Move Faster by Carrying Less

For leaders, professionals and entrepreneurs alike, life often feels like one long list of work, family, and responsibilities played on repeat, broken only by short pauses at Christmas or taking leave. Where has your dance of life gone? You knew it as a child, staring at the stars or splashing in puddles. You may have touched it again over the years in travel, in nature, or in deep connection with others (notice these are unpredictable, dynamic spaces). That magic has not disappeared. It is still here. It is simply you who has drifted, often the purpose of drifting away is to notice the absence of the magic, and be more committed to honouring it, then returning to it. That’s what we’ll talk about here today.

As adults we build lists of what we must have and how things must be. Often we are so close to these lists, and so dependent on them for a sense of safety, that we deny they exist at all. Yet in conversation it only takes a few questions for them to reveal themselves. The rustiest bolts in our lives are often the ones that squeak the loudest. You just have to know where to press to find them.

So, we push forward toward our goals, this starts off healthy, but the problem begins when, in order to keep pushing, we layer on armour.

• The armour of perfection (closing off curiosity).

• The armour of busyness (moving to avoid the silence).

• The armour of settling (giving up on the magic of life).

Each piece adds weight. Over time that weight drags us down and opens the door to a fatigue that no sleep can repair and no once-a-year week in the tropics can wash away. It is a deeper life fatigue, a sense of being trapped, moving through life like a machine,. It seeps into the body, into mood and relationships, until it takes the colour out of everything we experience.

The good news… this is not the truth about life. While we might experience this greyness completely, or just time to time, either way it can be shifted.

🎯Takeaway: The real danger in life is not failing to achieve more, it’s carrying so much unnecessary weight you risk losing touch with the colour and magic of your life.

Where the Weight Comes From

The weight does not come from your job, your business, your clients, or your leader. It does not come from your partner, your children, or your family. It does not come from your finances, obligations, or workload. You may think it does, you may say it does, you may insist on it, but… It. Does. Not.

The weight comes from YOU. You are creating it.

It comes from how you relate to life. Until you have walked that path this may not make sense. The idea that you are responsible can feel confusing, infuriating, even threatening. But the way forward is always the same: to find the thousands of places inside you that are waiting for healing, the places where your relationship with life can be restored.

• “People will always let you down”

• “I need money to feel safe”

• “Business is a constant struggle”

• “The world is unsafe and unpredictable”

• “My body is weak and breaks down easily”

• “The world is on the edge of collapse”

Wounds show up many ways, at their root they show up emotionally, however that’s difficult to show you here through an article. So, I’ll use beliefs to get us close enough for the point to be made.

These fears and beliefs are not obvious at first. They hide beneath achievement, busyness, and the various armours you use to feel safe (property, vehicles, lifestyles, titles and positions). On the surface it can look like you are winning with recognition, wealth, and status, but inside the wounds remain untouched. Success can ironically make the trap stronger, binding you more tightly to the very fears that drove you there. Over time the armour fuses with your structure. Taking it off can be nearly impossible until it’s ready to eventually, naturally shed. From the outside this shedding most often appears as a crisis; a job loss, financial breakdown, or health scare. In reality it is a shedding, the old layers breaking away to make room for something new. It cannot always be seen or understood from the inside, but I have witnessed it hundreds of times, including in my own life many times.

🎯Takeaway: The weight does not come from your job, your business, your clients, or your commitments. The weight comes from YOU. You are creating it.

Putting Down the Extra Load

You already know how to push. The real question is whether you know how to let go. What shifts life to a new level, often with exponential results, is the paradox of releasing. Letting go allows you see and set down what no longer needs to be carried. Often this includes things which feel essential to your current way of seeing the world, therefore you’d rather die than really let go.

If you do not let go, life will eventually take them from you. You either lean into life and rise with it, or you resist and push back until you are worn down and broken. Either way, life is always moving in your favour, sweeping you toward growth and your largest purpose. It is your resistance and insistence that create suffering. Imagine standing in the swash zone on a beach where the waves meet and pound the sand, clutching a surfboard, knocked off your feet. Every wave crashes over you, knocking you down, sapping your strength, rolling you over. You flail, stagger to your feet, rapidly exhausting. Yet all you need to do is move beyond the break, and suddenly the ocean opens; vast, calm, and full of freedom.

