The Gift of Nothingness

The Gift of Nothingness

by | Sep 12, 2025 | Identity Shifts, Inspiration, Practice Leadership

This post is an excerpt from The Significance Project. If this resonates with you, I’d love for you to be part of the community..

You can sign up here.

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Why Successful Leaders Mistake Nothingness for Failure (and How to Reframe It as Growth)

High achievers are rewarded for being “on.” Quick answers. Big vision. A track record of execution that proves they can deliver again and again. Over time, producing on demand doesn’t just become a skill—it becomes an identity.

Which is why the blank page feels so brutal.

When the spark doesn’t come, when the ideas stall, when momentum slows, many leaders interpret it as a personal breakdown:

I’ve lost my edge. What if nothing else comes? Maybe I’ve peaked.

But here’s the truth: the problem isn’t the nothingness. The problem is how it’s interpreted.

Nothingness isn’t absence. It isn’t collapse. It’s a gift.

Two weeks ago, I wrote about aliveness as strategy—the fire that jolts us awake, pulls us back into the arena, and transforms what we create into something significant. But aliveness isn’t the whole story.

Because just as aliveness ignites, nothingness dissolves. It clears the ground so the old scaffolding can fall away.

Both are profound. Both are required when you’re doing meaningful work.

The Paradox of High Achievement

My clients want freedom, autonomy, and agency. They imagine space opening up in their lives and leadership. And yet—these are people with powerful doing muscles. They are most comfortable in motion.

So when space actually arrives, it often doesn’t feel like freedom. It feels like danger. A stalled project. A season of silence. And instead of seeing this as the opening they longed for, they mistake it for something being wrong.

This is the paradox of success: the very system that rewarded relentless producing also conditions you to fear the pause.

Practices for Meeting Nothingness

Here’s the invitation: treat nothingness as arrival, not absence. Curiosity, not collapse.

  • Name it. When it shows up, acknowledge it: Ah, this is nothingness.

  • Stay with it. Sit with the page, the pause, the silence—just a little longer than you want to.

     

  • Disrupt the spiral. When the old story surfaces—I’m failing, I’m slipping—don’t chase it. Get up. Move your body. Take a walk, dance, breathe. Let your system reset.

     

From Success to Significance

Significance doesn’t come only from fire and momentum. It comes from leaders who can hold both—the spark of aliveness and the space of nothingness—and trust that each is shaping them for the work only they can do.

The next time nothing comes, remember: this isn’t the end of your edge. It’s the start of your next one.

Jen Karofsky | Thought Partner & Coach for Visionary Leaders & Significance Seekers

 Jen Karofsky collaborates with leaders who are ready to disrupt the status quo and craft a life of legacy, deep connection, and purposeful impact. Through intentional coaching and bold thought partnership, Jen helps you align your work, your values, and your vision to create transformational change in your world.

Join The Significance Project to redefine success and step into your power.

Join

The Significance Project

My monthly(ish) newsletter for the tools, tips and provocations you need to live your life of significance.

More on the BLG:

I AM HERE FOR THE GRAPPLERS

by | , ,

Explore the unique challenges and triumphs of ambitious leaders who embrace both personal and professional growth. Learn how “The Significance Project” helps leaders transform all aspects of their lives, not just their careers. Dive into our insights on holistic growth and discover how you can become a grappler, a warrior in your own life journey.

read more

The Gift of Nothingness

by | , ,

In the dance of leadership, the moments of stillness can feel like a void, but what if we reimagined this nothingness as fertile ground for renewal rather than a harbinger of failure? It’s in these quiet interludes that we can gather our thoughts and rediscover our purpose, allowing the pressures of constant output to dissolve. Rather than seeing the blank page as a threat, let it be a canvas for creativity, an invitation to reflect deeply and cultivate ideas that resonate with our truest selves. Embracing these pauses nurtures resilience, transforming what once felt like an absence into a powerful opportunity for insight and growth, reminding us that even in silence, we are preparing for the next great leap forward.

read more

Why Successful Leaders Are Secretly Dying Inside (And How to Wake Up)

by | ,

Aliveness is what wakes us up from autopilot.
You remember when the work felt electric. When every project sparked something new. That aliveness brought the recognition, the awards, the kind of success most people dream about.
But then, slowly, what once felt alive became… routine. The systems that served you started running you. Autopilot isn’t the enemy—there’s a time and place to just do. But when autopilot becomes the only mode, success turns beige.

