Your Next Clear Move
Welcome to Your Next Clear Move™—the podcast for leaders, professionals, and high-capacity humans who are done “getting ready” and ready to move.
I’m Debbie Peterson, Leadership Readiness Expert, and in each episode I deliver grounded insight, clarity-driven mindset strategies, and one actionable step to help you stop the drift and lead yourself forward.
This isn’t about fixing what’s broken. It’s about reconnecting to what matters—and making decisions that align with who you are and how you want to lead next.
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Your Next Clear Move
Success is not a Safety Net. It’s a Story You Outgrow.
What if the success you've been chasing isn't actually yours? That prestigious title, impressive salary, and recognition might look good on paper, but they could be part of a story you've inherited rather than one you've consciously created.
Many of us—especially emerging leaders—fall into this trap. We get promoted without understanding what kind of leader we want to be. We say yes to everything, believing being indispensable is the only way forward. We burn ourselves out trying to prove we belong instead of asking whether this version of success even matters to us. I know this pattern intimately because I've lived it, collecting markers of success that looked fine from the outside while feeling stagnant within.
But here's the truth: success isn't about the parking spot with your name on it. It's about knowing if the life you're living is still yours, or if you're holding onto someone else's definition. For seasoned leaders, this might manifest as that quiet question: "Is this it?" The realization that the ladder you climbed might have been leaning against the wrong wall.
Outgrowing success isn't failure—it's growth. It happens when you stop measuring your worth by a checklist and start asking deeper questions about what truly matters. This journey requires supportive people around you who see your potential and tell you the truth when you drift. It demands intentional action, not just awareness—taking small steps each day toward becoming the leader you aspire to be, not the one others expect.
Your next clear move might be identifying one place where your old success story no longer serves you and taking action to rewrite it. Remember, readiness isn't about having everything figured out. It's about trusting yourself enough to move forward anyway, knowing you can adjust course as you go. Because the reality is, you're more ready than you think.
Hey, hello and welcome back. I am Debbie Peterson of Getting to Clarity. It is so great to be here with you today, and this is another episode of your Next Clear Move, the Getting to Clarity podcast. And today we are talking about success, something that we all chase at some level, but that we may not have our hands totally around. So stay tuned.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Getting to Clarity podcast, the place where busy leaders discover how to create more success in their leadership journey with less sacrifice in their life. Here's your host, debbie Peterson, of Getting to Clarity life.
Speaker 1:Here's your host, Debbie Peterson, of Getting to Clarity. So here's why this topic matters. You know, many of us begin our careers we're chasing success like it is the golden tick. You know it's the title, the salary, the recognition, and we feel it's going to lead us to a safe place, almost like a finish line that we cross. But the truth is, success is often a story that we've inherited. We make it into a checklist of achievements that looks good on paper but it may not really reflect who we are. Now.
Speaker 1:Emerging leaders can fall into this trap again and again. You know, for instance, you get promoted because you're excited in your last role and you're being promoted without really understanding what kind of leader you want to be. You know you say yes to everything because you think that being indispensable. You know we all want to be valued right, but that being indispensable is the only way forward, and what happens is you can burn yourself out trying to prove that you belong instead of really pausing to ask whether this version of success even belongs to you, if it even matters to you. And I know this personally because I have done it. You know, early in my career I had that quiet voice saying you are capable of more. But here's the problem I had no idea what that meant or how to figure it out. So I kept chasing and collecting kind of those markers of success. You know, it all looked fine on the outside but deep down I was not growing. I was doing what I thought I quote, unquote should to get ahead without really ever asking myself what success meant to me. And I can find myself in that trap even to this day. But I'm more self-aware and I can catch it. So here's where the you know kind of the humor comes in. Success is not the parking spot with your name on it or, you know, the gold watch at retirement although I don't even know who does that these days but it is about knowing if the life that you are living, if the story you are living, is still yours, or if you're holding on to a previous version that is outdated or someone else's version of what success is.
Speaker 1:So for emerging leaders, ignoring this can really have you chasing everything. It can lead to burnout, self-doubt and a career that just kind of goes on autopilot without your input. For seasoned leaders, you know you don't escape this either. It shows up as that quiet question of is this. It. You know, for organizations it's more than personal. It's costly, Because when you have people, when you have leaders that are stuck in an outdated definition of success, they are more likely to disengage, they are more likely to underperform or even leave.
Speaker 1:So helping leaders write a new success story is not just good for people, it is critical for business. So what are we even really talking about here? All right, so outgrowing success is a good thing, Okay. It doesn't mean that you're throwing away what you've worked for. Nothing is ever wasted. That is something I firmly believe in. It means recognizing when the definition of success you once chased no longer fits who you are becoming or what you truly want.
