The Inner Work | Capacity vs. Capability

Why You’re Not Broken—You’re Just Empty

There’s a difference between capability and capacity.
And understanding this difference might be the most compassionate shift you can make as a leader, especially if you’ve been feeling like you “should” be doing more.

Let me break it down:

• Capability is what you can do.
  It’s your skill, your wisdom, your experience.
  It’s what you’ve built, what you know, and what you are absolutely capable of executing—even when you're tired, even when you doubt it.

• Capacity is what you have the resources, energy, and space to do right now.
  It fluctuates. It's shaped by your emotional state, your physical health, your time, your hormones, your finances, your mental bandwidth.

Capability is stored. Capacity is situational.

Burnout isn’t about lacking capability.
It’s what happens when we override or ignore capacity in pursuit of performance.
And many of us have been taught to measure our worth by what we push through—not what we attune to.

So what’s the leadership move?

Trust your capabilities.
Honor your capacities.
And build rhythms that sustain both.

When capacity is low, instead of collapsing into self-doubt or overcompensating through hustle, try asking:

• What can I still do without betraying my capacity?

• What must wait because it exceeds my current container?

• What nourishes me so I can refill the container and return stronger?

This isn’t about doing less because you’re “weak.”
This is about doing wisely because you’re aware.

You are still capable—even when your capacity dips.
Your power doesn’t disappear. It asks for stewardship.

And a Nourished Leader knows:
We don’t perform strength. We steward it.

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If this landed, hit reply and let me know how you’re honoring your capacity today. I’d love to know what you’re learning to protect.