Prime (noun)
the state or time of greatest vigour or success in a person’s life.

Hi, I’m Jason. This is where I share openly about the challenges, insights and lessons from my own journey. My hope is that these thoughts spark reflections that help you navigate your own path to living better and leading better. 

Jason Leavy
Founder

Prime Perspective:
Reflections on Leadership and Growth

This has been a high stress week for me. It’s a feeling I’m sure you know well.

Like all of us, I’m a work in progress, but stress is something I’ve studied and got a lot better at managing as a result. So I want to share what I’ve learned with you today, as make no mistake, stress is one of leadership’s most dangerous companions.

The Science of Stress 

Let’s cut to the chase – not all stress is your enemy and harnessed the right way, stress can actually allow you to show up at your best.

There are different kinds of stress, but here I want to focus on the two I believe are most relevant to effective leadership:

1. Acute Stress: this is the short-term stress that arises from immediate demands or threats. It comes on quickly, typically lasts a short time, and can energize or motivate. You’ll know how this feels – it’s the adrenaline surge before a big pitch or stepping on stage to deliver a keynote.

2. Chronic Stress: this is long-lasting stress that persists for weeks, months, or longer. Chronic stress results from ongoing situations such as difficult workplace relationships and feeling constantly overwhelmed.

Our nervous system (think of it as your internal accelerator) is designed for short sprints, not marathons. When it fires up, your heart rate spikes, blood redirects to major muscles, and your brain locks into laser focus. This is what’s called your sympathetic state (from the Greek meaning of ‘suffering together’). 

But here's the catch – this state is draining and the data doesn’t lie. Our bodies simply can’t sustain it for long periods no matter how much coffee you drink or how much you convince yourself you're built differently.

Try to stay in that zone and just like a 100m sprinter trying to maintain that pace over 10k, you’ll soon tank and your performance will suffer. Again, study your own data and you will instinctively know what that feels like.

The Skill To Build On The Science

Imagine a scale between 1 and 10 – 10 is your peak ‘sympathetic’ state, where you feel alive with energy. 1 is your optimum ‘para-sympathetic’ state, where you are resting and recharging.

So, the skill you need is being able to go between the gears – to move between those  2 states as quickly and efficiently as possible – to be able to tap into your sympathetic state to show up on your A-game when it truly matters. But to also recognise those times where you need to dial down and recuperate.

And here’s the important thing, recuperating here isn’t about things that are unrealistic – I know your world and I know time is your precious commodity, so what we’re talking about here are getting the basics right:

• A short walk in nature

• Exercise that you enjoy

• Reading a physical book

• Eating quality food that fuels rather than crashes your system

• Social connection that is not related to work

 All of these are proven to have clear benefits for your cognitive health and general wellbeing and you can integrate them into your day-to-day habits. 

Avoid The Kill Zone

The biggest problem I consistently see is leaders, with the best of intentions,  trying to maintain that sprint pace constantly… and ending up in what performance consultant Josh Waitzkin terms the ‘simmering six’.

You know this feeling – constantly fire-fighting that sense of being on the back foot, not feeling on your A-game.

The simmering six is the kill zone because you are still burning through energy, operating in a constant state of stress, and consequently leaving nothing in the tank for those times where you need to show up as a 10. 

Real Life Application

Take on board the science and stop trying to be ‘on’ all the time, because you’re just undermining your own capabilities. Here’s what I’ve learned:

1. Identify and intentionally prepare for those crucial moments that genuinely require you to be showing up at your best.

2. Build in those grounding habits that allow for sustainable high performance. 

3. Recognise those moments where showing up at 40% of your best is good enough – self-compassion in this context is not a weakness, it’s a blend of wisdom and courage.

4. Remember that power dynamics mean your team will take their cues from you. Act accordingly.

A final note. None of us can get it right all the time. Real life is intense, messy and full of curveballs.

But the more you understand the reality of stress, the better you can manage it.

Sprinters don’t win marathons.

And remember you never have to be in this alone…