Forget the Frameworks - Grow Something Real

I don’t know where or when you’re reading this - but I do know this: whatever challenge you’re facing, someone will offer you a tidy two-by-two matrix to “make sense” of it.

That’s the industrial mindset at work - trying to squeeze the unpredictable, the alive, into neat little boxes. Like forcing your foot into a shoe two sizes too small.

At To Focus, we don’t do that.

Instead, I look at my Golden Pothos. Its tendrils spill down the cupboard beside me - alive, growing, responsive. It doesn’t follow models. It responds to light, to care, to change.

That’s the kind of growth we believe in. Not the boxed-up, shrink-wrapped kind. The living, breathing kind that twists, turns, roots, and rises.

And maybe before we grow anything out there, we have to look in the mirror.

What do we see? What’s the colour in our cheeks? The brightness in our eyes? How’s our energy - steady or scattered, vital or drained? These are the quiet signals that tell us how well we’re resourced. Not just for today’s demands, but for the change we’re here to lead.

A business-as-usual or industrial mindset often skips right past these subtleties. It rarely asks what we’re eating - or how, or when. It rarely stops to consider whether we’re hydrated, or whether we’ve had enough sunlight or rest. But at To Focus, we do.

Because the first stage in our coaching is all about noticing the energy signals - those subtle but essential cues that reveal whether someone is operating from depletion or vitality. We don’t just look at leadership strategy; we also explore the underlying conditions that shape your ability to show up fully.

Just like healthy soil is essential for thriving plants, leaders need proper nutrients to grow - physically, emotionally, mentally. And that includes what we eat, how we move, how we rest, and how we relate to ourselves. That’s why, alongside books on systems change and leadership development, we also recommend books on nutrition, energy, and self-care.

Because this isn’t about fitting life into a framework. It’s about growing something real.

Everyone reading this is reaching for something - more meaning, more connection, more possibility. And that kind of transformation can’t be diagrammed. It has to be lived.

So here’s a gentle invitation: go outside. Find a green space. Pause. Observe. What’s growing there? Does it follow a model? Or something deeper, more ancient, more alive?