Sandra Dost: From Self-Made Loops to Self-Trust

Sandra’s journey through Leadership Landing

Sometimes growth doesn’t look like acceleration.

Sometimes it looks like finding yourself again.

When Sandra joined Leadership Landing, she wasn’t searching for a promotion, a title, or a louder voice. She was searching for something much quieter, herself.

I was stuck on multiple fronts

Before the program, Sandra described her life as a series of loops.

Not imposed by others.

Not caused by lack of ability.

But self-made loops, patterns that once protected her, but now kept her circling the same ground.

Professionally, she was already in a leadership role.

Personally, she felt disconnected from herself.

Internally, she questioned her decisions, her leadership, and whether she was “doing it right”.

What made this particularly heavy was the contradiction:

she looked capable from the outside,

yet felt lost on the inside.

Leadership as something you

do

until it becomes something you

are

At the start of the journey, leadership meant work.

Decisions.

Responsibility.

Doing the right thing in the professional “battlefield”.

Through the program, that definition slowly widened.

Sandra began to see leadership not just as something she applied at work, but as how she leads herself, her energy, her boundaries, her pace, her needs.

This shift mattered.

Because once leadership becomes personal, it stops being performative and starts becoming sustainable.

Going to the core, softly, layer by layer

One of the moments that stood out most for Sandra was the way the program approached the core.

Not by rushing there.

Not by stripping layers away violently.

But by peeling them back with intention.

Behavior.

Stress responses.

Convictions.

Values.

Needs.

As she moved through these layers, something became clear:

the life she was living no longer matched the needs she had.

And that mismatch was costing her.

I realized the needs I had and what I was doing didn’t align anymore.

That’s where I got lost.

Getting “unlost” didn’t require reinvention.

It required realignment.

Rediscovering curiosity, the part she had learned to hide

One of Sandra’s most powerful insights was about curiosity.

At her core, she is deeply curious.

But over time, through feedback, social responses, and workplace dynamics, she learned to tone it down.

Curiosity became something to manage.

To hide.

To be careful with.

During the program, she reclaimed it.

Not as a flaw.

Not as something to assert aggressively.

But as a natural talent that deserves space.

Letting that part of herself back into conversations changed how she showed up, socially, professionally, and internally.

And the response surprised her:

it was received positively.

From reaction to response

Another visible shift came in how Sandra handles conflict.

Before, strong emotions would escalate quickly.

Conversations felt urgent, they had to happen now.

Through learning about the nervous system, boundaries, and courageous conversations, Sandra practiced something new:

pausing.

Stepping away when triggered.

Returning when regulated.

Choosing response over reaction.

Not disconnecting from emotion, but differentiating her needs from others’.

This change alone altered how safe conversations felt, for her and for those around her.

Making space without disappearing

As Sandra navigated burnout and recovery, her impact shifted into quieter spaces: friendships, social circles, and future volunteer work.

She learned to:

💚 recognize when she needs solitude

💚 step back without guilt

💚 return more present and grounded

Friends noticed the change.

She became calmer.

More focused.

More available, because she wasn’t overextending herself anymore.

At the same time, she began voicing her opinions more openly, no longer afraid that her perspective would be “too much”.

Dragons don’t vanish, they become navigable

Sandra didn’t get rid of her dragons.

She learned to recognize them.

Instead of shame when she shut down or felt overwhelmed, she gained reflection:

What happened? What do I need next time?

Her dragons became signals, not verdicts.

That shift alone created room for growth without self-attack.

The real result: self-trust

The most important change Sandra experienced wasn’t external.

It was internal.

She became kinder to herself when her mind paused.

More accepting of how her brain works.

Less rushed.

Less self-critical.

Where there once was doubt, there is now self-trust.

Not certainty.

Not perfection.

But a grounded belief that she can listen to herself and respond wisely.

Sandra’s words still echo

If her inner dragon could speak now, it would say:

Not everything has to happen immediately.

And loyalty to others should never come at the cost of loyalty to yourself.

That sentence alone captures her journey.

Why Sandra’s story matters

Sandra’s growth reminds us of something essential:

You don’t have to be broken to need support.

You don’t have to be lost to realign.

And leadership doesn’t start with others, it starts with how you treat yourself.

Sometimes the bravest move isn’t pushing forward.

It’s stepping out of the loop.