Beyond Human Scale

The world is asking things of us that are bigger than we are. Especially in this coming decade of disruption, we’re being stretched.

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I’ve been thinking about something Brené Brown mentioned in a podcast. She talked about how the scale of our modern lives; our ambitions, our responsibilities, our exposure, is beyond human scale. The world is asking things of us that are bigger than we are. Especially in this coming decade of disruption, we’re being stretched.

That idea stayed with me.

It made me think of the importance of you as a thought leader in the world, doing the work you do. This is no small thing.

It made me reflect on what it’s like to run a mentoring community with 100 lit-up, brilliant humans. It’s demanding. It asks a lot.

It made me reflect on what it means to help young adults find their place in the world, especially against the backdrop of affordability pressures and the uncertainty of the future of work.

I have also been, like many of us, wondering what the long-term consequences of the systems shakedown we are experiencing geopolitically are.

And it made me pause and ask: What is this moment asking of me?

Am I right-sized for it?
Am I learning enough, doing enough?
Do I have the health stack?
Do I have the mindset?
Do I have the life infrastructure that will help me not just survive but thrive through this era of turbulence?

Here’s what I’ve landed on:

1. Intimacy is an advantage.
   Get good at getting close. Not just commercially, though there’s a smart practice in being close to your clients and customers, but emotionally and relationally, too. That means doing your own work so you can show up regulated, clear, and less triggered.
   
   It means navigating co-dependency, narcissistic dynamics, and psychological safety, without letting any one of them hijack your relationships. Boundaries are key. Boundaries don’t keep people out; they make it safe for people to stay close in appropriate and sustainable ways.
   
   
2. There is nothing to prove.
   A big part of operating "above the line", as the best version of yourself, is learning to trust your deep inner knowing. That often means letting go of old patterns: the need to be right, to be seen as powerful or perfect, to prove your worth.
   
   There’s a subtle violence in parts of the personal development world that reinforces the belief: “I’m not enough” or “I’m too much.” We get caught on the swing of self-esteem. Terry Real, the family therapist and author of Us: Getting Past You and Me to Build a More Loving Relationship, describes this as the trap of moving either one-up or one-down in our relationships. The goal, he suggests, is to be in the right relationship, not above, not below but alongside.
   
   Without all the stories we tell ourselves about who we are and how we need to show up, what’s left is a calm, confident, and compassionate self, qualities that the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model codes as the core Self.
   
   
3. Hold bigger space.
   Make space for yourself, room to breathe, to think, to just be. And offer that space to others. Be with the person, not just the behaviour.
   
   This isn’t just a productivity tip. It’s a deeper philosophical shift, an invitation to release the materialistic, separate sense of self. The idea that there’s a me in here talking to a you out there.

In Chatter, Ethan Kross talks about cultivating awe and wonder as tools for regulating our internal dialogue. Similarly, in The Great Turning podcast by Joanna Macy and Jessica Serrante, there’s a powerful idea: we don’t go “back to nature”, we are nature. We belong to the world, not apart from it.

So if it feels like it’s all a lot…it is.

Get your health stack in place. Use AI wisely, as a thinking companion. Align your work offerings (your Practice and your Clusters) with what you care about most. 

Then, get closer. Be better. Hold bigger spaces.

This, we can count on.

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1. Get a copy of our book The Thought Leaders Practice. Request a copy here.
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References:

1. Brené Brown explores the idea of “beyond human scale” in her Unlocking Us podcast and interviews, particularly around collective trauma, social expectations, and vulnerability during uncertain times.
2. For more on navigating relational health and emotional regulation, see Harriet Lerner’s The Dance of Connection and Gabor Maté’s When the Body Says No.
3. “Boundaries are the distance at which I can love you and me simultaneously.” - Prentis Hemphill (widely quoted in boundary-setting and trauma-informed practice literature). 
4. Terry Real, Us: Getting Past You and Me to Build a More Loving Relationship, Cornerstone Press, 2022.
5. Internal Family Systems (IFS) was developed by Dr. Richard Schwartz. The model describes the “Self” as naturally calm, compassionate, curious, and connected. See: Richard Schwartz, No Bad Parts, Sounds True, 2021.
6. Ethan Kross, Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It, Crown Publishing, 2021.
7. Joanna Macy and Molly Young Brown, Coming Back to Life: The Updated Guide to the Work That Reconnects, New Society Publishers, 2014. See also: The Great Turning podcast for explorations of ecological identity and systemic transformation.