What If Your Internal Working Model Is Blocking Your Clarity, Income, and Work Life Balance?
If you’ve ever found yourself feeling anxious, frustrated, or stuck in your business—despite praying, planning, and doing “all the right things”—there may be something deeper influencing your decisions than strategy or discipline.
It may be your internal working model.
That phrase can sound clinical, but the reality is simple and deeply human. Your internal working model is the lensthrough which you interpret God, yourself, others, work, and money. It quietly runs in the background, shaping how you respond under pressure—especially in leadership and business.
And most of us don’t even realize it’s there.
What Is an Internal Working Model?
Your internal working model forms early in life—during a season when your nervous system is still developing and taking in its environment. From infancy through early childhood, your body learns:
Am I safe?
Are my needs met consistently?
Can I trust the people caring for me?
These early experiences shape patterns of thinking, feeling, and reacting. Over time, those patterns become automatic. They influence how you handle stress, uncertainty, responsibility, and risk.
In other words, your internal working model becomes the lens through which you experience life.
And that lens can be shaped by safety or stress.
Why This Matters for Business and Leadership
You may not consciously think about your internal working model when you’re running your business—but it shows up anyway.
It shows up:
When you’re under pressure and have to make fast decisions
When money feels uncertain
When you’re tempted to hustle instead of rest
When clarity feels just out of reach
If your early experiences were inconsistent or conditional, you may struggle to wait on God. You may find yourself striving to earn approval—spiritually and professionally. Hustle can begin to feel necessary, even faithful.
But anxiety-driven hustle doesn’t produce clarity. It clouds it.
How Your Internal Working Model Affects Trust and Decision-Making
Trusting God isn’t just a belief—it’s embodied. It lives in your nervous system.
When your internal working model is shaped by fear, you may:
React instead of respond
Make decisions from urgency instead of discernment
Stay busy, but feel unclear
Move fast without peace
Anxiety narrows your perspective. It makes it challenging to slow down, be present, and lead with wisdom. And while you may still get results, they often come at the cost of your peace.
How It Affects Leadership, Pricing, and Growth
Your internal working model also influences how you lead others and how you value your work.
It shows up in questions like:
Do I trust my team, or do I feel the need to control?
Do I believe my time and services are worth what I charge?
Can I tolerate growth, or does expansion feel unsafe?
You cannot grow beyond what your nervous system believes is safe.
If reaching a new level of income or influence feels threatening, you may unknowingly sabotage it—by playing small, staying busy, or repeating what feels familiar rather than stepping into what’s next.
This isn’t a mindset issue. It’s a safety issue.
The Hope: Your Internal Working Model Can Be Renewed
Here’s the good news: your internal working model is not permanent.
Scripture reminds us that our minds can be renewed—but that renewal is not just cognitive. It happens through a relationship.
When you abide in Christ—when you truly live from the truth that you are no longer an orphan, but adopted, loved, and secure—your nervous system begins to settle. Safety replaces stress. Clarity replaces chaos.
This is the foundation of secure attachment to God.
From that place, you can:
Lead with discernment instead of reactivity
Rest without guilt
Make decisions with clarity and peace
Grow without burning out
You don’t lead to be loved.
You lead because you are loved.
A Gentle Reflection
Take a moment to reflect:
How do you perceive God when things feel uncertain?
What have you learned—often unconsciously—about work and money?
Are you reacting from fear, or responding from trust?
You are where you are—and you belong there. If doubt creeps in, bring it to God. Let Him provide the clarity you need. Let Him remind you that you are loved.
Your internal working model doesn’t define your future—but it does influence how you experience the present.
And when it’s healed in Christ, your business can grow without costing you your peace.
🎧 Listen to Episode 33: What If Your Internal Working Model Is Blocking Your Clarity, Income, and Work Life Balance?
Embrace Abundance® — Secure in Christ, Steady in Business.