Starting Point

I spent Easter in the Lake District with my family. One climb stayed with me.

The highest peak we reached was just over 800 metres.

I come from a town that sits at just over 800 metres high. I grew up surrounded by mountains stretching into the thousands.

So 800 metres can feel like a meaningful climb. Or like standing at home.

Same number. Very different experience. And that is exactly the point.

Effort Defined

It is not what you think it is.

We often treat effort as something objective.

"That wasn't that hard." "You should be able to do that." "Others are doing more."

But effort is rarely objective. It is deeply contextual.

It depends on where you start. What you carry. Your current capacity. Your experience. Your environment.

Two people can face the same challenge and experience completely different levels of effort. And both can be valid.

Brain Science

Your body budget shapes everything.

From a neuroscience perspective, effort is not measured in absolute terms. Your brain is constantly predicting how demanding something will be, based on past experience and current state. This is the predictive processing model described by neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett.

Your brain asks: Do I have the resources for this?

Those resources include physical energy, emotional capacity, cognitive load, stress levels, and sleep. Barrett describes this as the body budget — your brain's ongoing management of energy and resource.

When your budget is low, the same task will feel harder. When it is well-resourced, it can feel easier.

So effort is not just about the task. It is about the state you are in when you meet it.

Invisible Context

We compare outcomes. We miss starting points.

We see the promotion. The confident speaker. The calm leader under pressure.

We do not see the years of practice. The invisible setbacks. The support systems. The internal work.

Many leaders I work with say things like:

• "I should be further along."

• "Why does this still feel hard?"

• "Others seem to do this effortlessly."

But when we slow down and look closer, the question shifts.

Not why is this hard? But what is my starting point right now?

Leadership Lens

Context before judgement.

If you lead people, this is worth sitting with.

It is easy to look at what someone delivers and draw a conclusion. It is harder — and more useful — to ask what they are carrying. What their starting point actually is. What capacity they have right now, in this season, not a theoretical version of them on a good day.

Performance without context is an incomplete picture. And leading from an incomplete picture costs trust, over time, quietly.

The leaders I work with who get the most from their people are not the ones who push hardest. They are the ones who look closest.

One Shift

A small reframe with real reach.

Instead of asking why am I not further ahead? try: given where I am starting from, what is one meaningful step?

And instead of thinking they should be able to do this, try: what might their starting point be?

Perspective is not soft. It is a precision tool.

Real Progress

Most of it is invisible.

We measure progress by titles, revenue, recognition, speed. But real progress includes capacity built, confidence gained, awareness developed, resilience strengthened.

The most meaningful progress is often the kind no one else can see.

Try This

Three things you can apply immediately.

Starting point check. Before judging performance — yours or someone else's — pause and ask: what is the real starting point here?

Manage your body budget. Sleep, recovery, and mental space are not luxuries. They directly influence perceived effort and decision-making quality.

Replace comparison with curiosity. Comparison without context is rarely useful. Ask what you do not know before you conclude.

That 800-metre climb reminded me of something simple and easy to forget.

Effort is not fixed. Progress is not absolute. Everything depends on where you start.

And when we truly understand that, we lead differently. We judge less. We support better. We grow more sustainably.

If you are navigating a transition, stepping into a bigger role, or feeling that something that "should be easy" still feels demanding — you are not alone. It might not be about capability. It might be about context.

Book a time to connect →

Where might you need to honour your starting point a little more — or be more thoughtful about someone else's?

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