Wanna know a secret? I’m scared. No seriously.
Last week our team did something a little different at our quarterly planning meeting.
We still did our team rocks — the big priorities that go in the jar before the sand, if you’re not familiar with the concept. But this time we added a twist: what are your individual rocks? As in — what should each person’s specific effort focus on, within their own role, that will move the whole boat down the river?
We had some really good ones from the entire team.
Mine was singular.
Do less. Lead more.
Here’s the honest truth behind it:
Over the last five painstaking years, I’ve earned every war scar there is to assemble the rockstar team we now have. Each one of them was recruited for a specific reason — to own the exact things I built from scratch and can’t seem to let go of.
And yet here I am. Still holding on.
I spend the majority of my time preparing for, leading, and following up from member AIMs. Work the team was literally hired to do. Work they’re better at doing than I am at this point, because it’s their singular focus.
It doesn’t serve our members. It doesn’t serve the team. And it doesn’t serve me.
So why am I still doing it?
I think if I’m being really honest with myself — and what’s the point of writing this if I’m not — it’s Resistance. Capital R, Steven Pressfield style.
I can do everything I do right now with my eyes closed. I’ve done it ten thousand times. It’s comfortable. It’s familiar. It’s safe.
But if I fully let go like I should, I’m wandering off into the wilderness. I know where Financial Zen needs to go. I have a vision. What I don’t have is a detailed map. The next stage is carving the path — and that’s the hardest part. Not because the destination is unclear, but because the trail doesn’t exist yet.
So instead of picking up the machete, I keep answering emails I shouldn’t be answering. I keep showing up to meetings I should be delegating. I keep doing the known thing to avoid the unknown one.
That’s Resistance. And I need to make a concentrated effort to beat it this quarter.
What are you holding onto that you know you need to let go of?
A client relationship you’re afraid to hand off? A process you’re still doing manually because you’ve always done it that way? A role you outgrew two years ago but never officially retired from?
Is it really that you can’t let go — or is it that letting go means you have to face whatever comes next?
Less Rick. More Financial Zen.
Say it with me: Rick is not Financial Zen. Financial Zen is Financial Zen. Let it go, Rick.