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Let's Think About It Podcast
Let’s Think About It Podcast is where high achievers stop performing and start leading themselves with intention.
You may have the title, the résumé, and the responsibility, but behind the scenes, you’re carrying pressure, expectations, and an internal grind that never really shuts off. This podcast is your reset.
Hosted by Coach Mo — certified leadership coach (PCC, ICF), published author, and creator of The Inner Arena™ — each episode challenges how leaders think, show up, and sustain themselves when the pressure is real. This is not surface-level motivation. It’s real conversation about the internal work required to lead without burning out.
At the core of the show is the S.W.A.G.™ Framework:
- Self-Awareness — recognizing the patterns and inner narratives running the show
- Why-Power — reconnecting to purpose beyond titles and expectations
- Aligned Action — choosing actions rooted in values, not fear
- Grit — building emotional stamina to stay grounded under pressure
Every episode is grounded in five leadership pillars that shape the conversations:
- Resilience — rebuilding from pressure without breaking
- Energy Protection — identifying and plugging the leaks that drain your capacity
- Burnout — recognizing it early and recovering before it costs you
- Leading Self — mastering your inner world before leading others
- Navigating Conflict (Inner & Outer) — addressing what’s avoided with clarity and courage
This podcast is for executives, professionals, and high performers who are outwardly capable but internally stretched — leaders ready to drop the armor, quiet the inner critic, and lead with clarity, confidence, and purpose.
If you’re ready to get out of your own way, reclaim your edge, and lead from the inside out, you’re in the right room.
Step inside the arena.
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Let's Think About It Podcast
Episode 80: Why High Performers Lose Discipline During Good Times
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Episode Summary
Discipline doesn’t break because you’re unfocused. It breaks because life gets heavy—sometimes during the most exciting moments. In this episode, Coach Mo and co-host Algie Mosley unpack why discipline stops working when emotional pressure, uncertainty, and self-doubt quietly hijack your energy.
Using the example of a job interview, they explore how excitement quickly shifts into fear, worry, and overthinking—and how that internal shift pulls you off your personal code. The conversation dives into nervous system responses, the role of the punk ass inner critic, and why leaders often lose discipline during opportunity, not failure.
This episode introduces a grounded reframe: discipline is not willpower—it’s alignment. When your energy shifts, your discipline follows. And without awareness, the cycle repeats.
Key Takeaways
- Discipline fails when emotional weight replaces alignment
- Life gets heavy in good times, not just bad ones
- Excitement turns into doubt when the inner critic takes over
- Your “code” is your discipline—and pressure pulls you off it
- Self-awareness resets you, aligned action gives direction, grit moves you forward
Welcome to the Let's Think About It podcast, where high achievers stop performing and start transforming. I'm Coach Mo, certified core energy leadership coach, founder of the Inner Arena, and creator of the Swag Framework. Self-awareness, my power, aligned action, and grip. Around here, we train your mindset, challenge your limits, and turn pressure into purpose. Subscribe now and join me on YouTube at Swag Coaching. So let's get your reps in. Why discipline stops working when life gets heavy? When I just say that, what's coming up for you?
SPEAKER_02:Already my life is getting heavy. It's just the thought process alone. When life gets heavy, discipline.
SPEAKER_01:Why discipline stops? Why it stops? Working. Why discipline stops working when life gets heavy? What are your thoughts about when I say that? What's coming up for you?