read more

The Burden and the Gift of Being Skilled

by | , ,

When Being Good at Something Becomes a Role You Didn’t Mean to Keep
There’s a particular weight that comes with being highly skilled. Not just capable—but trusted, leaned on, counted on. You do something well—maybe better than anyone else in the room—and over time, it becomes expected. Natural. Automatic. You show up, and without even offering, you’re tapped.

read more

Why Successful Leaders Are Secretly Dying Inside (And How to Wake Up)

Why Successful Leaders Are Secretly Dying Inside (And How to Wake Up)

by | Aug 26, 2025 | Identity Shifts, Practice Leadership

This post is an excerpt from The Significance Project. If this resonates with you, I’d love for you to be part of the community..

You can sign up here.

Blog fanner for greatness and safety

The autopilot that made you successful might be slowly killing your impact.

Here’s how to break free.

Success can be a trap.

Not the obvious kind—where ego inflates and performance drops. The subtle kind. Where you keep winning, keep delivering, keep hitting every metric that matters. But something essential dies in the process.

Aliveness.

And in this moment—when the world feels increasingly mechanical, when algorithms drive decisions, when human connection gets filtered through screens—reclaiming that aliveness isn’t just personal growth. It’s resistance.

When Excellence Becomes the Enemy of Aliveness

I felt it recently in a conversation designed to stretch me. We weren’t chasing clarity or filling time—we were throwing ourselves into the arena: circling, challenging, rewriting what mattered. By the end, my skin tingled. My senses sharpened. My mind was alive on new edges.

That conversation reminded me what most successful leaders have forgotten: aliveness is what separates good work from transformational work.

Too many leaders stop letting themselves feel this electric edge. Not because they’re lazy or incompetent. Because they’re good. They’ve mastered systems. Built reputations. Proven they can win the game.

But what once felt alive becomes predictable. Excellence replaces discovery. Optimization replaces creation. The safety of competence starts to suffocate the very spark that created their success.

The Hidden Cost of Autopilot Leadership

When leaders lose aliveness, it’s not just their spark that dims:

Organizations stagnate as innovation gets replaced by iteration. Industries stall when the people with the biggest platforms play it safe. The world loses out on breakthroughs it desperately needs—because the leaders capable of creating them have chosen comfort over growth.

The most dangerous comfort zone isn’t failure. It’s success without aliveness.

Aliveness as Competitive Advantage

Aliveness isn’t feel-good philosophy. It’s strategic necessity.

When you’re lit up by what you’re creating, you see connections faster. You take bigger risks. You collaborate more deeply. The work that emerges doesn’t just polish existing ideas—it shifts entire conversations, creates new categories, moves industries forward.

Feeling this good isn’t indulgence. It’s edge.

Finding Your Arena

Aliveness lives in the arenas that demand your whole system—where you can’t hide behind what you’ve already mastered. Where you’re forced to stretch into what’s next.

Leaders resist this because staying proven feels safer. But here’s the paradox: the real risk isn’t stepping into the arena. The real risk is staying out of it while someone else does the work you were meant to do.

Your biggest visions don’t land in you by accident. They arrive to be lived.

The Choice Every Leader Faces

You can keep optimizing the machine you’ve built. Keep delivering predictable excellence. Keep winning the game you’ve already mastered.

Or you can find the arena that wakes you up. The one that makes your pulse quicken. The one that demands everything you have and gives back even more.

Because in that arena, you don’t just succeed. You create significance.

And significance—not just success—is what the world is waiting for.

Ready to step back into the arena? Start by identifying the conversation, project, or challenge that makes you slightly nervous. That’s where your aliveness is hiding. And when you’re ready to move beyond success into significance, join The Significance Project—where leaders gather to do work that matters.

Jen Karofsky | Thought Partner & Coach for Visionary Leaders & Significance Seekers

 Jen Karofsky collaborates with leaders who are ready to disrupt the status quo and craft a life of legacy, deep connection, and purposeful impact. Through intentional coaching and bold thought partnership, Jen helps you align your work, your values, and your vision to create transformational change in your world.

Join The Significance Project to redefine success and step into your power.