Speaker 1:So for emerging leaders, this might look like realizing a promotion is not a prize if it comes at the expense of your health, of your relationships or your sense of purpose. You know, just because you can do it doesn't mean you should. So asking yourself am I saying yes because I want this, or am I saying yes because I think I'm supposed to want this? There's a big gap there and something that needs explored. For seasoned leaders it may feel like a quieter whisper, but it's just as real. So, for instance, the numbers look fine. The team respects you, but you cannot shake the thought that the ladder you climbed might have been leaning against the wrong wall at some point. But here's what I want you to know Outgrowing success is not failure, it's growth.
Speaker 1:You know, when you stop measuring your worth by a checklist and you start asking the deeper questions that get to the heart of what matters most to you as a person, then that is where the rubber hits the road. So I also believe that you don't do this alone, right. So who can help you get through this? No one navigates success alone, and the same is true when you find yourself in a place where you may have outgrown your version of success. So the people you surround yourself with will shape how you redefine your success. So, for instance, for emerging leader, this might mean finding colleagues or mentors or coaches who see more in you than you currently see in yourself. These are the people who will encourage you to step up and will tell you the truth when you drift right. Sometimes it's the mentor who says, okay, stop playing small. Sometimes it's the peer who nudges you to go for the role that you secretly want. That's what happened to me. I had someone who saw far more in me than I did in myself, and they encouraged me to go for a bigger role that I would have not stepped into, and I ended up getting it, and it was a game changer in my career.
Speaker 1:For seasoned leaders, this may mean leaning on the trusted circle of people that you have collected over the years, who remind you of your worth beyond your performance. These are the voices that say you do not have to prove anything anymore. Now it's about impact, right? So I also need you to know who you choose to listen to shapes your story of success just as much as your input does your actions do. So choose voices that call you forward, not ones that keep you boxed into an old story. So how do you even begin to do this? A really great question, because this is what gets you into action. So, moving from the place you find yourself, in which maybe you have outgrown your success or your definition of success success and being able to define what comes next, All right, this is where planning meets self-trust. Your how is your roadmap, but it needs to fit you, not someone else's template, and if you find yourself in a comparison trap, this could be something that you're suffering from.
Speaker 1:So, for emerging leaders, begin with small, intentional steps. Try the power of three each day, and what that means is that each day, you do three things that move you toward the leader that you want to become, and that means that you have to have an awareness of what that is. You need to pay attention to what are the things that you do or that you admire in others that are calling you forward. So this might mean that these actions are you schedule a meeting with a mentor or a coffee with someone that you admire? Maybe it is just a sign up for a skill building course. Maybe it's writing down the values that matter most to you. These small steps build momentum, and doing three little things each day will help you keep that momentum. You keep that momentum.
Speaker 1:For seasoned leaders how might mean pausing, doing a reset, recalibrating. It could be redefining what impact looks like at this stage of your career, or shifting your focus to legacy instead of calendar management. You know your legacy building. You're thinking about the impact that you want to make. So your how should help you grow into that legacy building, but without losing your center or your alignment.
Speaker 1:And here's what I also want you to know A path is not always a five-year plan and it's not always straight. Sometimes it's simply knowing your next clear move and being willing to take it. So what do you do today? So this is where we land with the now, and this is something that you will do within 48 hours, an action that you can take. But it starts with awareness, because awareness without action is just another story gathering dust. So the key is to take one step today that aligns with the leader you're becoming, not the one you used to be.
Speaker 1:So for emerging leaders, that step could be saying no to something that doesn't fit your values, or it could be saying yes to something that stretches you, even if it scares you. For seasoned leaders, it could be starting a conversation about legacy succession. It could be carving out time to reflect on intentional action instead of just reacting. So here's what I also want you to know Readiness is not about having it all figured out. That's when we put pressure on ourselves. It's about trusting yourself enough to know that you can move forward anyway, and then you're going to get feedback and then you can recalibrate again.
Speaker 1:So your next clear move might be this Consider what is one place in your leadership where the old story of success no longer serves you. Identify it, claim it you know, name it to claim it. Then take just one small step, no matter how small, towards rewriting it today. So, if you're ready to help your leaders rewrite their definition of success in a way that fuels retention, maybe resilience, real impact, let's talk, Because my keynotes and readiness labs are designed to help both emerging and seasoned leaders grow outdated success stories into a next clear move, One where they have more presence, more purpose, more passion. So organizations do this and they build stronger pipelines, they keep their best people and create cultures where leaders thrive instead of stalling. So if this sounds you, I'd love to have a conversation, and here is wishing you all the clarity that you deserve, Because the last thing I want you to know is you are more ready than you think you are. Take care, be good to yourself and bye, bye for now.
Speaker 2:Thank you for listening to this episode of the Getting to Clarity podcast with Debbie Peterson. If you enjoyed this show, please rate and recommend it on iTunes or wherever you enjoy your podcasts. To learn more about how you can bring Debbie and her transformational clarity leadership strategies to your organization, visit debbepetersonspeakscom.
