The Increase Your Impact Newsletter is your Monday morning edge, created for growth-minded individuals. Each issue is a 2-3-minute read that delivers actionable strategies and powerful stories straight from my work with the world’s top performers. I 'd love to have you join my weekly email list and join thousands of others who are striving to get better, just like you.
IYI Newsletter: Leading Through the Storm
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Approximately a 3-minute read Good Morning! Today's message is for those of you going through a storm. -Justin You are not the stormMany of the executives I work with are known for quickly identifying the root cause of a problem, staying composed, and projecting confidence even when they don’t feel it. When challenges arise, they’re the steady presence others rely on. But what happens when you’re the leader, and you’re the one caught in the storm? Matt Haig, in The Comfort Book, offers a line worth reading and rereading: You don't have to be positive. You don't have to feel guilty about fear or sadness or anger. You don't stop the rain by telling it to stop. Sometimes you just have to let it pour. Let it soak you to your skin. It never rains forever, and know that, however wet you get, you are not the rain. You are not the bad feelings in your head. You are the person experiencing the storm. The storm may knock you off your feet, but you will stand again. Hold on. The AnchorRecently, I worked with a sports executive going through one of those stormy seasons—professional pressure, personal burdens, and the kind of exhaustion that no amount of sleep can fix. We set aside the laptop and took out a sheet of paper. Together, we listed who he truly was—not his job title, not his performance metrics, not the things he feared losing. We named the roles and values that endure beyond circumstance: a devoted father, a present husband, a man rooted in faith. His character had been forged long before this storm and would remain long after it passed. As he read the list aloud, his perspective began to shift. The situation hadn’t changed, but he remembered that he was not defined by it. This is something many high performers forget. Not because they lack self-awareness, but because their entire professional identity is built around fixing things. Around forward momentum. Around not letting difficulty linger longer than necessary. So when a storm hits that can't be solved on an ideal timeline, the instinct is to suppress it. The MistakeBut the more aggressively you push an emotion away, the harder it pushes back. Suppression doesn't dissolve pressure. It compresses it — until it no longer stays compressed. And at that point, it rarely surfaces at a convenient time or in a controlled way. The most effective thing you can do is also the least intuitive: stop fighting it, and witness it instead. There is a critical distinction between being in a storm and being defined by one. Your organization may be in crisis. The competition may be fierce. The decision in front of you may feel impossible to adequately wrap your mind around. You are allowed to feel the weight of that. Feeling it doesn't make you weak — pretending you don't is what costs you. The PracticeWhen pressure is at its highest, return to the things that are true about who you are. Not your title. Not your track record. Not the outcome of the quarter. Who are you as a leader at your core? What values were yours before this challenge arrived? What kind of person do the people closest to you know you to be? Write it down. In the middle of a storm, the mind fixates on what's wrong, what's at risk, what might be lost. Writing down your identity cuts through that noise. It reminds you that the storm is contextual, but who you are as a person is not. You are not defined by what you're going through. You are defined by who you are as you go through it. The storm will pass. It always does. The question isn't whether you'll weather it. The question is what you're anchoring to while you wait for the sky to clear. Two final things:
Hope you have a great week! Justin Su'a If this email was forwarded to you and you want it to come directly to your inbox, click here to subscribe |
Justin Su'a
The Increase Your Impact Newsletter is your Monday morning edge, created for growth-minded individuals. Each issue is a 2-3-minute read that delivers actionable strategies and powerful stories straight from my work with the world’s top performers. I 'd love to have you join my weekly email list and join thousands of others who are striving to get better, just like you.
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