Join

The Significance Project

My monthly(ish) newsletter for the tools, tips and provocations you need to live your life of significance.

More on the BLG:

I AM HERE FOR THE GRAPPLERS

by | , ,

Explore the unique challenges and triumphs of ambitious leaders who embrace both personal and professional growth. Learn how “The Significance Project” helps leaders transform all aspects of their lives, not just their careers. Dive into our insights on holistic growth and discover how you can become a grappler, a warrior in your own life journey.

read more

The Gift of Nothingness

by | , ,

In the dance of leadership, the moments of stillness can feel like a void, but what if we reimagined this nothingness as fertile ground for renewal rather than a harbinger of failure? It’s in these quiet interludes that we can gather our thoughts and rediscover our purpose, allowing the pressures of constant output to dissolve. Rather than seeing the blank page as a threat, let it be a canvas for creativity, an invitation to reflect deeply and cultivate ideas that resonate with our truest selves. Embracing these pauses nurtures resilience, transforming what once felt like an absence into a powerful opportunity for insight and growth, reminding us that even in silence, we are preparing for the next great leap forward.

read more

Why Successful Leaders Are Secretly Dying Inside (And How to Wake Up)

by | ,

Aliveness is what wakes us up from autopilot.
You remember when the work felt electric. When every project sparked something new. That aliveness brought the recognition, the awards, the kind of success most people dream about.
But then, slowly, what once felt alive became… routine. The systems that served you started running you. Autopilot isn’t the enemy—there’s a time and place to just do. But when autopilot becomes the only mode, success turns beige.

read more

The Burden and the Gift of Being Skilled

by | , ,

When Being Good at Something Becomes a Role You Didn’t Mean to Keep
There’s a particular weight that comes with being highly skilled. Not just capable—but trusted, leaned on, counted on. You do something well—maybe better than anyone else in the room—and over time, it becomes expected. Natural. Automatic. You show up, and without even offering, you’re tapped.

read more

The Burden and the Gift of Being Skilled

The Burden and the Gift of Being Skilled

by | Jul 31, 2025 | Identity Shifts, Inspiration, Isolation

This post is an excerpt from The Significance Project. If this resonates with you, I’d love for you to be part of the community..

You can sign up here.

Blog fanner for greatness and safety

When Being Good at Something Becomes a Role You Didn’t Mean to Keep

There’s a particular weight that comes with being highly skilled.

Not just capable—but trusted, leaned on, counted on.
 You do something well—maybe better than anyone else in the room—and over time, it becomes expected. Natural. Automatic.

You show up, and without even offering, you’re tapped.

At first, it feels like power.
 It feels like usefulness, purpose, identity.

But eventually, something shifts.

The Quiet Rise of Frustration

You start to feel it—quiet at first. A low, steady frustration.

It stirs when you walk into familiar spaces and sense the unspoken expectation:
 You’ll lead.
 You’ll guide.
 You’ll hold the tension.
 You’ll do what you always do so well.

At work, maybe it’s when you join a team offsite and someone says, “Can you just kick us off?”
 Not because you offered—but because that’s what you’ve always done.

Or as a founder, when your team hits a wall and—even though you’re no longer in the weeds—everyone looks to you to vision your way through it. They want direction, clarity, perspective. And you have it. But you’re tired. You were hoping this time, someone else might step up.

Or in your family, when the emotional temperature shifts and all eyes instinctively turn to you to mediate, translate, make it better.

You do it, of course. You always have.
 But something in you tightens.
 Because this time, it doesn’t feel like contribution. 
 It feels like performance.

When Excellence Becomes Exhaustion

Not because the skill disappeared. But because it’s being overused.
 Because it’s become reflex, not alignment.

Most people don’t name this moment clearly.
 They chalk it up to stress or being overextended. But underneath, there’s often something deeper:
 a signal that your identity is shifting.
 That the way you’ve always shown up isn’t quite right anymore.
 That the skill you’ve been praised for—the one that’s built your success—may now be the very thing keeping you from your next level of significance.

That quiet frustration, the sudden resistance to showing up in certain rooms, the impulse to withdraw or overfunction—these are not failures of character.
 They are thresholds.

