In our last episode, I challenged the whole concept of having to constantly prove ourselves by being better all the time.

Today, we’re going to flip things around and talk about our inborn, burning desire to do a good job, our desire to pursue excellence, to become better and better at expressing our purpose in the world.

Yes, it’s a contradiction. And also, it’s not.

Joy comes from being able to pursue excellence without letting those old toxic ‘not good enough’ brain weasels get in the way.

That requires a ton of self-compassion, obviously. And it’s incredibly helpful to recruit a specific planetary ally to help with the heavy lifting.

A planetary what now??

Let me introduce my somewhat subversive take on this.

Astrology is a very old symbolic language, which Jung described as ‘the way the ancients understood human psychology’.

There are multiple astrological systems, with their roots across the globe, but the one I’m most familiar with is the one which arose out of the Greco-Roman world, with ties back to far older systems based in various lands around the mediterranean sea.

In other words, the familiar zodiac where we find signs like Pisces, Aries, Virgo and the rest.

The zodiac which might have you saying things like ‘oh, I’m Capricorn so I’m doomed to hard work and self-criticism’ or ‘oh, I’m Libra so I’m a people-pleaser and I can’t do boundaries’.

I’m here to push back a little on those ideas, for a few reasons:

* The stars don’t dictate who you are; they reveal who you came here to be, the full potential of you with all your gifts, powers, talents and preferences

* The journey of life, as Jung said, is the journey back towards the self - that most authentic and potent version of you

* Humans are naturally wired with the yearning to contribute in some way; to make the world better, to serve our communities, to fulfil our purpose

* When our inborn superpowers smash into systems of oppression, they can become a twisted version of themselves (and I talk about this in more detail in some of my mythbusting articles on Substack)

For some of us, this core purpose is linked to how we make a living. For some, it lies in other directions.

I’d like to come back to this concept of planetary allies - who they are, what they mean, and how we can lean into a positive relationship with them.

You get to decide for yourself whether you want to perceive a planetary ally as a literal non-physical entity, or a symbolic representation of one aspect of your own psyche.

Or both, which is what I tend to do. I have a conscious relationship with a couple of my key planetary allies; and I call upon others to support me at specific times or in specific situations.

And I understand them and myself better, when I make the link to my own psyche.

The ally I want to explore with you today is Saturn, the curator of our life mission.

He gets a terrible, and mostly undeserved, reputation for being a harsh taskmaster, but Saturn is not actually motivated by the desire to push or punish.

Some say Saturn is driven by the desire to get s**t done, and to do it well, and that is not untrue.

But that desire is born out of Saturn’s ambition for you to express your fully authenticity by fulfilling your purpose with a kind of fierce, resonant joy.

Saturn is not actually interested in having you be exhausted, confused, burned out or overworked - because all those things interfere with your purpose. They do not support it.

So what’s going on?

The best concept I’ve heard came from my astrology teacher Kim Falconer, who learned it from her teacher Joanne Wickenburg.

Imagine the time before your birth, when you were up in the metaphorical clouds, an eternal energy being swimming around in the energy soup with all the other energy beings, and you’ve decided to come to planet Earth to have a human adventure.

You’re contemplating what you really want to sink your teeth into, this time around. What do I want to master? What mark do I want to leave behind me? What difference do I want to make, and how do I want to make it? In other words, what purpose am I creating for myself to fulfil, the purpose that will fill me with joy when I get to express it?

You make that decision, and then - because you’re going to be living a complicated human life with all the moving parts like relationships and kids and health matters and political concerns and aspects of your faith and hobbies and your favourite sports team and aaaalllll the rest of it - you give it to Saturn to look after.

You appoint Saturn as the curator of your life mission. His role is to nudge you every so often and ask ‘are you on track? How’s it going now? Have you done all the important steps? Are there any pieces missing?’

He does that because his deepest desire is for you to become that most authentic version of who you came here to be.

Now, as you can imagine, that’s a wonderful thing - to have someone you can lean on, knowing that he is 100 percent on your side.

But - and this is a gigantic but! - you live in a system which benefits when you are full of self-doubt, a system which benefits when you think you have to work harder, or be better, or do more.

We talked about this in the previous episode: the brain weasel which sneaks in when we’re planning for the future, and tricks us into overworking, overdelivering, constantly performing at 120%, to our detriment.

The brain weasel which is built from a toxic belief that we don’t really belong, that we have to constantly prove ourselves, that we can never be good enough.

Can you see how that brain weasel causes a kind of psychic inflammation of the beautiful Saturn dynamic?

Free flowing, uninhibited Saturn might say ‘what does my person need in order to do their best work today? Of course, they need to start with a rest and some playtime!”

But Saturn inflamed by that darn brain weasel says ‘how can I prove to the world that my person is working hard enough, has done enough, is pursuing sufficient excellence? That’s right, I work to the point of exhaustion.’’

