Hey Reader,
I recently went on a tangent in a comment I made on someone’s post.
This was inside one of the masterminds I lead inside the EDUpreneur Community.
This person, who is an extremely talented and driven EDUpreneur, shared that they wanted to take some time off on a specific day, but were worried that allowing themselves to relax a little could lead to essentially just being a bum all day.
They noted that that is a downfall of high achievers, indicating that they would NOT be giving themselves that time to relax.
This set me off a little…here’s why.
We’ve designated exhaustion as a badge of honor. We’ve branded being tired, overwhelmed, and stressed out as symbols of hard work.
We’ve turned comments like, “It’s crazy right now.” or “I’m working non-stop.” or “I can barely keep up.” into these weird humblebrags.
We’ve confused being busy with working hard, we’ve tied being stressed with achieving growth, and we’ve labeled being burnt out as just part of “what it takes to make it.”
So we say all of these things with this weird sense of pride. Almost like if things aren’t messy, we must not be growing. Like if we’re not exhausted all the time, we’re not committed.
Somewhere along the way, we started treating overwhelm like a milestone.
If my calendar is packed, if my inbox is full, if my projects are stacking up, that must mean things are working. Right?
We’ve been trained to believe that growth means more activity, more activity means more complexity, and more complexity means more stress. So if it feels chaotic, we assume that’s just the price of ambition.
But growth and chaos are not the same thing.
Growth and chaos are not the same thing.
A business can increase revenue and lose clarity.
A consultant can add clients and lose margin.
A team can add projects and lose alignment.
But growth can also look like:
- Increasing revenue, but not hours.
- Gaining more clients AND more time off.
- Launching new projects without multiplying meetings.
Signals of Growth or Poor Design?
Society glamorizes overwhelm like it proves something. We talk about exhaustion like it validates effort. We treat “I haven’t slept” as an indicator of how committed we are.
But what if stress isn’t a signal of progress?
What if being busy isn’t a signal of growth?
What if exhaustion isn’t a signal of passion or commitment?
What if they’re all signals of poor design or bad decisions?
Healthy growth should increase stability.
It should improve clarity.
It should strengthensystems.
My co-founder, Chad, once said something to me that I didn’t understand at the time:
“Sometimes growth looks a lot like staying the same.”
He said this while I was complaining that we weren’t growing enough because it didn’t “feel” like we were to me.
At that time, we were absolutely growing, but I thought it should look more like we were. I thought we should be doing more. I thought things should feel busier, we should be working longer hours, and we should be exhausted because things were so good.
It took me several years to actually hear what he was saying.
Sometimes growth looks a lot like staying the same.
In fact, a lot of the time growth looks a lot like staying the same.
Let me clarify…healthy growth. Sustainable growth.
The reality is, if every time your business grows, your stress grows at the same rate…
That’s not momentum.
It’s a signal that:
- Your systems aren’t growing with you
- You’re scaling activity, not efficiency
- You’re adding instead of redesigning
Growth is not supposed to feel chaotic.
Growth phases can be messy, though. That’s normal.
But messiness is a season, not a strategy.
Simply feeling those things does not mean you are growing. Those are not the signs of healthy growth. They might be part of healthy growth, but healthy growth leads to less stress, less overwhelm, and less exhaustion.
If growth doesn’t lead to better quality of life, more harmony between work and home, and more enjoyment in what we do…then what the hell are we doing here?
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~ Jeff
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I appreciate you.
Jeff Gargas
COO / Co-Founder, Teach Better Team
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