CEO Mental Fitness Series: James Hollis' Living an Examined Life

This is the second in a seven-part blog series exploring the lessons of James Hollis' Living an Examined Life through the lens of CEO Mental Fitness. Hollis is a Jungian analyst, not a business guru. His work may be the most important leadership reading you'll ever do. He explores the hidden drivers of human behavior: the unconscious patterns, inherited expectations, and adaptive strategies formed long before you ever sat in the corner office.

Over 21 LinkedIn posts, I explored one lesson from each chapter. This series brings them together, three at a time, so you can sit with them in a deeper way.

Let's continue.

Recover Your Personal Authority

Chapter 4

So we continue our walk with Jungian psychoanalyst James Hollis.

We are asked to consider the topic of recovering our personal authority. We now refer to it as "agency."

Fleetwood Mac sang about it with "Go Your Own Way."

Frank Sinatra crooned he did it "My Way."

In many ways, we live the first half of our lives as "one big mistake."

Generally, in service of those thoughts, scripts, and adaptations programmed in to enable us to survive.

Then something happens...

James Hollis teaches:

"The second half of life occurs when people, for whatever reason, death of a partner, end of a marriage, illness, retirement, whatever, are obligated to radically consider who they are apart from their history, their roles, and their commitments."

This happened to me when I lost my business in 2018.

It was devastating.

I suffered.

And I recovered to find my inner soul crying out for expression.

Recovering your personal authority and removing the angst is about living the life you want to express and not the one you were conditioned to live.

This is the work of CEO Mental Fitness.

CEO Reflection Audit:

What is right in my life for me?

Can I mobilize the courage to face living my life and not an adaptation?

Who am I comparing myself to?

CEO Challenge:

Think about whether what you are doing is right for you, at this moment. There is a summons from your inner soul that knows what is right for you.

Show up as yourself, as best you can.

CEO Reflection Audit:

What is my guilt making me do or keeping me from doing?

Can I forgive myself?

Am I prepared for the suffering that making amends will bring?

CEO Challenge:

Think about the conversation you need to have that will enlarge you by facing whatever it is, suffering through the anxiety, and healing.

You can do this.

Step Out from Under the Parental Shade

Chapter 5

They meant well.

Our parents.

Most did the best they could with what they knew.

But the truth is: you can't lead from inside, in service of your parents' view.

We continue our deep dive into The Examined Life by James Hollis.

Even after we leave home, build businesses, raise families, and take on massive responsibilities, many of us are still operating under the psychic influence of our parents.

James Hollis puts it plainly:

"We leave home believing we have left our parents behind... But given the power of such images, we serve them, try to fix them, or seek unconsciously to fix them."

We think we've broken free.

But we're still trying to please them, prove something to them, or unconsciously rebel against them.

And when there's conflict between who we are and who we were taught to be, we enter what Hollis calls a lifelong "treatment plan" to numb or outrun the tension.

CEO Mental Fitness involves becoming aware of those parental scripts and rewriting them.

CEO Reflection Audit:

Where am I still living out my parents' expectations?

Do I numb out when I feel the pull of old roles or patterns?

How can I honor where I came from and lead as I truly am?

CEO Challenge:

This week, ask yourself:

What would it look like to lead from the heart, rather than from programmed stories?

It's a gift you can give to yourself and to everyone you lead.