START HERE: Why I Created Unshakeable (Part 1 of 6)

From breakdown to breakthrough: The story that changed everything.

Note to my readers: This is the beginning of a special 6-part series I’m calling The Manifesto—a deeply personal story about the unraveling of my high-achieving identity, my slow return to self-trust, and the real reason I felt called to create Unshakeable Coaching.

If you’ve been following my other personal essays (like Why College Was the Worst Four Years of My Life or The Night That Would Haunt Me Forever), you know I write from real-life experience. This series is no different—but it’s more than a single moment. It’s the origin story of my deepest work.

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Hi, I’m Sarah-Frances McCormick, creator of Unshakeable Coaching.

Unshakeable exists because I once needed it myself.

A few years ago, in the most bewildering season of my life, a framework like this could have spared me endless confusion and heartache.

Let me take you back to where the story truly begins…

Three Years Ago

By thirty, I had checked every box that was supposed to matter: two master’s degrees from Duke, a thriving career, a loving partner, a cozy home, and two energetic kids who filled it with laughter.

On paper, I was living the dream, but inside I was quietly coming apart.

One Saturday morning that fall, I ended up on the bathroom floor in the fetal position. Tears started spilling out for reasons I couldn’t name. A tidal wave of anxiety and existential dread swept in, morphing into the worst panic attack of my life.

“Bryce!” I screamed. “I’m having a heart attack. We need to go to the ER—now!”

My husband rushed in, calm but concerned. He knelt beside me, squeezed my hand, and whispered, “It’s all going to be okay. Breathe. Breathe… ride the wave.”

He’d been my anchor through the spikes of panic attacks that had become all too frequent over the past six months—sleepless nights, relentless migraines, and a constant undercurrent of irritability. Night after night, I lay awake with a deep, aching sense that something crucial was missing.

Don’t get me wrong: I was profoundly grateful for my life.

I loved Bryce and our kids fiercely, I’d just earned a promotion, and I treasured evenings spent with family and friends.

Yet having “everything” only amplified the emptiness.

I felt guilty—selfish, even—for waking up each morning without the fulfillment I expected.

Watching others move through life so effortlessly made me wonder if there was something wrong with me.

I carried that shame like a silent scar.

Night after night I lay awake asking myself:

Is this really all there is?

Aren’t I meant for more?

What’s my purpose?

This was supposed to be it.

I had followed the blueprint for success to a T—so why didn’t it feel like enough?

These questions haunted me.

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A few days later, I called my best friend in search of answers. Without hesitation she said, “Sarah-Frances, you’ve been living someone else’s version of success since we were ten.”

Her words hit like ice water.

She was right, of course.

Up until now, I’d spent my entire life ticking every “right-path” box—honor rolls, team captaincies, promotions, without ever pausing to ask if I wanted any of it.

My shelves overflowed with gold stars, yet I had no North Star of my own.

The roar of external expectations had drowned out my inner wisdom, leaving a life that glittered on the outside but rang hollow within.

I stood at the edge of a precipice—no roadmap, no applause, just a vast, echoing unknown.

I knew I had to make a choice.

I could retreat to the comfort of accolades and shiny objects…or leap into the darkness and fight for a truth that was finally, undeniably, my own.

I chose myself—and thus, the real work began…

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Let’s go deeper—here’s how we can connect:

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