Release the grip: knowing when you’re white knuckling success in business
Have you ever played the classic egg toss?
The game where you literally stand feet apart from your teammate and gently toss an egg back and forth. The team that keeps the egg alive the longest wins.
With every completed toss, you take a step back. And slowly but surely you end up so far away from your partner you're CONVINCED your a toss away from a yolky hand. Ick.
The most successful teams in this game know two things, the cradle and momentum when you catch the egg, you keep a soft hand and you gently move your catch with the momentum of the egg.
Don't worry, I brought visuals AND I'm going somewhere with this, I promise.
The people who lose? They grip and don't go with the flow.
It's an instinctual reaction of your hand - with anything but an egg, your hand forms around it and grips down for control.
The same happens in business - when we want control over our outcomes, we start white knuckling our success – gripping on to every possible thing we can to give us the highest possible chance of success.
But that GRIP – that urge for control, might be the VERY thing keeping you from success in the first place. Or really from sustaining success.
Let me explain.
I use this example with my health coach clients all of the time. I used to try all of the health programs - I did whole30, I was a beachbody coach there for a minute, I've done FasterWay - the works. And here's the thing, I did them successfully. I completed the programs, I lost weight, and they worked … until they didn't.
My discipline, my grip, let me get to the finish line (I am a straight-A student + certified over-achiever after all), but it never kept me there.
Health became this thing I had to control instead of this thing I got to enjoy.
THE SHIFT → Releasing the outcome in favor of enjoying the process. Because when you fall in love with the process, the outcome becomes inevitable.
I traded discipline for devotion and found a lot more peace in the process.
Discipline → Felt outcome dependent. Short-term. Fueled by shoulds + fear. Feels like holding on for dear life. (ex. joy is the destination)
Devotion → Felt intentional, aligned, and long term sustainable. Feels like being present in my day-to-day and enjoying the process. (ex. joy is the journey)
So my question for you is where are you gripping in your business?
And for my over-achievers, what is one thing you can do to lessen the grip or enjoy the process? OR a really juicy one, if success were inevitable, what would you be doing now?
JOURNAL PROMPTS:
Where in my business do I feel myself gripping the tightest right now, and what fear is sitting underneath that grip?
What would “softening my hands” and moving with the momentum look like in this season?
Which parts of my routines feel like discipline (pressure, shoulds, outcome-chasing), and how can I shift them into devotion (presence, intention, enjoyment)?
If success were absolutely inevitable, how would I show up differently today?
