The glass jar wasn’t failing; it just had the wrong conditions
Why High Performers Stay Small; The Hidden Cost of Old Identities
Imagine my delight when as a self-proclaimed propagation junkie (me!) learned she could take a Gumbo Limbo branch, stick it in water and it would grow roots? A nature-based identity shift.
And so, I ventured into my messy, albeit lush, Florida Keys backyard to find such fallen branches that still had some life.
I didn’t want this high-performer to stay small.
As a resident of The Florida Keys for over sixteen years, I have learned a lot about this unique environment and apply it to my nature-aligned business coaching methodologies.
And there she was sparkling like a diamond among leaves and pea rock. The Gumbo Limbo tree is known for surviving harsh environments, regenerating from broken branches, and adapting under pressure.
So, I snatched the branch up, eager to have it not forgotten and shredded on Saturday when the local environmental clean-up trucks picked up.
I felt like Martha Stewart in that I had the most perfect glass jar for the Gumbo Limbo branch.
After I filled it with tepid tap water, I sat her on my front porch.
The branch, let’s call her Sheila, grew quickly; however, leaves not roots.
And as I patiently waited for the roots to grow, the leaves fell off.
As my excitement was withering, I grew curious, “What was I doing wrong?”
I was adamant not to ignore her lack of growth.
Not enough sun? Too hot? Was the base of the branch too close to the bottom of the glass jar?
The hero in me ached to save Sheila. What was blocking her?
The branch was growing leaves because it was trying to sustain itself through the old environment, just like we try to sustain ourselves through old professional identities.
Those old professional identities can lead to marketing positioning that no longer fits, old operational procedures that are now behind the times, stagnant leadership dynamics that trickle into poor sales performance.
Considering her value in conjunction with the challenges, I flatly refused to chuck her over the side of my balcony into the pile of leaves that sat there decomposing.
I was determined to figure it out.
So, I gave her fresh water, changed the spot, said a quick prayer, and waited.
Three days later, holding my breath, I decided to check on her.
My shoulders dropped as the only change I saw was the green moss growing inside the jar.
I recognized a pattern and decided that it was time for a bigger change.
It was time for a bigger “home.”
And so, my Gumbo Limbo branch got planted in a pot with soil and a new location outside under a Gumbo Limbo tree.
It was clear that the glass jar had become a limitation.
High performers don’t audit strategy; they go deeper and audit limitations.
And a limitation is often identity-related.
As an entrepreneur, when we layered in educational programs into our sportfishing business (Good Karma Sportfishing and Educational Programs), the strategy of the courses themselves was the easy part.
The harder part was the identity pivot that my husband, Capt. Ryan Van Fleet, had to go through as he voluntary chose to expand our business.
And just like growing a tree in nature, that took time.
Unbeknownst to many entrepreneurs, a surprising number are operating inside identities they outgrew years ago.
At first, like the branch in the glass jar, we didn’t realize there would be a challenge with identity. Most entrepreneurs that are successful don’t have a major identity to pivot through.
They likely spent a few years in a job and then started their business. What is rarely talked about online is the years of conditioning that have to be addressed if you wish to shift later in life.
If you have had multiple jobs, careers, or businesses that experience, even though valuable, has created conditioning that has become ingrained.
And we often aim to continue to fix the same version of ourselves without the awareness that it’s a limitation.
Moving from limiting beliefs and motivational hype to limiting containers.
The personal development loop keeps people motivated and fixing.
Many high-level entrepreneurs keep asking themselves, “Why do I keep staying small when I have the right strategy?”
They then think they need more motivation and “fixing.”
But most people don’t need more motivation.
They need a more honest level of pattern recognition.
The Accordion Effect: Designing Containers for Growth
As I chose to move the branch from a restrictive “Martha Stewart” jar to a spacious pot, I was reminded about the ancient Maya. This isn’t just about my backyard experiments; it is the same structural challenge faced by the most advanced civilizations in history.
They had to move their expansive, chaotic astronomical data from an ‘endless scroll’ mentality into the structured grid of the Dresden Codex and they created paper from Gumbo Limbo trees for this purpose.
What they created was intentional, as they knew that without a defined container, their high-level data (aka high-performance strategy) would become useless noise.
The paneled structure allowed for growth one section at a time. Similar to the branch out growing the jar and being planted in the pot. And my husband reviewing sections of our business to determine what he had outgrown.
All examples demonstrate the that real conscious awareness is not just seeing the world more clearly…
It’s recognizing the unconscious containers shaping your behavior inside.
And taking the action required to disrupt the pattern. In the Maya’s example, The Dresden Codex and it’s Accordion Effect, became the new container.
Questions to Shatter Your Glass Jar
If you are ready for honesty, here are some awareness questions that will help expand your jar:
The Identity Collapse Question
The Question: “What is the old version of my professional identity that I am still trying to protect or carry forward, and how is that gatekeeping my next quantum leap?”
The Trigger: This audit digs directly into cause-and-effect. It maps your current strategic bottlenecks straight back to an internal emotional state or identity baseline, forcing a rapid, unified realization.
The Quantum Architecture Question
The Question: “Instead of trying to figure out how to build the bridge to the next level, what does the entire ecosystem look like once I am already standing on the other side?”
The Trigger: This shifts the mind from sequential, problem-solving mode into the “instant download” mode, where you pull the entire architecture of an idea down all at once. It will help you with systems thinking and your high-performance strategy.
The Legacy Architecture Question
The Question: “If I am looking back at this exact moment from five years in the future, what is the single, bold decision that made the ultimate difference in the entire trajectory of this vision?”
The Trigger: Time distortion and resilience. By mentally standing in the future and looking backward, you collapse the anxiety of the “how” and instantly retrieve the entire structural roadmap as a completed memory. Having this will help you stay the course.
Starting to integrate questions like these will bring awareness to the patterns that are holding back your next level high-performance identity expansion.
Clarity Scales for Higher Performance Strategy
As it’s crucial to recognize we hold ourselves back with identity within our business but also creativity, relationships, and leadership.
We assign ourselves invisible rules and then adapt to them for so long they feel true and we don’t recognize it any other way.
We adapt to the jar.
And in the case of Sheila, my Gumbo Limbo branch, the jar wasn’t failing.
It was simply the wrong size for the next level.
You don’t need to work harder to fill the jar; you need to shatter the glass and find the right soil for your next chapter.
Conclusion: Your Evolution is a Structural Choice
Ultimately, your growth is not limited by your capacity to work, but by the integrity of your container. When you find yourself hitting a ceiling— feeling the friction of a ‘glass jar’ that no longer serves your expansion— recognize it not as a failure, but as a critical piece of data in your high-performance strategy.
Like the Maya, who understood that massive, complex systems require a deliberate grid to survive, you must consciously move from the chaotic, uncontained scrolls of your past conditioning into the structured, intentional design of your future.
True leadership requires the courage to audit not just your strategy, but the very identity-containers that dictate your reality.
By applying these awareness questions, you stop ‘fixing’ the version of yourself that is already outgrown and start architecting the version of yourself that is required for your next quantum leap.
The jar was never meant to be a permanent home for the Gumbo Limbo branch; it was a temporary transition. It is time to shatter the glass, step into the right soil, and allow the next version of your business— and your identity— to finally take root.
What is the container you have outgrown?
