How High Achievers Can Stop the Drift into Apathy
🎧🎧 Listen to Sunday Sunshine HERE 🎧🎧
There are times when I would die if you saw my closet. The remnants of a hurricane. So bad...
Tangled belts, forgotten shoes, scarves wrapped around hangers jammed so tightly together that nothing has room to breathe.
It makes getting dressed every day harder.
The disorder becomes so overwhelming that I’d rather grab the leggings off the bathroom floor than face the chaos.
My closet didn’t get messy overnight. It gets bad. I avoid. It gets worse. I put it off.
My closest chaos is not dissimilar to what regularly happens in our work and personal lives.
When your thoughts scatter, clarity dissolves and your future vision blurs. That drift into distraction becomes its own quiet slide into apathy. Many high achievers know this feeling all too well, especially those who have pushed hard for so long that they begin to lose touch with who they are becoming. This pattern can lead to the cycles of burnout and recovery that high achievers experience. This is a reality almost everyone encounters at some point.
When attention scatters → distraction rises → overwhelm and avoidance grows → uncertainty takes over → intention disappears.
Especially around the holidays...
If you are not intentional, you naturally drift into distraction, disorder, and apathy.
Said another way, you lose your attention and you lose your intention.
When we don’t actively direct our attention:
* our thoughts scatter
* our clarity dissolves
* our future vision blurs
...chaos takes the wheel and the drift of apathy takes over.
In a world designed to distract you, this is so damn hard. Distraction is the silent force that steals your intention everyday.
If you want to test your level of attention and awareness, watch this video!
Fun, yes. But it clearly demonstrates how much we miss each day as we run through the day.
New clients come to me with a common theme: they don't pause to think…about themselves or their future. In my Human A-I Index assessment, self-reflection ranks lower than any other characteristic.
They’ve been doing the job, following the calendar and falling into line, but they’ve lost a connection to themselves and to the impact that they want to make. Attention toward who they are becoming has drifted and without it they’ve lost intention leaving them feeling stuck and stagnant.
“Apathy = the quiet erosion of desire.”
If you don’t intentionally fuel your personal operating system with energy —your mind, your goals, your leadership, your possibilities — It decays. It scatters. It loses structure. Just like that closet.
Show me your calendar, and I’ll see what really matters to you.
Show me your results, and I’ll know where your attention has been.
Reclaim your attention and you reclaim your direction. You remember what you desire. You reignite your drive. You make space for possibility again.
So if you’re feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or unsure what’s next?
Clean your mental closet. Clear the clutter. Call your attention home. Your intention is waiting underneath it. Listen to this episode for doable and easy steps including.
The simple 3-step year-end practice I use in the final two weeks of the year
What’s working, what’s draining you, and what absolutely needs to change for you to grow in 2026—without burning out
Why so many successful women still feel stuck, and how to break the cycle of autopilot, pressure, and imposter syndrome
I would be so grateful if you spend less than 5 minutes to take the Human A-I Assessment which reveals how you’re currently operating across the two capabilities that drive extraordinary results: Awareness + Imagination.
Most leaders lean heavily on one and underuse the other.
But the leaders who break ceilings — the ones who do the impossible — integrate both.
This is a research project that is near and dear to me. Thank you in advance for a few minutes of your time.