The Threshold Between Success and Significance

You don’t need to stop being excellent. But you do need to pause long enough to ask:
 Where am I using this skill out of habit, not alignment?
 Where am I unconsciously reinforcing an identity I’ve already outgrown?

When you’re in a season of evolution, these moments matter.

Because significance doesn’t emerge from reflex.
 It emerges from discernment. From courage. From choosing on purpose.

The real discipline isn’t in continuing to offer your gifts.
 It’s in knowing when to not.
 When to lead, and when to let the silence hold.
 When to allow yourself to just be in the room—not function in it.

Becoming More of Who You Are Now

This is the edge where I meet many of my clients.
 They’re not looking to hustle harder or refine the performance.
 They’re looking to reclaim their energy, their clarity, and their identity.

They want to matter, not just succeed.

And that requires more than new strategy.
 It requires new agreements with self.
 It requires a willingness to listen to the signals and step into something more honest, more vital, more aligned.

You’re not less of who you were.
 You’re just becoming more of who you are now.

And that’s where significance begins.


Sign up for the newsletter here.

Jen Karofsky | Thought Partner & Coach for Visionary Leaders & Significance Seekers

 Jen Karofsky collaborates with leaders who are ready to disrupt the status quo and craft a life of legacy, deep connection, and purposeful impact. Through intentional coaching and bold thought partnership, Jen helps you align your work, your values, and your vision to create transformational change in your world.

Join The Significance Project to redefine success and step into your power.

Join

The Significance Project

My monthly(ish) newsletter for the tools, tips and provocations you need to live your life of significance.

More on the BLG:

I AM HERE FOR THE GRAPPLERS

by | , ,

Explore the unique challenges and triumphs of ambitious leaders who embrace both personal and professional growth. Learn how “The Significance Project” helps leaders transform all aspects of their lives, not just their careers. Dive into our insights on holistic growth and discover how you can become a grappler, a warrior in your own life journey.

read more

The Gift of Nothingness

by | , ,

In the dance of leadership, the moments of stillness can feel like a void, but what if we reimagined this nothingness as fertile ground for renewal rather than a harbinger of failure? It’s in these quiet interludes that we can gather our thoughts and rediscover our purpose, allowing the pressures of constant output to dissolve. Rather than seeing the blank page as a threat, let it be a canvas for creativity, an invitation to reflect deeply and cultivate ideas that resonate with our truest selves. Embracing these pauses nurtures resilience, transforming what once felt like an absence into a powerful opportunity for insight and growth, reminding us that even in silence, we are preparing for the next great leap forward.

read more

Why Successful Leaders Are Secretly Dying Inside (And How to Wake Up)

by | ,

Aliveness is what wakes us up from autopilot.
You remember when the work felt electric. When every project sparked something new. That aliveness brought the recognition, the awards, the kind of success most people dream about.
But then, slowly, what once felt alive became… routine. The systems that served you started running you. Autopilot isn’t the enemy—there’s a time and place to just do. But when autopilot becomes the only mode, success turns beige.

read more

The Burden and the Gift of Being Skilled

by | , ,

When Being Good at Something Becomes a Role You Didn’t Mean to Keep
There’s a particular weight that comes with being highly skilled. Not just capable—but trusted, leaned on, counted on. You do something well—maybe better than anyone else in the room—and over time, it becomes expected. Natural. Automatic. You show up, and without even offering, you’re tapped.

read more

A Reflection on the Tension Between Greatness and Safety

A Reflection on the Tension Between Greatness and Safety

by | Jul 16, 2025 | Identity Shifts, Uncategorized

This post is an excerpt from The Significance Project. If this resonates with you, I’d love for you to be part of the community..

You can sign up here.

Blog fanner for greatness and safety

“A new world calls across the ocean. A new world calls across the sky. A new world whispers in the shadows. Time to fly. Time to fly.”

—from Songs for a New World

A few weeks ago, I watched my niece perform in Songs for a New World. She’s something special—watching her in her full expression always moves me.

But this show in particular really got me. The music, the stories, the emotional honesty—it pulled me right in.

And for a moment, it felt like I was holding not just the meaning of the show… but maybe even the meaning of life.

(I know, I know—heavy, right? Stay with me.)

Because sometimes, something cracks you open when you least expect it and shows you what’s really at stake. And if you’ve ever had that kind of moment—where something small hits surprisingly deep—you know what I mean.