SPEAKER_02:When I think about that, when life gets different it fades because you, for me, just the thought process alone starts stressors. So I I, for example, let's just say I there's a job. We've got a job interview coming up. I'll be excited about that job interview. And uh everything, energy is high, right? And all of a sudden, I've got to prepare for that interview. Wonder if I don't get that job I really want. Am I gonna say the right things in the midst of that interview? Who's gonna be interviewing me? Do I have any connection? Do you have my past experiences? Start to think. So you come out of it, there's an effect on your nervous system.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. Absolutely. And that's the piece that gets heavy. That's what I'm talking about. So think about how you just frame that. You are excited, right? You got the interview, you took all of this time, just utilizing this is an excellent example because so many people are going through transition for new careers, jobs, endeavors around their career, right? So you take the time to put together your application packet, resume, whatever, right? And then the moment that that package fulfills the need of a particular organization, they reach out to schedule an interview with you. When you receive that call, there's excitement, there's optimism, there's man, I'm about to make this happen, right? I've been chosen. Yeah, I've been chosen. So depending on when that interview is, maybe it's a week out, maybe it's two weeks out, where life starts to get heavy is exactly what you said. There's a shift that happens from this excitement piece to this concerning piece in the sense of how am I gonna prepare? What questions are they gonna ask? Who's on the panel? Who will be interviewing me? What are they looking for? Blah, blah, blah. That shifts into this other narrative of a different representative of self in preparation for the interview, because the worry, the doubts may be highly present in how you're gonna perform in that interview when it comes. And so here's where the shift happens. The shift happens, right? When you get the call that you have this interview, there's excitement. Yes, there's joy, there's confidence. See, that's that anabolic energy, that's that fueling energy that you feel, that excitement. That's your natural being, right? But then as persist forward and you starting to prepare for the interview, there's a shift that starts to happen where you're moving from this fueling energy to this draining energy, and that draining energy is catabotic energy, right? So think about it. That's what this show is, right? Let's think about it. So that is correct. So when you check this out, bro. So now you're wondering how am I gonna prepare for this? Maybe that punk ass inner critic shows up that's putting flawed narratives in your head to make you feel that you're not good enough in that moment while you're trying to prepare for the interview. And then that creates the draining energy that you may be feeling in that moment because worry is present, doubt might be present, right? And you naturally carry that, and so your discipline of self is failing in that moment because you've gone from this confident being to a worrisome being in a moment of an exciting time in your life. The situation of obtaining the interview in that moment was extremely powerful, it was a blessing. That's right, that's right, and a lot of us mask that now and shift to worry. And how am I gonna perform in this state of entering an interview process? And so now you're distracted by the narrative. Am I good enough? That's right, will I perform well enough? How do I perform? Who's gonna be on the panel? Just all of these different narratives that create doubtful thoughts and self in those moments, and so you're distracted away from your authentic who is that confident, encouraging, blessed human being.
SPEAKER_02:The reason why they called you in the first place to get the energy, right? Exactly, bro. Excitement. It's almost like when I think about it, it's like when I got the message for the interview, I had this energy, and I'm gonna I'm gonna move it over to this thing called love, right? So love is an energy, right? It's uplifting. So all of a sudden I got this energy, right? Because somebody has chosen me, and I'm in this world of knowing because I know I'm good, because you recognize me as being good. There is no guesswork, Mo. And so I go from this where I'm planning, I'm focused, and I'm alive automatically over to this fear, not love, this fear that you're talking about, and it's almost like a prehistoric survival mode where you're into this energy of, and then I think we call him the punk ass critic, steps in where you once knew you were so qualified for that position, that's why they called you, and all of a sudden, now you have worry, your energy gets hijacked, right? Because now you don't think you're good enough, you don't think that you're this person that they're looking for, and so then you go through this what did you call it, calabotic energy of low, depressed energy. And I'm just curious, coach, will that land you the job?
SPEAKER_01:Sometimes it will, because we're masked in a way of how to pass persevere through that enough to where we carry this grinding hard through that emotional being and just come out on the other side victorious. And some people naturally carry it that way, they perform better under stress, and that's normal for people. And I bring this up because for those who want to minimize the nervousness that they carry as we're talking about going into interviews, maybe there's some people that want to change that up a little bit to be a more confident person going into interviews. And when I say life gets, when life gets heavy, it's not just about interviews, it's about maybe change, maybe decision making, maybe having difficult, leading to have difficult conversations, just various thoughts that come up that ultimately shifts your energy from this antibiotic state to a catabotic state, and it comes in so many different forms. We're just hypothetically talking about a job interview, so that because that lands with so many people, because we've all been through job interviews before, we and we've all got that call that you have an interview, and there's been some level of excitement, optimism, and then when it comes time to prepare for the interview, there's a shift that happens towards this counter energy that drains you, that makes you feel as though sometimes that's not makes you feel, but is driven by the emotional state of doubt, worry, fear, uncertainty, and things like that. And so that throws your discipline of self off because the discipline of self is when you show up as your authentic self, right? And you have a code about yourself, right? There's a code, we all carry a code, whether it ties back to our values and the values typically shape that code. That's right. And that cold is our discipline, the code is our discipline, and so then when life gets heavy, that code shifts, it shifts. That's what I'm talking about. And we're framing the interview as a concrete example in how our code shifts ultimately. When that code shifts, you're in a cycle, you're in some undesirable cycle that continuously reoccurs because it's never being addressed at the root. This nervousness, this doubt that we carry going into the interview, since we're talking about that, we don't know and how to manage the nervousness before the nervousness is happening. It's okay. I'm not saying it's not okay to feel nervous. That's a natural being to feel that way. It's totally natural. It's okay. Embrace it, follow it, acknowledge it. But what's the intentions? Knowing that going into the interview, you're gonna be nervous. What are your direct intentions to influence yourself and how to deal with the nervousness when it comes up? Ultimately, what I'm saying is when you're when your code is shifted, your discipline has shifted. What are your intentions to get back on track? On track.
