As a First Sergeant responsible for over 170 Soldiers, I spent my days coaching, mentoring, counseling, and motivating others, yet still felt powerless under a commander who stifled every move I made. I shrank. I dimmed my light. On the outside, I kept surviving. On the inside, I was unraveling. Everything shifted the day I realized: the situation might not change, but I could. I stopped pouring my energy into what I couldn’t control and leaned into what gave me life, mentoring Soldiers, connecting deeply, reclaiming my voice. Even though my workload stayed the same, I stopped suffocating. And when a new, empowering leader finally arrived, I was ready — because I had already done the inner work. That experience taught me a lesson I now live and teach. Transformation doesn’t come from a new role, a new team, or a new duty station. It comes from a new lens and when you change how you see yourself, everything changes.