Songs for a New World isn’t a traditional musical. It’s a series of vignettes—snapshots of people at crossroads.

Moments of decision. Moments when something breaks through. Moments when the call to step into something unknown becomes impossible to ignore.

When the opening lines rang through the theater—

“A new world calls… A new world whispers… Time to fly.”

—I didn’t just hear the lyrics. I felt the invitation.

Some significance seekers recognize that invitation immediately. We sense it in our bodies—a tension, a restlessness, a quiet ache that tells the truth before we’ve found the words.

Others are just beginning to notice it. A question that won’t leave. A subtle dissonance. A flicker of possibility.

Yet—it’s there, even in the form of the whisper. And once you’ve heard it, you can’t un-hear it.

That’s what this show captured with haunting clarity:

Life offers thresholds.

If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you’re standing at one now. Being invited. Being called.

Do not ignore it.

The cost of not listening isn’t just a missed opportunity—it’s the slow fade of what makes you feel most alive. It’s the quiet resignation that settles in when we choose safety over significance, again and again.

You don’t have to blow up all that you’ve built, but it is the time to listen.

This is the work of the significance-seeker—and it doesn’t begin with a plan. It begins with listening.

If you’re hearing the whisper and ready to explore what it might mean for your life, let’s talk. You can book a conversation with me [here].

What threshold are you standing at today?

I’d love to hear about the whispers you’re hearing—the invitations that won’t leave you alone. Share in the comments below.

Jen Karofsky | Thought Partner & Coach for Visionary Leaders & Significance Seekers

 Jen Karofsky collaborates with leaders who are ready to disrupt the status quo and craft a life of legacy, deep connection, and purposeful impact. Through intentional coaching and bold thought partnership, Jen helps you align your work, your values, and your vision to create transformational change in your world.

Join The Significance Project to redefine success and step into your power.

Join

The Significance Project

My monthly(ish) newsletter for the tools, tips and provocations you need to live your life of significance.

More on the BLG:

I AM HERE FOR THE GRAPPLERS

by | , ,

Explore the unique challenges and triumphs of ambitious leaders who embrace both personal and professional growth. Learn how “The Significance Project” helps leaders transform all aspects of their lives, not just their careers. Dive into our insights on holistic growth and discover how you can become a grappler, a warrior in your own life journey.

read more

The Gift of Nothingness

by | , ,

In the dance of leadership, the moments of stillness can feel like a void, but what if we reimagined this nothingness as fertile ground for renewal rather than a harbinger of failure? It’s in these quiet interludes that we can gather our thoughts and rediscover our purpose, allowing the pressures of constant output to dissolve. Rather than seeing the blank page as a threat, let it be a canvas for creativity, an invitation to reflect deeply and cultivate ideas that resonate with our truest selves. Embracing these pauses nurtures resilience, transforming what once felt like an absence into a powerful opportunity for insight and growth, reminding us that even in silence, we are preparing for the next great leap forward.

read more

Why Successful Leaders Are Secretly Dying Inside (And How to Wake Up)

by | ,

Aliveness is what wakes us up from autopilot.
You remember when the work felt electric. When every project sparked something new. That aliveness brought the recognition, the awards, the kind of success most people dream about.
But then, slowly, what once felt alive became… routine. The systems that served you started running you. Autopilot isn’t the enemy—there’s a time and place to just do. But when autopilot becomes the only mode, success turns beige.

read more

The Burden and the Gift of Being Skilled

by | , ,

When Being Good at Something Becomes a Role You Didn’t Mean to Keep
There’s a particular weight that comes with being highly skilled. Not just capable—but trusted, leaned on, counted on. You do something well—maybe better than anyone else in the room—and over time, it becomes expected. Natural. Automatic. You show up, and without even offering, you’re tapped.

read more
The Collaboration

The Collaboration

by | Jul 3, 2025 | Identity Shifts, Innovation

This post is an excerpt from The Significance Project. If this resonates with you, I’d love for you to be part of the community..

You can sign up here.

When Success and Significance build something real—together.

 Part 5: There comes a point in a high-achieving life when the question isn’t, “What else can I do?”
 It’s– “What kind of life do I want all of this to add up to?”

