Dropping the Weight: How Leaders Recover Faster and Unlock Growth
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Dropping the Weight: How Leaders Recover Faster and Unlock Growth
They Didn’t Become Someone New. They Stopped Carrying What Wasn’t Theirs.
For years, this client believed something quietly dangerous:
“I’ll act like the leader I want to be… once things stabilize.”
It sounded reasonable. Responsible, even.
So they waited.
For the right market conditions
For confidence to magically appear
For clarity, certainty, and the ‘right moment’
But that moment never came.
Instead, what did arrive—slowly, subtly—was something else:
Mental fatigue that never fully lifted
Longer emotional hangovers after small setbacks
Overthinking decisions that once felt obvious
A business performing below its real capacity
Not because they lacked talent.
Not because they weren’t working hard.
But because they stayed too long in bad internal states.
And most leaders never realize this is the real bottleneck.
The Invisible Cost of Staying Stuck Too Long
High performers don’t fail dramatically.
They stall quietly.
They keep showing up.
They keep producing.
They keep moving.
But internally?
They’re carrying invisible weight.
Every difficult conversation avoided adds a few kilos.
Every piece of outdated feedback still obeyed adds more.
Every role, identity, or expectation that no longer fits tightens the load.
Over time, the problem isn’t effort.
It’s drag.
And drag doesn’t stop motion.
It just makes everything harder than it needs to be.
The Question That Changed Everything
When we started working together, I didn’t begin with strategy, funnels, or positioning.
I asked one simple question:
“Is your reaction driven by curiosity… or by inertia?”
That question stopped them.
Because suddenly, their daily behaviors looked different:
Obsessively checking metrics → inertia
Delaying a tough conversation → inertia
Staying in projects that felt heavy → inertia
These weren’t conscious choices.
They were inherited behaviors.
From:
Old expectations that once made sense
Feedback from people who mattered in a previous season
Roles they had outgrown but never released
They weren’t failing.
They were over-carrying.
Why Most Leaders Carry Weight That Isn’t Theirs
Here’s the uncomfortable truth:
Most of what exhausts leaders isn’t the work.
It’s the emotional and psychological residue of who they used to be.
Old identities linger longer than usefulness.
Examples I see constantly:
The achiever who still needs approval
The expert who no longer wants to be accessible to everyone
The founder who’s scaled but still operates like they’re proving themselves
We rarely question these roles.
Because letting go feels risky.
What if people misunderstand?
What if opportunities disappear?
What if I become someone they don’t recognize?
So we keep carrying.
And call it responsibility.
The Real Shift: Bounce-Back Speed
We didn’t overhaul their business.
We didn’t redesign their brand.
We didn’t add more habits or hustle.
We focused on one metric:
Bounce-back speed — how fast they recovered from a bad internal state.
Not avoiding bad days.
Not pretending frustration didn’t exist.
Just shortening the duration.
Instead of:
“Why is this happening to me?”
They practiced asking:
“What is this teaching me?”
This wasn’t positive thinking.
It was orientation.
One question keeps you stuck in emotion.
The other moves you into agency.
Why Faster Recovery Beats More Discipline
Most leaders try to fix inconsistency with discipline.
But discipline doesn’t work well when:
You’re emotionally drained
You’re reacting instead of choosing
You’re operating from outdated narratives
The real advantage isn’t intensity.
It’s recovery speed.
The fastest-growing leaders aren’t the ones who never fall.
They’re the ones who don’t camp in the fall.
They don’t turn:
One bad call into a bad day
One bad day into a bad week
One bad week into a bad quarter
They reset quickly.
The “Silly” Habit That Changed Everything
Every time something didn’t go well, they paused and asked:
“Is my next move coming from curiosity… or from inertia?”
That’s it.
No elaborate framework.
No morning routine overhaul.
Just awareness.
Curiosity led them to:
End draining offers
Speak clearly instead of politely
Act on opportunities they’d been postponing
Inertia had kept them busy.
Curiosity made them alive.
What Curiosity Actually Does to the Brain
Curiosity changes your posture.
Instead of bracing against reality, you lean into it.
It shifts you from:
Defense → exploration
Justification → learning
Emotional reaction → intentional response
This is why curiosity accelerates growth.
It removes the emotional tax of proving, defending, and explaining.
Results in Six Months (Without Burnout)
The external changes looked impressive.
But the internal changes mattered more.
Externally:
Clearer positioning
Faster decisions
Consistent $20K+ clients within 6 months
Internally:
Emotional recovery measured in minutes, not days
Less rumination
More self-trust
Not because fear disappeared.
But because fear stopped running the timeline.
The Objection Almost Everyone Raises
“But important people in my life think I should play it safe.”
Here’s the reframe:
Feedback from important people is often about their comfort, not your growth.
That doesn’t make them wrong.
But it does make them unqualified to decide your evolution.
Respect the feedback.
Just don’t outsource your future to it.
Leadership Isn’t About Adding More
Most people think growth means:
More confidence
More strategy
More habits
More knowledge
Often, it means less weight.
Less explaining.
Less carrying.
Less performing outdated versions of yourself.
You don’t need permission to evolve.
You need honesty about what no longer fits.
I Wasn’t the Hero Here
I didn’t do this for them.
I simply:
Asked better questions
Slowed down their reactions
Helped them identify what wasn’t theirs to carry
They did the work.
They chose curiosity over inertia—daily.
Questions to Sit With (Don’t Rush These)
Are you acting from curiosity… or inertia?
What expectations are you still honoring that no longer serve you?
How much faster would your life change if you reduced the time you stay stuck?
Growth doesn’t always require becoming more.
Sometimes, it requires dropping the weight.
And the moment you do?
Everything starts moving faster—without pushing harder.
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