The Examined Life for CEOs: Own It, Grow Up, Let Go

CEO Mental Fitness Series: James Hollis' Living an Examined Life (Part 1 of 7)

This is the first 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 begin.

The Most Dangerous Thing in Your Company Isn't Out There. It's in You.

Chapter 1

Most CEOs aren't taken down by the market.

They're taken down by what they refuse to look at in themselves.

I know because it happened to me. I'm flawed and fallible.

We all learned to survive through adaptation: pleasing, avoiding, and performing.

That wiring helped us get here. But will it get us there?

James Hollis opens Living an Examined Life with a powerful reminder:

"The choice is yours."

You didn't choose your childhood.

However, you are responsible for your adulthood and the company you lead.

We inherit narratives, wounds, and assumptions.

But leadership maturity begins the moment we stop blaming the market, our team, or our bandwidth

and take radical ownership of what's ours to choose.

Your culture is a reflection of your internal landscape.

If you're reactive, scattered, or avoidant, it spreads.

CEO Mental Fitness is about agency.

Choosing what stays, what goes, and who you become next.

CEO Reflection Audit:

What habits, beliefs, and patterns of behavior am I unconsciously choosing every day?

Where in my leadership am I holding myself back?

CEO Challenge:

Make one courageous decision this week that comes from who you are, not your inherited script.

The choice is yours. Always has been.

It's Time to Grow Up.

Chapter 2

You can lead a company and still want to run home.

In ancient cultures, rites of passage marked the moment a person left the comfort of childhood and entered the unpredictable terrain of adulthood.

Today? We skip that part.

And yet, for every CEO, there comes a moment, a knock at the door.

Not from Bob in the Accounting Department.

But from within.

The voice says:

"This is yours to face. No more deferring, blaming, or hiding. It's time."

James Hollis reminds us:

"This is what is asked of us, to show up as the person we really are, as best we can manage, under circumstances over which we may have no control. This showing up as best we can is growing up. That is all that life really asks of us: to show up as best we can."

Growing up is showing up.

And that's the work of CEO Mental Fitness.

CEO Reflection Audit:

Where do I need to grow up and step into my life?

What fears do I need to confront?

How do I want to show up?

CEO Challenge:

This week, answer the knock.

Face the one thing you've been dodging and show up as your fullest, truest self.

That's the real rite of passage.

Let Go of the Old

Chapter 3

No, not Grandpa Bill. Keep him.

We're talking about the stinkin' thinkin' that once protected you, but now just holds you back.

We all cling to behaviors that helped us survive embarrassment, uncertainty, or failure.

Things like:

Ordering the same thing at the same restaurant

Surrounding yourself with "safe" people (Be honest, you've never liked Bob)

Hiring the same losers, again and again

Why? Because those behaviors once worked.

They protected you. They soothed anxiety.

But now they're just habits with expired date labels and they may be poisoning your leadership.

James Hollis writes:

"Much in our history is worth carrying forward, and much is not. Just as we periodically clean the house, go through old clothes and fashions and discard the no longer germane, so we have to go through our accumulated histories, our driving attitudes, reflexes, and responses, and discard what is no longer useful, productive, or serving growth."

Think about it:

What did BlackBerry cling to? (The keyboard)

What did Kodak dismiss? (Digital cameras)

What did Blockbuster prioritize? (Retail Stores)

Henry Ford said, "If I'd asked people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse."

Steve Jobs is reported to have commented that our job "is to figure out what people need before they know it and then convince them they can't live without it."

Letting go of obsolete behavior patterns that diminish us and replacing them with creative new thoughts that enlarge us is the work of CEO Mental Fitness.

CEO Reflection Audit:

What outdated patterns of thinking or reacting do I need to retire?

What attachments to the past are keeping me from leading with clarity?

What kind of leader do I need to become now?

CEO Challenge:

This week, find one belief, habit, or assumption that no longer serves you.

Then, drop it, gracefully or not.

Let it go.