You’ve built incredible things.
 You’ve led, produced, grown, achieved.
 And let’s be clear: We need that.
 We need people who are willing to build, to carry weight, to activate their ambition in service of something real.

But here’s what I see over and over again—
 There’s a moment when even the most accomplished among us hit a space that feels… unmarked.
 A strange little gap. A drop off the edge of the well-paved sidewalk.
 A kind of pause that doesn’t come with a roadmap or a job title.

It’s not failure.
 It’s not burnout.
 It’s development.

As Jung noted, in the second half of life (developmentally speaking), we’re not as interested in acquisition as we are in integration.
 Not in playing the game harder—but in making the game matter.

And here’s where things get interesting:

Success still has a seat at the table.
 We’re not firing her.
 She’s got energy. Strategy. Drive. She builds things. Moves things. Funds things.
 We want her in the room.

But Significance gets a seat now too.

She brings perspective. Presence. Soul.
 She doesn’t want to scale everything. She wants to root it.
 She wants to make sure we’re building something we can live in—not just present.

And the opportunity—the invitation—is not to toggle between them.

It’s to let them co-create your next season.

This is what integration looks like.

Not a compromise.
 A collaboration.

Success brings fire.
Significance brings depth.

Together, they produce something enduring—something that feeds you as much as it feeds the world.

And when you let these parts of you finally speak to each other—not in opposition, but in partnership—
you stop striving in ways that drain you.
You start building in ways that feel like truth.

That’s the shift.

And it changes everything.

A Moment for Significance

Ask yourself:

  1. What parts of me have I kept in separate rooms?

  2. Where is there tension between what I’m producing and what I actually value?

  3. What would it look like to lead in a way that feeds me and the world at the same time?

This isn’t the end of your ambition.
 It’s the beginning of your alignment.

Love + The Life Only You Can Build,
Jen

 

PS- If you’re ready to live in the space where Success and Significance are finally on the same team—
 If you’re craving the integration that brings aliveness, clarity, and real contribution—

Let’s build that life, together.

Let’s talk.

 

Jen Karofsky | Thought Partner & Coach for Visionary Leaders & Significance Seekers

 Jen Karofsky collaborates with leaders who are ready to disrupt the status quo and craft a life of legacy, deep connection, and purposeful impact. Through intentional coaching and bold thought partnership, Jen helps you align your work, your values, and your vision to create transformational change in your world.

Join The Significance Project to redefine success and step into your power.

Join

The Significance Project

My monthly(ish) newsletter for the tools, tips and provocations you need to live your life of significance.

More on the BLG:

I AM HERE FOR THE GRAPPLERS

by | , ,

Explore the unique challenges and triumphs of ambitious leaders who embrace both personal and professional growth. Learn how “The Significance Project” helps leaders transform all aspects of their lives, not just their careers. Dive into our insights on holistic growth and discover how you can become a grappler, a warrior in your own life journey.

read more

The Gift of Nothingness

by | , ,

In the dance of leadership, the moments of stillness can feel like a void, but what if we reimagined this nothingness as fertile ground for renewal rather than a harbinger of failure? It’s in these quiet interludes that we can gather our thoughts and rediscover our purpose, allowing the pressures of constant output to dissolve. Rather than seeing the blank page as a threat, let it be a canvas for creativity, an invitation to reflect deeply and cultivate ideas that resonate with our truest selves. Embracing these pauses nurtures resilience, transforming what once felt like an absence into a powerful opportunity for insight and growth, reminding us that even in silence, we are preparing for the next great leap forward.

read more

Why Successful Leaders Are Secretly Dying Inside (And How to Wake Up)

by | ,

Aliveness is what wakes us up from autopilot.
You remember when the work felt electric. When every project sparked something new. That aliveness brought the recognition, the awards, the kind of success most people dream about.
But then, slowly, what once felt alive became… routine. The systems that served you started running you. Autopilot isn’t the enemy—there’s a time and place to just do. But when autopilot becomes the only mode, success turns beige.

read more

The Burden and the Gift of Being Skilled

by | , ,

When Being Good at Something Becomes a Role You Didn’t Mean to Keep
There’s a particular weight that comes with being highly skilled. Not just capable—but trusted, leaned on, counted on. You do something well—maybe better than anyone else in the room—and over time, it becomes expected. Natural. Automatic. You show up, and without even offering, you’re tapped.

read more

When Success and Significance Become Co-Creators

When Success and Significance Become Co-Creators

by | Jun 19, 2025 | Identity Shifts, Inspiration

This post is an excerpt from The Significance Project. If this resonates with you, I’d love for you to be part of the community..