The armour you built once kept you safe, but it now weighs you down. In my practice this release happens through three doorways;

• Embodiment Practices brings you back into the body and out of endless loops of thought. Presence is not something you think your way into, it is felt through breath, senses, and grounded awareness. Modalities like breathwork and somatic practices help anchor this state.

• Shadow Work opens the door to the hidden parts of you—the fears, impulses, and stories you pushed away. Meeting them directly transforms their grip so they no longer control your choices. Internal parts work and depth coaching create safe ways to meet these shadows and integrate them.

• Self Actualisation Modalities reconnects you to your deeper nature, reminding you that you are more than the wounded patterns you carry. It awakens clarity, purpose, and a sense of infinite capacity. Here, modalities like coaching and reflective practices open space for your highest potential to come forward.

🎯Takeaway: The armour you built to protect yourself is now the weight that drags you down. What once kept you safe is now quietly exhausting you.

The Cost of Holding On

When you refuse to put the weight down, the deadness is normalised. You start telling yourself this is just what life is. Over time the cost compounds. Not only is your wellbeing eroded, but you begin to hit ceilings in the very areas you believed mattered most, your work, your relationships, and your sense of purpose. Scientific research has quantified this:

• Self-Disconnection leads to cascade of negative emotions including sadness, fear, stress, confusion, and anger. Crucially, they all undermine wellbeing even when life appears stable externally. (CEU Research, 2021).

• Chronic Stress impairs memory, concentration, and executive functioning, making us less effective at the very goals we strive for, even raising the risk of cardiovascular disease. Remember, stress doesn’t come from the environment, it comes from how we relate to your environment. (McEwen & Sapolsky, 1995; APA, 2021).

• A weak or absent sense of purpose shortens both lifespan and mental health. People with low purpose show significantly higher mortality rates and are more likely to develop cognitive decline. (Sciencedaily, 2022; Neuroscience News, 2022).

The good news is you do not need to be in crisis to benefit from shifting these patterns. You do not need to wait for burnout, illness, or a breaking point. The costs of holding-on shows up in subtle ways every day, in all of us. It’s part of life, the goal is not to win, fix, eliminate but to learn, grow and expand. To reconnect, reset, reclaim open space more clarity, energy, and presence in our lives.

🎯Takeaway: Carrying unnecessary weight does not just slow you down, it quietly erodes your health and your sense of meaning. What feels safe today, becomes tomorrow’s ceiling.

Life With Less Weight

Life with less weight feels entirely different. Creativity flows more freely, decisions come with greater ease, and energy feels almost limitless. Many assume this kind of lightness is impossible in adulthood, yet it is available for all. I am busier now than I have ever been, yet I feel lighter and more energised than ever before. This is the result of doing deep inner work, clearing the wounds that consumed my energy and clouded my vision for decades. Through this process I have developed increasing access to my True Self, to the point of being consciously aware of the teamwork happening within. You could call this inner alignment.

At the heart of your shift too will be your True Self, the part of you that existed before stories, labels, and events shaped your identity. This deeper self is unlimited, free, and rich with talents and capacities beyond imagination. It conceives inspired ideas, holds the bigger picture, and guides with clarity and wisdom. To surrender to this natural state is not giving up, it is trusting the deepest truth of who you are. As you do, the burdens that once weighed you down begin to fall away, and even challenges become purposeful and energising.

Joy is the natural signature of this state. It is not forced or chased. When you release what no longer serves you, joy reappears as the undercurrent of daily life. Energy renews, balance steadies you, and life regains its colour. With less weight, your world opens again, lighter, freer, and aligned with the expansive rhythm of who you truly are.

🎯 Takeaway: Life expands when you stop carrying what was never yours to hold. Joy, clarity, and freedom return. In that release you reconnect with your True Self, a part of you that always guides you toward lightness and possibility.

💡 Mike McGregor | Transformational Coach: Evidence-Based Transformational Coaching for Leaders & Professionals

Who I work with:

• Professionals and Executives navigating career, identity and purpose life transitions.

• Leaders serious about authenticity, presence and impact

If you want to take this further, I guide 1:1 Sessions and Group Classes in Hawthorn and online. Book Breathwork.