Free flowing Saturn asks: “Are you showing up as yourself? Are you doing the work you came here to do? Are you being real about your gifts, your commitments, and your purpose?”

The patriarchal, capitalist brain weasel distorts Saturn’s energy into:

* perfectionism

* overwork

* obsession with results

* comparison

* self-criticism

And worst of all, instead of helping us show up fully, these distortions - and the system which gave rise to them - all train us to discount our own achievements.

So many women I work with — brilliant, capable, creative women — have lost the ability to spot their own glory.

They wait for the “big win” to celebrate, and in doing so, they ignore the countless milestones they hit along the way.

I once worked with a woman who, when asked what she was most proud of (besides her kids), paused… and finally said hesitantly:

“I guess I passed medical school.” - and then skimmed over it and onto trying to find something else.

Whoa, honey!!

You didn’t merely pass medical school.

* you showed up for rounds every single day

* you studied and passed multiple exams

* you kept body and soul together by waiting tables

* you persevered through doubt, exhaustion, and systemic barriers

* and you did it daily for freaking YEARS

Those are countless milestones, yet she barely noticed them, let alone giving herself credit for them.

She didn’t even feel comfortable celebrating the big win of a successful career as a physician.

Meanwhile her Saturn was strangled by the brain weasel of ‘not good enough’, gasping in desperate thirst for some kind of recognition; and in the absence of that recognition, working 14 hours a day in her own business, seven days a week.

No wonder her purpose felt very divorced from her joy.

When the brain isn’t trained to celebrate, we forget our capacity to show up.

We forget our own competence.

We forget how much joy we can derive from acknowledging ourselves.

Saturn wants you to see yourself clearly; to honour the work, the effort, the consistency, even at the tiniest level.

Not just the big outcomes that the systems around us might grudgingly recognise - the promotions, the awards, the degrees.

And, by the way, we know how grudging the systems around us are, even with those big achievements - how often have we heard ‘she slept her way to the top’ or ‘must have been a DEI hire’?

So even those achievements can feel a little tainted or hard to come by.

Here’s the good news: You can retrain your brain to celebrate your wins, including the tiniest of milestones along the way, with a lot less effort than you might think. I have a free resource for you, which I’ll detail at the end of this conversation.

And even without that practice, here’s a way to get yourself in line with that beautiful, you-loving Saturn who is 100 percent there to support your living your purpose with joy.:

* Sit quietly and do a little preparation

* First, make the assumption that your brain knows some answers to this question - it does, even if it’s not in the habit of presenting these to you on a regular basis

* Second, for the purposes of this exercise, decide YOU are defining what an achievement looks like - it could be making a cup of coffee, helping a client, making a million bucks, writing the first sentence of your next book, taking a shower, being kind to a checkout person, answering a difficult email (or an easy one!) - the two key properties are that it required some effort, and it had a tangible outcome of some kind, no matter how ‘small’ that was

* Now, reflect on the past 24 hours

* Ask ‘what three things did I achieve that required some effort on my part?’

* Write them down

* Notice how it feels to write them down - does it feel ridiculous to write something small? Does it feel good to honour your efforts? Does it feel weird, unfamiliar or even a little bit dangerous, as though you’ll get in trouble?

* Spend a few moments really leaning into the feeling of ‘ooooh, look - I did that!’ - longer than you normally would - and then notice if your heart eventually begins to open and bask in that nice feeling

This is the basis of the Trophy Room exercise, a practise that trains your brain to make this a far more accessible state of being.

Saturn is not about punishment.

Saturn is about **honoring the work you actually did**, and reclaiming your trust in yourself.

Today, I want you to leave with one thought:

Celebrating yourself is not optional, if you want joy in your career.

Acknowledging every milestone — the small, often invisible ones — builds a foundation of self-trust, confidence, and authentic presence in your work.

If you want to go deeper, please go grab my “Impostor Syndrome BOOM” free training, which has the Trophy Room practice at its core - you’ll find more info at https://bit.ly/ISBoom.

It’s a brain-changing, Saturn-oriented practice that helps you:

* notice every single milestone

* reframe work as cumulative achievement, each achievement building on the last

* build internal trust

* cultivate joy in your career without waiting for the “big win”

Think of it as a mental trophy palace for yourself: every small act, every tiny step, every sign that you showed up — it all gets displayed, appreciated, and acknowledged.

By doing this regularly, you literally rewire your nervous system to see yourself as competent, capable, and worthy of celebration. And definitely someone who belongs in those spaces where you want to be, doing your thang in the ways you want to do it.

Because when that happens, joy stops being fleeting or conditional — it becomes part of your professional life and your identity as a woman showing up for her purpose.

If you have questions or comments, you know what to do!

Wreaking More Joy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Thanks for reading Wreaking More Joy! This post is public so feel free to share it.

Get full access to Wreaking More Joy at janettedalgliesh.substack.com/subscribe