About Michelle
I know what it’s like to be really good at working hard.
For more than 20 years, I worked in medical device sales, training and leadership.
I loved the work. I loved the people. I was ambitious, competitive and proud of what I accomplished.
And for a long time, I thought being successful meant doing more, being available, being needed and making sure I never dropped the ball.
Turns out, you can be really successful at following rules you never consciously chose.
This matters to me.
I didn’t leave because everything was terrible.
I wasn’t running away from a career I hated.
I had built a successful career. I was still growing. I had people I genuinely cared about. In many ways, things were really good.
But I had also started questioning things I once took for granted.
Why did being good at my job mean I should always be available?
Why did hitting the number feel great for about five minutes before there was another number?
Why was being needed so closely connected to feeling valuable?
Why could I give other people permission to slow down, say no or choose differently — and have such a hard time giving myself the same permission?
Eventually the question became less about:
“What should I do next?”
and more about:
“What do I actually want next?”
That question changed a lot.
I didn’t stop being ambitious. I stopped assuming there was only one way to be ambitious.
I started coaching in 2017 while I was still working in medical device.
Over the years, the conversations I was having with women sounded remarkably familiar.
Women who were incredibly capable — but still wondered if they were ready for the next opportunity.
Women who said yes and immediately wished they had said no.
Women who could make million-dollar decisions at work and then ask five friends what they thought about a decision in their own life.
Women who were everyone’s go-to person and were quietly wondering how they became responsible for everything.
Women who had accomplished exactly what they said they wanted — and were already moving the goalpost.
Different women. Different careers.
A lot of the same rules.
That became the work I wanted to do more of.
These days, success looks a little different.
Today, I live in Florida with my husband, Marc, and our rescue pup, Tucker.
I coach high-achieving women. I host the It’s Your Time podcast. I write. I teach. I have conversations about ambition, work, leadership, identity and all the strange things we humans make our accomplishments mean about us.
I still love a goal.
I still like getting things done.
I still have moments when my brain tells me I should probably be doing more.
The difference is that I don’t automatically believe it anymore.
And I think that matters.
Because this work isn’t about becoming someone who never doubts herself, never overthinks or has everything figured out.
It’s about having more say in what happens next.
A few things I believe about success.
You don’t have to become less ambitious to enjoy your life more.
Being capable doesn’t mean you have to be responsible for everything.
Rest doesn’t need to be earned.
Your job title can change without changing who you are.
Being needed and being valuable are not the same thing.
You can be grateful for what you have and still want something different.
And maybe most importantly:
Everyone gets to decide what success looks like in this season of their life.
There isn’t one right answer. That’s kind of the point.
A little of the official stuff.
Michelle A. Bourque is a performance coach, Certified Life Coach, speaker and host of the It’s Your Time podcast.
Before coaching full-time, she spent more than 20 years in medical device sales, training and leadership, including leadership and development work with women across the organization.
She began coaching in 2017 and is also a Girls Gone Strong Menopause Coaching Specialist.
Her work today focuses on helping high-achieving women rethink the rules they’ve learned about work, achievement and success.
A little more Michelle.
Florida sunshine and sunrise walks.
The view changes. The morning workout doesn’t.
Podcasting.
- Peloton and strength training.
- Coffee.
- My husband, Marc — aka the other half of “Team M & M.”
- A very healthy appreciation for getting things checked off a list.
- Still learning how not to turn everything into a goal. 😉
Enough about me.
What do you want next?
If you’re starting to question some of the rules you’ve been following about work, achievement and success, that’s exactly what we work on inside Performance Rewritten™.
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