The person who knows how much effort you put into being calm should not mistake calm for ease.

Steadiness that took work can end up reading as natural to the people who watch it most. They see you handle the difficult call, the child, the diagnosis, without visible strain, and slowly the effort behind it becomes invisible even to someone who once knew it was there. Then more gets asked of you, not unkindly, but because the cost stopped being apparent. Composure is a skill, and skills hide their own price.

Say out loud what something took, even when it went well. Tell one person that the calm version was expensive today. If you are the one watching, ask how it actually was rather than assuming the surface.