Second Summit Brief is a weekly letter for high-achieving leaders who’ve realized the summit they climbed isn’t the one they want to stay on. Each edition blends reflection and strategy to help you see the patterns keeping you stuck and find the clarity, courage, and integration that define your own second summit.
The gift hidden in the stumble
|
There's a version of the Success Trap that doesn't look like burnout or emptiness. It looks like things just...not working the way they used to. The formula that always delivered starts to sputter. The wins get harder. The confidence that came from a long track record starts to crack. Not catastrophically. Not publicly. But enough that you notice. I was talking with Kathy Wu Brady recently (follow her on LinkedIn), and we stumbled onto something that stopped us both mid-conversation. We'd each had this experience. Independently. Years apart. For a long time, success came relatively easily. Not without effort, but the formula worked. Do the things, get the results. Climb the ladder, reach the next rung. Then it stopped working. And here's what we both realized: That stumble was the wake-up call. When success flows, you don't question the path. Why would you? It's working. The metrics say you're winning. The people around you confirm you're doing great. But when it stops working, you're forced to look up and ask: Wait. Is this even what I want? We may not have questioned any of it if things had kept going well. That's the strange gift hidden in the stumble. It creates space for a question that success had been drowning out: Is this what I actually want? Or just what I've proven I can do? Those are very different things. And most high achievers never confront the difference until the stumble makes them. If you're in a season where things aren't flowing the way they used to, where the formula isn't working, where the confidence feels shakier...maybe that's not a problem to fix. Maybe it's an invitation to ask the questions you've been too successful to ask. What would you be doing if achievement wasn't the answer? Who would you be if the ladder disappeared? The stumble isn't the failure. The stumble is the opening. What's been your experience with the stumble? And how have you been navigating it? Hit reply. Share your thoughts. I read every message. This week, sit with this: What question have you been too successful to ask? |
Second Summit Brief by Clif Mathews
Second Summit Brief is a weekly letter for high-achieving leaders who’ve realized the summit they climbed isn’t the one they want to stay on. Each edition blends reflection and strategy to help you see the patterns keeping you stuck and find the clarity, courage, and integration that define your own second summit.
There's a question most high achievers avoid at all costs: Who are you without the title? Not what you do. Not what you've built. Not what's on your LinkedIn. You. The person underneath the credentials. If that question makes you uncomfortable, you're not alone. For most of us, identity and achievement have been fused together for so long that we can't see where one ends and the other begins. We became the role. The performer. The one who delivers. And it worked. That identity got us...
You're allowed to outgrow a place that once felt right. Even if everyone says you're thriving. This is one of the hardest forms of misalignment to recognize. There's no obvious villain. No toxic boss, no unreasonable workload, no clear reason to leave. You deliver great results. You get along with the people around you. You've built your success over years. And still...something feels off. When something's obviously wrong, it's clear you need to make a change. But it's much harder to see...
There's a strange paradox about January. Every ad, every influencer, every gym promo tells us this is the time to sprint. New goals. New habits. New you. Attack the year before it attacks you. But look outside. At least in the northern hemisphere, it's the middle of winter. The days are short. The light is thin. Every living thing is conserving energy. Except us. We're supposed to be "hitting the ground running." See the problem? The "new year, new me" energy isn't motivation. It's pressure...