Hi Reader

It's ironic that this week's dimension is about energy and sustainability.

Because I've spent the last week learning this lesson the hard way.

There's been this super flu going around. Feels like COVID but apparently it's an "enhanced version" of the flu virus. I couldn't breathe properly. My throat was on fire. My bones felt weak. Everything hurt.

And like most high performers I work with, I tried to push through.

Friday I started feeling bad. Saturday I rested & then Sunday, despite not being anywhere near recovered, I decided to go for a 5-mile run.

I don't know who sent me.

In my head I was telling myself, "I'll feel better after this. Just push through. You've got a big week ahead."

I finished the run. It was brutal. And my plan was to go through the whole week as normal.

Come Monday, two hours into my day, my brain was spinning. I had to message my EA and ask her to cancel and reschedule all my calls.

The rest of the week was up and down. Forcing myself to slow down. Stopping when everything in me wanted to keep going.

Here's the question that stopped me.

If your future is built from today's patterns, what future are you building?

I had to sit with that. Because I realised something uncomfortable.

I knew I wasn't well. I knew I needed to stop. And yet I was still trying to force myself through. Still trying to prove I could handle it. Still running on a script that says rest is weakness and pushing through is strength.

That script has served me in many ways. It's part of how I got here. But it's also a pattern. And patterns don't care about your intentions. They just keep building.

Energy and sustainability is the third dimension on The Intention Gap Scorecard.

And here's why it goes deeper than burnout.

This isn't about rest. It's about identity.

So many high performers have built their entire sense of self around their capacity to push through. The ability to keep going when others stop. The willingness to sacrifice comfort for results. The identity of being the one who always delivers, no matter what.

That identity feels like an asset. It's what got you promoted. It's what earned you respect. It's what made you the person others rely on.

But here's the shadow side.

When your identity is tied to pushing through, rest becomes a threat. Slowing down feels like failure. And your body becomes something to override rather than something to listen to.

You're not just tired. You're trapped by the very thing that made you successful.

Here's the painful irony.

We can look at our teams and say, "Make sure you're not burning out. Make sure you're taking time to recover. Make sure you're doing things that sustain you, not drain you."

And then we do the exact opposite to ourselves.

We give advice we never take. We model patterns we'd never recommend. We build futures we don't actually want by repeating behaviours we refuse to examine.

That's the intention gap showing up in your body.

• You intend to be present for your family. But you show up exhausted.
• You intend to lead with clarity. But you make decisions from depletion.
• You intend to build something sustainable. But your daily patterns are burning the foundation.

There are so many times when we think about where we're trying to get to. The vision. The intention. The leader we want to become.

But we don't spend nearly enough time understanding how today's patterns are shaping that future. We assume the future is built from our goals. It's not. It's built from our habits. From the small choices we make when no one's watching. From the way we treat ourselves when we're tired, sick, or overwhelmed.

• Every time you override your body's signals, you're reinforcing a pattern.
• Every time you push through when you should pause, you're building something.

The question is whether you're building the future you actually want.

At the start of the year, I shared an exercise with you. The Monday, Wednesday, Friday check-in. Three moments each week to pause and ask yourself how you're actually doing, not how you think you should be doing, but the truth. It takes five minutes and changes everything.

The feedback from those who tried it has been consistent. "This changed how I move through my week." "I didn't realise how much I was ignoring." "It forced me to be honest with myself."

And yet, in my own flu-ridden state this week, I was reminded how easy it is to let that slip. How easy it is to know what I should do and still not do it.

I knew I should slow down. I went for a 5-mile run instead.

That's the gap.

This is what the third dimension measures.

Are you sustaining yourself or slowly draining?

• Do you push through when your body is telling you to stop?
• Do you sacrifice recovery because your identity can't handle rest?
• Do you treat your energy as infinite when it's anything but?

These patterns don't just affect your health. They affect your leadership. A depleted leader makes reactive decisions. A depleted leader has no patience. A depleted leader can't hold space for anyone else because they have nothing left to give.

And a depleted leader is building a future they'll eventually resent.

Over the coming weeks, I'm breaking down each dimension of the scorecard. Last week was presence. This week is energy and sustainability.

Because if you're running on empty, you're not leading. You're surviving. And survival was never the intention.

Three questions to sit with this week:

1. What identity are you protecting by refusing to slow down?
2. If your current patterns continue for another five years, what will they cost you?
3. When was the last time you did something that genuinely restored you, not just distracted you?

The Intention Gap Scorecard is free and takes five minutes. It'll show you exactly where you're falling into the gap and what to do about it.

[Take the scorecard here]

Your homework this week:

At the end of each day, ask yourself one question: Did today's patterns build the future I want? Don't judge the answer. Just notice. That awareness is where change begins.

Let me know when you've done it.

See you next Monday.

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