SPEAKER_02:For me, Coach Mo, when I think about that, I think about I think the author's name was John James Clear. Atomic habits, right? That there are certain things that are just automatic. So when it comes to shifting, the first part for me is self-awareness, is to be aware of that habit, right? To be aware of your emotional state of being, to acknowledge that I'm stressed out. I'm choosing to listen to this punk ass critic. So my first process to this is awareness, self-awareness, that I realize that I'm starting to stress out. So I just start to see you talked the last time about a basketball game and being at the free throw and taking a couple of dribbles. What you're doing is actually just pausing, taking a two to four second breath. Yep. That gets you reset, right? You are aware that you're stressed out, and now you are aware that you're moving back to that high energy of your normal state of being rather than being derailed. Absolutely. When you you're derailed, you have to realize you're headed to fail. And there's no fail when you get to jail. So you have to abandon ship in the midst of that crisis because you are aware that the ship is going down.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And what's your purpose in that moment?
SPEAKER_02:My purpose is to get realigned with my purpose, right? That's to consciously be aware that I'm going to trail and to save myself, to prepare myself for the task at hand. And that means taking a good pause. Then after I breathe and I pause for a little bit, Mo, and then I realize I'm grounded, right? That it's going to be okay. Right. That I'm I still have breath going into my body, I have two arms, two legs. It's not as bad as that punk ass critic is telling me. And that there's a reason why they called me. And so I begin to regain control again. And in regaining that control again, maybe I might just do one thing, right? I might just do, okay, let me read about the organization just for this hour and let it go. Be more knowledgeable.
SPEAKER_01:And that's an aligned action, right? That's correct. That's correct. Even a little deeper than that, in those moments, as you're doing the reset, you might be thinking why you need this role, and why this particular role is important for not just you, but for your family, the income. And may maybe just reminding yourself of how this particular role is the starting point to the ultimate end endeavor that you have in mind for self. And this is the point that leaves you there. That's right. The starting point that leads you there. And that ties to purpose. So, what you were also saying is researching the organization, because that's what you do have control over. And the more that you read about the organization, maybe that creates excitement and confidence. And all of that is huge. Then it also elevates this other piece that I love the most is the element of not giving up on self. Because you did those other actions, you've refranged your thought process. So now you controlled your emotional state. You controlled it in that moment, and that's grit. Wow. So in this process.
SPEAKER_02:Are you saying in a roundabout way that self-awareness brings you back, right? Self-awareness brings you back, and that aligned action gives you direction, right? So self-awareness brings you back. Aligned action gives you direction, and grit gets you moving forward. You forgot your purpose. You forgot purpose. We talked about purpose too. Your why. My why as to I want a better life for myself. That's why I apply for the job interview. So, yes, you are absolutely correct. That why has to be in there. Otherwise, there's no need for grit. Why are you moving forward if you don't understand your why?
SPEAKER_01:Exactly. Not only that, though, if you don't understand your why, it just becomes easier to quit. That's what it is. So the reason people even jump from job to job to job, maybe they don't really truly understand what their purpose is. And so that's why they're so easy to quit and move on. You're not grounded. So what you described, honestly, what you described is swag. That's the framework. Swag, self-awareness, why power, aligned action, and grit. And that that's the framework when you're off track to get back in track because it's that one word. My swag is off. My swag is off. That's why I feel doubtful about this interview coming up. I don't have swag in this moment. I'm distracted. My discipline is off because life is heavy in the midst of an exciting time. Life is heavy. Because I'm off of my cycle, I'm distracted away from my code. So life is heavy in that moment, within the scope of being excited for an interview. Wow. That's what I'm saying. That's how deep this goes. Because on the surface, brother, on the surface, all of these exciting things are happening in our lives where we should be proud of. No doubt. But within the excitement, that punk ass inner critic shows up. And it makes life feel heavy in those moments because you're distracted away from your code. That code is the discipline of what you carry to lead self. And guess what? No one teaches conditioning of self. Wow.
