembering you already have what you need.
🌱 That’s what we practice together inside Be the Light — a free community for leaders who are ready to release the weight, reconnect to their own wisdom, and lead with truth, clarity, and heart.
Inside, you’ll find:
✨ Conversations that remind you you’re not alone
✨ Toolkits and prompts that help you step off the hose daily
✨ Collective wisdom that expands what’s possible
✨ A place where self-trust and liberation are the norm
If you’ve been looking for a sign to stop labouring under the old way and step into flow — this is it.
👉 Join Be the Light here and come see what blooms when you let the water run free.
✨ And if this resonated with you, I invite you to listen to the full podcast episode here, where I share more of my story and how these four pathways transform leaders inside Be the Light.
