Feeling Stuck? Your Expertise Might Be The Prison, Not The Key
A 6-minute investment to make you a better leader - In role. In life.
Hi, I’m Jason. I'm here to help you thrive mentally, physically, and emotionally through a powerful combination of science-based advice and coaching guidance.
Think of this as your weekly ‘cheat sheet’ to help you lead better and live better.
What’s coming up:
Prime Performance: This Week’s Best Transformation Tips & Life-Hacks
The Prime Perspective: Feeling Stuck? Your Expertise Might Be The Prison, Not The Key
Lessons from the Arena: 3 Science-based Stress Management Techniques
Be a Prime Mover: 1 Quote to Spark Change
Prime Performance: This Week’s Best Transformation Tips & Life-hacks
🎞️ WATCH 55 Seconds On How To Handle A Stressful Decision
Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer, known as the ‘mother of mindfulness’, provides a quick but powerful action item for tackling stressful decisions. Her practical approach to decision-making under pressure distills decades of research into less than a minute of actionable wisdom (for more on this topic, check out this week’s Lessons From the Arena below).
📖 READ How To Prepare For An Uncertain Future
“The one who can tolerate and embrace the most uncertainty is the one who will eventually win,” says author and investor Sahil Bloom in his latest article. He offers a thought-provoking ‘Lighthouse Strategy’ for leaders in today's AI-disrupted world.
📻 LISTEN 5 Tactics To Improve Longevity
World-renowned physician and author Peter Attia delivers some crucial insights on extending not just your lifespan, but your quality of life. He covers everything from sustainable exercise routines that support long-term health to why sleep quality significantly impacts aging and disease prevention.
The Prime Perspective: Thoughts on Leadership and Growth
Feeling Stuck? Your Expertise Might Be The Prison, Not The Key
When was the last time you were a beginner at something challenging and stuck to it?
When did you last put yourself in a position where you had more questions than answers?
There's a seductive comfort in expertise - in knowing rather than questioning, in teaching rather than learning.
Over the years I found myself unconsciously slipping into that zone, in leadership and in life. The subtle pressure to prove my knowledge and experience in group situations; the desire to double-down in those areas where I felt strongest; the decisions to avoid situations where I felt I could look ‘stupid’.
The reality is I was unwittingly just putting up blockers on my own development.
That eventual realisation made me decide to make some radical changes. I decided to become an explorer again. So over the past few months I’ve been doing many things including:
Discovering how it’s possible to ‘rewire’ your brain
Learning to handstand with world-class movement artists
Experimenting with changes to my diet and sleep routine
Trying to build my own business
And of course that has involved failing… time and time again. The irony? I feel I’ve grown more in the past 6 months than I had in the previous 6 years.
These experiences highlighted a critical distinction that I believe separates those thriving in life from those who are stagnating: the difference between being an explorer and being an expert.
Experts have answers. Explorers have questions.
Experts defend established territory. Explorers seek new frontiers.
Experts fear being wrong. Explorers expect to be wrong as part of discovery.
Experts focus on their reputation. Explorers focus on their curiosity.
Let me be clear, I’m talking very specifically about our mindsets here - if you look at the people we would regard as experts, the one common feature they tend to display, irrespective of their area of focus, is they themselves reject the title of ‘expert’ and embrace the ‘explorer’ mentality.
Crucially, as I’ve learnt, research in cognitive science demonstrates that diverse learning experiences create more flexible mental models and enhance what's known as ‘cognitive range’, the ability to apply different thinking styles to various challenges.
My invitation to you, therefore, is simple but challenging: resist the gravitational pull toward comfortable expertise. Instead, deliberately put yourself in environments where you feel uncomfortable.
Whatever it is doesn’t matter. Just start.
The discomfort of incompetence is temporary. The expansion of capability is permanent.
Ready to explore this further? Message me at jason@theprimemovement.com
THE PRIME PERFORMANCE PROGRAM
Want to go from stressed and stuck to confident and in control?
We’ve designed an integrated, evidence-based progam that includes:
Neuroscience so you think better
Expert coaching so you perform better
Hyper-personalized data that proves it
Exclusive founding member invitations were released to those on the waitlist yesterday. New spots will open to the public at a later date, but subscribers will be given advance warning.
Lessons from the Arena: Real Life Leadership Challenges
Every week, I'll share real challenges from coaching experiences, offering practical insights you can apply to your own leadership journey.
CHALLENGE:
"I've noticed that when I'm under serious pressure at work - like when deadlines are tight or there's a crisis situation - I don't think as clearly as I normally do. My stress levels shoot up, and I can see it affecting my team too. They pick up on my anxiety and everything just gets more intense. Are there some practical ways to help me keep my cool?"
MY GUIDANCE:
We all have a version of ourselves that shows up when we're under pressure - when things get intense, our brain can go into survival mode, making it harder to access the clear thinking and emotional control that leadership demands.
What compounds matters is that moods are infectious - your team is constantly reading your emotional state and if you’re projecting stress and anxiety, consciously or otherwise, it spreads like a contagion, amplifying the pressure everyone feels. Fortunately there are practical science-based techniques you can use to positively impact how you perform under pressure.
1. Develop a stress ‘pivot’
Train yourself to recognize the first signs of your stress response kicking in and consciously implement a mental gear shift. This might involve the following sequence:
Acknowledging the physiological sensations (racing heart, shallow breathing)
Naming the emotion silently to yourself ("This feels XXX")
Activating a physical response such as a physiological sigh
Consciously shifting your perspective from threat to challenge
Think of this just like the gym - you can build up ‘reps’ of this behaviour and condition yourself to cope better.
2. Adopt a ‘proximate objectives’ approach
When facing complex problems under pressure, our tendency is to rush toward complete solutions, which rarely works and can exacerbate already stressful situations. Instead, try focusing on proximate objectives - the immediate, achievable goals that move you toward your ultimate objective, one step at a time:
Establish what you know with certainty about the current situation
Identify the 2-3 critical questions that need answering
Based on the data points you have available to you, determine what are the best ‘next steps’ and implement.
Those moves will in turn throw up fresh data, so you can repeat the process based on your next proximate objective.
This structured approach helps prevent the cognitive tunneling that often happens under stress.
3. Perform ‘prehab’
When you know you are going to be entering a stressful situation, spend time visualizing both a successful outcome and potential obstacles. This technique, supported by motivational psychology research, primes your brain to remain adaptable rather than rigid when challenges arise.
The most effective leaders don't try to become stress-proof - they develop the capacity to function optimally while in their stress response mode. This skill, like any other, improves with deliberate practice.
Ready to take your leadership to the next level? Book a call by messaging me at jason@theprimemovement.com.
Be A Prime Mover: 1 Quote to Spark Change
“Exploration is really the essence of the human spirit.”
— Frank Borman
Send this to a fellow leader - they'll thank you for it.