You can sign up here.

The conversation that changes everything.

Part 3: So far, we’ve named the two siblings:
 Success—the magnetic, outcome-driven, high-achieving force who built the world you live in.
 And Significance—the quieter, inward-facing part of you who’s now asking deeper questions about meaning, alignment, and legacy.

For many people, these two parts have never been in real conversation.
 They’ve either taken turns in the driver’s seat…
 Or worse—stood in silent opposition.
 One seen as the “productive” self.
 The other as the “emotional” or “indulgent” self.
 (Guess which one gets more budget in most organizations—and internal operating systems.)

But something profound happens when we stop pitting them against each other.

We realize: they were never meant to compete.
They were meant to collaborate.

Think of this as family therapy for your inner operating system.

Success is still sharp, strategic, visionary.
 But now? They’re learning to listen.
 To pause. To consider why we’re doing the thing—not just how fast we can get it done.

Significance is still thoughtful, rooted, impact-driven.
 But now? They’re learning to speak up.
 To make requests. To show up at the whiteboard instead of just journaling in the corner.

We’re not choosing one over the other.
 We’re building with both.

Because real leadership—the kind that creates a life of depth, integrity, and momentum—comes from integrating these two parts into a cohesive whole.

Success without Significance is hollow.
 Significance without Success is stuck in the clouds.
 But together?
 They’re a force.

This isn’t always easy.

It takes unlearning.
 It takes reparenting parts of yourself that learned early on which sibling was “good” and which one was “frivolous.”
 It takes reimagining what ambition looks like when it’s in service of something greater than applause.

But here’s the payoff:
 When you let Success and Significance become co-creators, you unlock a different kind of power.
 One that isn’t about volume—it’s about resonance.
 One that doesn’t just scale—it sustains.

You stop hustling for your worth.
 And start building from your truth.

 

A Moment for Significance

Try this brief thought experiment:

  1. What does Success in me want right now?

  2. What does Significance in me want right now?

  3. If I let them build something together—what might they create?

Let it be a brainstorming session. A negotiation.
 You might be surprised how much these two want the same thing—just with different language

Love + The Art of Building with Both Hands,
 Jen

 

PS- This is where the real work begins—not in abandoning what made you successful, but in expanding it to include what matters most.

If you’re ready to let Success and Significance become co-creators in your life and leadership, Let’s talk.

 

Jen Karofsky | Thought Partner & Coach for Visionary Leaders & Significance Seekers

Jen Karofsky collaborates with leaders who are ready to disrupt the status quo and craft a life of legacy, deep connection, and purposeful impact. Through intentional coaching and bold thought partnership, Jen helps you align your work, your values, and your vision to create transformational change in your world.

Join The Significance Project to redefine success and step into your power.

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I AM HERE FOR THE GRAPPLERS

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The Gift of Nothingness

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In the dance of leadership, the moments of stillness can feel like a void, but what if we reimagined this nothingness as fertile ground for renewal rather than a harbinger of failure? It’s in these quiet interludes that we can gather our thoughts and rediscover our purpose, allowing the pressures of constant output to dissolve. Rather than seeing the blank page as a threat, let it be a canvas for creativity, an invitation to reflect deeply and cultivate ideas that resonate with our truest selves. Embracing these pauses nurtures resilience, transforming what once felt like an absence into a powerful opportunity for insight and growth, reminding us that even in silence, we are preparing for the next great leap forward.

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Why Successful Leaders Are Secretly Dying Inside (And How to Wake Up)

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Aliveness is what wakes us up from autopilot.
You remember when the work felt electric. When every project sparked something new. That aliveness brought the recognition, the awards, the kind of success most people dream about.
But then, slowly, what once felt alive became… routine. The systems that served you started running you. Autopilot isn’t the enemy—there’s a time and place to just do. But when autopilot becomes the only mode, success turns beige.

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The Burden and the Gift of Being Skilled

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When Being Good at Something Becomes a Role You Didn’t Mean to Keep
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