The Kind of Stress That’s Limiting You

Not all stress is bad.

Some stress—let’s call it “Good Stress”—pushes us forward. It’s the deadline that fuels focus, the challenge that sharpens skill, or the pressure that brings out our best.

But then there’s “Bad Stress.” The kind that clogs your brain, slows your momentum, and limits your leadership capacity. This is the stress of carrying too much, remembering too many details, making every decision, and keeping up with a never-ending mental to-do list.

Bad Stress = The Silent Capacity Killer

The biggest limit on your leadership isn’t a lack of ambition, vision, or effort. It’s a mental overload.

Think of your brain like your phone’s RAM. When too many things are running in the background, everything slows down. Decision fatigue sets in. Creativity dries up. Big-picture thinking fades.

And if you’ve ever felt like you’re at your limit, it’s probably not because you’ve maxed out your ability—it’s because you’ve maxed out your mental bandwidth.

So how do you clear the bad stress while keeping the good stress that fuels growth?

3 Ways to Offload the Stress That Slows You Down

1. Stop Making Decisions You Don’t Need to Make

Every decision costs mental energy. The more you make, the more exhausted your brain becomes. The fastest way to free up capacity? Delegate decisions before they ever reach you.

✅ Set up decision filters (e.g., what gets an automatic “yes” or “no”)
✅ Train your EA to handle routine choices without looping you in
✅ Step out of low-impact decisions that don’t need your input

Secondly, as it relates to decision fatigue, some things you decide once and do that forever. I call this Pre-Decision. I could write an entire article on this and if you want to hear more about it, let me know. 😉

2. Get the Details Out of Your Head

Leaders don’t just carry tasks—they carry context.

If you’re the only one who knows how things fit together, it’s no wonder you feel stretched thin.

Your EA should be tracking the moving parts for you. Ask yourself:

📌 Does my assistant know what’s weighing on me?
📌 Are there details I could stop holding if I had the right system?
📌 Am I remembering things that should be written down elsewhere?

3. Set Up a Stress-Filter System

Not everything that could land on your plate should land on your plate. You need a system that filters what actually deserves your attention.

🔹 Do you have a gatekeeper for your calendar?
🔹 Are you reviewing only the emails that truly require your response?
🔹 Are you protecting focus time so you can work on what truly matters with an ideal calendar?

The Fastest Way to Unlock Capacity

If bad stress is the great leadership limiter, then reducing it is the key to unlocking more capacity.

And the best way to do that? A great EA.

Because when you stop carrying all the things, you start leading at a whole new level.

Feeling the weight of too much in your head? Let’s talk about getting the right support in place to change that.

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