How Fast is Fast Enough?

The other day, I had an incredibly powerful coaching session with a client. The focus kept circling around one big question:

How fast is fast enough?

She had been stuck in a cycle of racing through her days—driven, productive, outwardly successful. But inside? Overwhelmed. Drained. Questioning everything. That nagging sense of “not enough” had crept in again. Not enough time. Not enough progress. Not fast enough.

Eventually, she’d hit a wall—physically and emotionally depleted—and the same loop would begin: doubt, self-criticism, and guilt. Why can’t I do more? Why can’t I say no? Why does this still not feel like enough, even when it’s too much?

So I asked her: Why do you feel like you need to go faster? And what does “fast” actually mean to you?

She paused, then shared a story from college. A professor once told her class that they’d have to choose between good grades, a social life, or sleep—because maintaining all three wasn’t realistic. That moment stuck.

It planted a belief that success means sacrifice. Over time, that belief evolved into the idea that if her clients wanted faster results, they’d have to pay more—and that justified her sacrificing her own well-being to deliver. Surely she could survive on less sleep for a month or two, right?

But what happens when the next client is willing to pay more for speedy results? And the one after that? The cycle continues—and she finds herself right back in overwhelm, drained and questioning everything… again and again.

It’s an equation we’ve all seen before:

Success = Hustle.

Worth = Productivity.

Speed = Value.

Sound familiar? Can you see this in your life?

Many of us live by unspoken rules like:

• We have to earn our rest.

• Slowing down means falling behind.

• The only way to succeed is to grind harder than the next person.

But here’s the problem: at what cost?

As a high performance coach, I work with clients to define and create holistic success—not just excelling in your career or checking off goals, but living in a way that feels aligned, meaningful, and whole. Because if you’re crushing it professionally but neglecting your health, your relationships, or your inner peace… is that really success?

This brings us to a bigger, deeper question—one that touches every part of life:

How much is enough?

• How much money is enough money?

• How many emails, meetings, or hours are enough?

• How many followers or clients?

• How many achievements or checkmarks?

• How big is big enough?

• How fast is fast enough?

These are the questions we rarely pause to ask. Instead, we chase the next thing. The next milestone. The next version of “better.”

This is what’s called the arrival fallacy—the belief that once we get there, we’ll finally feel fulfilled. We tell ourselves:

Once I hit that income level…

Once I finish this project…

Once the kids are older…

Once I lose the weight, launch the thing, meet the person, buy the house… then I’ll feel better. Then I’ll be happy. Then I can relax.

But “there” keeps moving. And we don’t feel any different once we arrive—just tired. Disconnected. Wondering why we still feel like something’s missing.

This is something Bronnie Ware wrote about in her beautiful book, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying. Through her experience working in hospice care, she heard the same regrets again and again.

Two of them are especially relevant here:

• “I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.”

• “I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.”

Oof. Let that sink in.

What are we racing toward, and who are we doing it for?

These regrets aren’t just poetic warnings—they’re mirrors. And they beg us to stop, breathe, and ask ourselves: Is this actually the life I want?

Because here's the truth: you can slow down. You can say no. You can define what enough looks and feels like for you.

It doesn’t mean giving up on your goals—it means clarifying them. Rooting them in what actually matters to you.

And yet—it’s so easy to understand how we get here. Our world rewards productivity, praises busyness, and equates speed with value. It feeds us a steady diet of shoulds—what we should want, how we should work, what success should look like.

But if we never pause to question those shoulds, we risk building lives that don’t actually fit us.

So let me ask you this:

When you zoom out and look at your life as a whole, do you want to be the person who got it all done—or the person who truly enjoyed the journey?

I’m not suggesting we stop working hard, or that goals don’t matter. But let’s create and live by a new definition of success—one that includes space, joy, and you at the center of your own life.

We’re living in a time where more, faster, and bigger is glorified—but what if less, slower, and deeper actually leads to more fulfillment?

You don’t have to run harder.

You don’t have to prove your worth through exhaustion.

You get to define what success means for you.

The real challenge isn’t in working faster or doing more—it’s in choosing consciously. Letting go of what no longer fits and protecting what truly does.

That’s exactly why I created Replenish: A Return to You.

It’s a space to pause. To unravel the layers of conditioning, expectations, and outdated beliefs we’ve been carrying for far too long. To set down the “shoulds” and ask: What do I actually want? What feels good and true to me now?

Because your values shift. Your priorities change. And your pace can, too.

You don’t have to chase someone else’s version of success.

You don’t need to wait for permission to slow down and recalibrate.

You just need space—and the courage to come back home to yourself.

Let this be your invitation.

Enjoy the journey,

Julie