Are you fishing… or just grasping at success? 🎣
E113: How you show up changes everything
I set up my deckchair and cast my rod.
It's a bracing winter's morning, and the cold reaches my bones. I wade knee-deep into the water, and the cold sinks deeper into my core.
I cast the net, back and forth, grasping at the water, trying to snatch a fish.
Nothing.
Something catches my attention.
On the shore, a few metres away, another person—calm, focused—sits in a deckchair, fishing by the lakeshore.
They look warm with their mittens on, the puffs of steam curling from their thermos flask of coffee.
Their line is cast. They wait. They trust themselves.
Two people. Same goal.
But one is grasping at success, while the other is poised, patient, knowing exactly where to cast their line.
The opposite of grasping? I call it equanimity.
Equanimity – calm in the not knowing; where performance and wellbeing are in harmony.
How you show up determines your success
I see this lakeshore scene often.
It shows up with the lawyers I coach who are running the partnership gauntlet.
I see it with the entrepreneurs who have created businesses from sheer determination and drive, only to find their success leaves them feeling detached from life.
For lawyers running the partnership gauntlet, it’s easy to think the answer is:
🔹 More billable hours
🔹 More yeses
🔹 More late nights
Even entrepreneurs turn to the “grind harder” handbook, hoping sheer effort will carry them through.
But going from grasping at opportunities to the focused calm of the fisherman in a deckchair is easier than you might think.
If you turn your attention from the cold sinking into your core and the frantic grasping with your net, you'll notice something about the other fisherman:
✅ They create space.
✅ They shift from reacting to responding.
✅ They stop grasping and start trusting themselves.
Partners start noticing something different about you…
One of my clients who is a lawyer and now sits back in her deckchair by the lakeshore said:
"Colleagues trust me, and in today’s world, that’s a really precious commodity."
She also shared:
"Partners notice there's something different about me—a confidence, an energy, and it unnerves them slightly."
An entrepreneur I coached described it like this:
"I’m still raising two kids, there’s not a lot of slack in the calendar. But I have a lot more suspension to deal with the bumps. A lot less noise and negative energy that surrounds it."
And a management consultant client reflected:
"It's a great place to be where I am mentally. It's calm and not clouded."
That’s the power of shifting how you show up.
So, are you grasping or fishing?
ps: If you’re a lawyer, entrepreneur, or high-performing professional who wants to show up without grasping—let’s have a conversation about how your lifestyle, mindset, and heart set can make your leadership feel effortless.
👉 Over to you
You don’t have to grind your way into leadership. You just need to shift how you show up.
What’s one way you can create space this week to lead without the grind?
Reply and let me know! I read every response.
That’s it for this week!
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To your health, joy, and success—one step at a time!
Eric
