Holistic Success: Why You Should Embrace the New Paradigm of Having It All as a Leader

Despite what we’ve been conditioned to believe, ambitious leaders, entrepreneurs, and founders not only get to - but should choose to - thrive equally in both business and in life.

Not only should you decide that you get to have the exciting high-growth career path and explore the edges of your potential in business, but that you also get to (*should*) feel deeply grounded, balanced, and aligned in all areas of your life along the way. 

Why? Because while hustle culture has sold us a lie that success equals sacrifice, it’s actually an aligned and optimized personal foundation that allows you to optimize your potential as a leader, to unlock sustainable peak performance, and to drive exponential growth and innovation for your company. And the more that you lean into a holistic model of success, the more every area of leadership, business, and life will rise to new levels.

Of course there will be moments where your leadership, immediate goals, or bigger vision will require compromises and impact other parts of your life, but there’s a false connection that 99% of leaders have internalized that the bigger your ambitions - the more you'll have to grind, hustle, miss time with loved ones, and neglect personal health and well-being (mental, emotional, physical). It’s so ingrained as fact that most leaders never stop to question it.  

But not only is this untrue, this misinformed approach to leadership success can limit and even sabotage your success when left unchecked.  No matter how big your vision for yourself, your mission, or your life - a one-dimensional pursuit of success at the cost of all else will ultimately cap your true potential, burn you out, and threaten the very sense of inspiration, purpose, and meaning that drove you in the first place.

Are You Chasing the Illusive Finish Line of "Someday"?

What I see all too often are ambitious leaders spending their careers sacrificing “life” - relationships, health, joy - for success on paper; thinking it’ll all be worth it when, at some arbitrary date or achievement they’ve decided on, they think they’ll finally feel successful, fulfilled, abundant, and like they’ve done enough.  They tell themselves that that’s when they’ll have “made it” and can finally relax and enjoy what they’ve built.

But what any highly successful person will tell you is that when you get “there” - when you’ve achieved the revenue milestone, been offered the prestigious role, sold the company - nothing really changes.  You’ll still feel the gnawing sense that something’s missing, that you’re not there yet, not quite worthy of feeling successful, or that all that money you've made could run out.  And it’s right back to the same life-diminishing grind that leaves you feeling empty.

This is the danger of operating from this outdated and misinformed paradigm that keeps success and enjoyment life indefinitely out in the future. And not only will it delay your sense of fulfillment, but it will significantly limit how much success you actually create and how much of your greatness can come online in your leadership.

Personal Sacrifice is Limiting Your Potential as a Leader

Here's the thing: even if you achieve exceptional levels of success by grinding, hustling, and sacrificing your way there, you’ll never create the results that were actually possible; you will have left (a lot) on the table.

This is because a fully optimized leader is first and foremost a fully optimized human being: someone who is building from a foundation of personal well-being, self-connection, and deep alignment, and who is being nourished and filled up by the other parts of their life.

The full potential of your creativity, innovation, inspiration, energy, and visionary leadership can only be actualized from a full cup.

Holistic Success: the Upward Spiral of Deciding to Have it All

Luckily there’s a healthier, more effective, sustainable, and enjoyable way to approach success as an ambitious leader.  One where leader and human, career and life, are not in competition, but are working synergistically together in an upward spiral of professional success that’s rooted in deep personal alignment.

Many leaders are waking up to this - whether after hitting yet another milestone that left them feeling empty and burnt out, or because they’ve simply decided they aren’t willing to sacrifice themselves or their lives for an illusory finish line - they’re raising their standards and looking for a better way.

This concept is at the core of my Holistic High-Performance framework that's allowed my executive clients to unlock unprecedented levels of leadership, growth, and impact while experiencing personal balance, well-being, and fulfillment along the way.

I partner with ambitious leaders who are ready to redefine what success means to them, to create an inspiring vision for leadership, legacy, and life, and to create success that feels as good as it looks.

If you happen to be one of these leaders, I currently have a couple of spaces open, and I'd love to connect.