How Do I Face Adversity? The Power of Ownership
Updated: Sep 12, 2025
Joana Ester Paupério is an entrepreneur and a forward-thinking advisor. She is the founder of Fortify Biz, and co-founder/equity partner of Visionary Motion. Joana is a rebellious visionary who guides growth-minded leaders to shift perspectives, break patterns, claim their freedom, and level up—personally and professionally.
I found myself experiencing writer’s block, painfully overthinking on what I should write about, and thus not being capable of writing a single word. I wondered who would want to read my words, I worried about the relevance and content, I feared sharing my experience, and I froze. I judged and sentenced myself ruthlessly to ridicule and rejection. Full stop.
How many of us experienced this merciless auto-punishment before even acting? Yeah, exactly my thought.
You have a commitment to contribute, I told myself. You were the one choosing to engage. Nothing, my pen seemingly had forgotten all the words.
One day, unexpectedly, I get an inspiration, “What experiences could expand my life?”
Ahh, this question took me places, it took me deep inside myself, it made me recognize my recurrent patterns. I took a personal journey of remembering, remembering all the places, situations, and persons where I felt inadequate, unwanted, and “too much”. This question took me to another question. How do I face adversity? Do I take ownership, or do I flee and blame?
Here lies the root of all those uncomfortable feelings of inadequacy, as well as the solution to come out and play with life.
How I love to feel radical abundance, to dive within, revisit myself, and witness my contribution to all the underlying fears and block-inducing feelings. It’s always cathartic, it’s always a magical wand that gets me out of my self-imposed cage.
Now, while contemplating both questions “What experiences could expand my life?” and “How do I face adversity?”, I find that the very first step is owning my shadows, recognizing I am my worst critic, and I am as well the one that holds the key to open the cage, to set free the words, the inspiration, the vision and the dreams the ingredients that will flood my heart with possibility and inspire my mind to find the way to bring it to form.
How easy is that? No pressure, no diamonds.
Ultimately, this is a call to all of us busy facilitating possibilities and projecting for others, please do not forget your own, your deepest wants and needs, your dreams, your vision. These are the secret ingredients that we should nourish ourselves with, the ones that sustain our energy, our vitality, and allow us to impact those around us positively, fully owning our humanity, our vulnerabilities, our shadows, as well as our intensity and our passion.
I don’t wait for freedom, I create it. Responsibility sustains it. I claim both!
Read more from Joana Ester Paupério
Joana Ester Paupério, Strategic and Transformational Advisor
Joana Ester Paupério is a strategic and transformational advisor partnering with leaders and organizations to navigate meaningful change, foster resilient cultures, and turn bold visions into actionable strategies. Joana Ester has over 20 years' worth of experience devising/executing strategy, launching brands and developing business plans to maximise market share, revenue and growth for leading multi-sector clients and companies in fast-paced, pressurised settings globally. She is the co-founder of Fortify Biz and Visionary Motion, where she lives true to her belief in the freedom-responsibility dichotomy: We don't wait for freedom, we create it. Responsibility sustains it. We claim both!
