Some things aren’t meant to be sweetened.
We’ve all heard: “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.”
It’s cute. Positive. Problem-solving.
But sometimes, turning pain into positivity too fast misses the point entirely.
🍋 What if the lemons are meant to stay sour?
I work with high-achievers—people who know how to push through, reframe, and move on.
But that strength often becomes a defense mechanism.
We get so good at finding the “lesson” that we bypass the very emotions that make us human.
- Missed promotion? You call it “a sign to slow down.”
- Breakup? “It taught me to love myself.”
- Burnout? “A necessary breakdown.”
Maybe it’s true.
But if we don’t let ourselves feel the loss, the hurt, the grief— we end up drinking diluted emotions and calling it lemonade.
🔍 How the Enneagram Reveals Our Sweetening Reflex
If you know me, you know I love the Enneagram—a powerful system of personal and leadership development built around nine core types.
Each type shows how we tend to react when life gets uncomfortable:
- Type 7 reframes pain so fast they skip grief entirely.
- Type 3 spins failure into a new goal, ignoring the sting of disappointment.
- Type 2 supports everyone else while bottling their own hurt until resentment leaks out.
What looks like resilience is often just coping.
And what feels like strength might actually be avoidance.
🧠 The Wisdom in Bitterness
Bitter moments sharpen discernment, reveal unmet needs, and surface hidden truths.
They don’t need to be spun — they need to be sat with.
When leaders rush to make lemonade:
- They avoid taking responsibility.
- They miss crucial self-reflection.
- They neglect the real impact on others.
This erodes trust and weakens leadership over time.
How Sitting with Sour Makes You a Stronger Leader
By embracing discomfort—and having the courage to talk about it—you:
- Build Emotional Intelligence — leading with authenticity and compassion.
- Make Better Decisions — grounded in full reality, not escapism.
- Own Your Actions — strengthening your credibility and integrity.
- Grow Empathy — connecting deeply with your team.
- Drive Better Results — because people perform better for leaders who lead with heart.
- Develop Resilience — weathering storms with strength, not denial.
Being willing to feel and speak about what’s real builds the kind of trust that turns good leaders into extraordinary ones.
🧾 This Week’s Reflection:
Where are you trying to “make lemonade”…
when you actually need to feel the sour first?
How could sitting with it—and speaking to it—make you a more powerful, trusted, and effective leader?
Want to dive deeper?
Take the most accurate Enneagram assessment I trust:
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