When "Getting Ahead" Keeps You Behind
Welcome back to your Peak of the Week, where we explore what it means to live aligned, lead authentically, and build a life that feels as good as it looks.
This Week →
Why "getting ahead" might be keeping you stuck
Why living fully is how you actually get ahead
Simple shifts to focus on what matters most
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The real risk isn't falling behind. It's racing so fast you miss it.
What I'm Noticing
Friday night. My phone buzzed with an invitation from neighborhood friends. A night out, laughter, nothing fancy. Just connection.
Old Laura would have declined without hesitation. I'd done it so many times before. I had work to do, things to finish, ways to get ahead. So much to do. No time to have fun. Staying in felt responsible. Going out felt indulgent. So I'd sit at my laptop after I put the kids to bed, manufacturing urgency, creating tasks to justify the sacrifice.
Because that's what I believed getting ahead required. Constant work. Constant motion. Constant proof that I was serious about success.
But what I see in myself, and so many of the people I work with, is that we've confused motion with momentum. We've turned "getting ahead" into a way of life instead of an outcome. And somewhere along the way, we stopped asking “getting ahead of what, exactly?”.
This time, I went. I chose the night out, the friends, the laughter. And you know what happened? I came home more refreshed, alive. More creative with my kids the next day. More focused on what actually mattered in my work instead of what I'd made up to fill the space.
I'm learning something that goes against everything I was taught about achievement: living your life isn't a distraction from getting ahead. It's how you actually do it.
What's Possible From Here
If you're always working, you're not actually working on what matters most. You're working on the feeling of working.
Personally, I’ve been feeding this old achievement program for way too many decades. What kept me in an endless loop was that I was tying worth to output. When I achieve the next thing, then I’ll be enough. And that program is expensive. It took me away from living my life. My real life. Not the fake one I was imagining in my mind.
When we believe we need to work all the time to get ahead, we're operating from a scarcity mindset that says there's never enough. Never enough time, never enough progress, never enough proof that we're worthy of rest. So we keep moving, keep producing, keep sacrificing the present moment for some future version of success that never quite arrives.
But what if getting ahead doesn't mean working more? What if it means living more fully so you can work from a place of clarity instead of depletion?
I spent years believing that presence was a luxury I'd earn once I achieved enough. Then I realized achievement without presence is just performance. And performance is exhausting.
The cost of continuing the old pattern? You might get a lot done, but you'll miss your actual life. The moments that matter. The ones that made you feel the most alive.
You'll look back and realize you were so busy getting ahead that you forgot to be present for the moments that make life worth living.
Micro-Moves
This week, try one of these gentle shifts. Not all three. Just the one that makes your heart say "yes, that."
Notice your "manufactured urgency." The next time you're about to decline an invitation or skip something that feeds your soul because you "need to work," pause. Ask yourself: Is this truly urgent, or am I creating work to feel productive? Write down what you were planning to do instead. Look at it honestly. Would it matter next week? Next month? Sometimes just seeing this pattern is enough to start changing it.
Choose one thing that matters most. At the start of each day this week, identify the single most important thing you could focus on. Not the longest to-do list. Not the busiest schedule. The one thing that would make the biggest difference in your well-being. Then protect space for that, and let yourself release the manufactured urgency around everything else. Work will always be there. Your clarity about what truly matters is the real competitive advantage.
Say yes to one invitation. This week, accept one invitation you'd normally decline because you "should" be working. Notice what happens. Notice how you feel afterward. Notice what shifts in your work when you return to it from a place of connection rather than depletion.
The truth is, your life is happening right now. Not once you “get ahead” to the future version of you. Right now, you are enough. Move from that place. Decide from that place.
With deep belief in your magnificence,
Laura
P.S. – I'd love to hear your own experience with this. Who has been a mirror for you? Reply and share your story.
And if you're realizing that working all the time isn't actually getting you ahead, here are ways I can serve you.
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