SPEAKER_02:No one teaches that. In one of my poems, Coach Mo, and that's a beautiful statement, right? In one of my poems, it called war, right? There's a there's an overarching theme in there that says, if you want to go to war, here's what you do. Take a look in the mirror, because the enemy's you. And what you're describing is swag is a state of being. It is your DNA, it is your conscious awakening, it is who you are. If I'm Michael Jordan and I'm stepping to the free throw, I don't even think it's possible. I know that. It's necessary. I want the championship. So in my mind, before I even shoot that free throw, it's already done. Is that what? So it's just a state of consciousness. It's who you are. So with square, wow, that's deep.
SPEAKER_01:It is, man. And at the end of the day, bro, we all have the ability to choose. We all have power of choice. We do. And with that choice, we carry codes. I like that. We all carry a code. And our code, our code is shaped from the values, whatever they are, and it fluctuates. It fluctuates in your personal life, it fluctuates to work, to church, in sports, whatever. It fluctuates, but we all carry a cold, right? And at times, the outer world, the outer environments can get us off track, distract us away from the codes that we carry in certain moments. The framework of swag is just a one word reminder that I'm off of my code right now. Back in alignment with my code. Discipline of self. So what swag really is about conditioning self. And you can choose to accept it or not. You can dismiss it. That's totally fine. Totally fine. Because at the end of the day, our environments influence the way that we show up. Right. So if you were raised in a household and your parents were consistent warriors, right? Everything, the way they approach decision making, the way they just approach critical circumstances in life required a lot of worry. And that's just how they were taught to solve problems. Guess what? You carry some of that too. And if you're tired of carrying that, maybe, just maybe the swag framework might be something to help you to create consciousness and discipline on how to be intentional to limit the worry that comes up. Because up until this point, you never really had a clear structure and how to approach your worriness. You just naturally accept that I'm a worrier and this is just who I am. So you carry a lot of stress when a lot of different things in your outer environment comes up. That's just who you are. And you have it's like this blind spot that you don't know what you don't know that you can really change that. And it's just part of your DNA, right? And so that's what this conversation is. It's for those high achievers, leaders, and it's all different people in all types of walk of life that might carry this type of distractions of their codes as they show up. And I'm not saying it from the standpoint that you're this person overall as a whole, but in certain pocket areas that creates the intensity of the worry, the swag framework might be something to help shift you back into your true authentic self of being.
SPEAKER_02:That's correct. Coach Mo, this is a little, I want to take this a little deeper because we were talking about a job interview, right? Okay. And what you just reminded me is that this swag framework is a little bigger than just a job interview, right? Because the commercial says we can't help you from being like your parents. And if I'm getting a lot of information of who I am from my parents, right, and I have this swag framework, first part of self-awareness, that in this I can even change what they call generational curses. Absolutely. By first being aware that I am behaving like my parents, and I want to change this. I don't want to talk with a level two energy that is deflating, that is not representing that which I long to be. And that's the way my mom used to communicate. And I see that reality. So I want to change that so that my children and my grandchildren don't communicate that. Absolutely. And once that once it self-awareness, presence brings clarity, right? And then clarity brings what you call in grit. And then action builds momentum. So on momentum, that carries everything in the direction you long to be. So I really love what you're saying in regards to the job interview, but swag is bigger than just that framework for this. It's part, it's your DNA.
SPEAKER_01:It's the code. It can be. It can be, but at the end of the day, Coach Amo, this sounds all peachy and good. It's a nice framework. Yeah, I like this swag thing. You got to put your reps in on. You gotta practice it in order for it to work, in order to have a shift with anything that you do in life, right? If you want to limit some of the doubts or worries that you carry, and yeah, we introduced this framework of swag, which sounds great, self-awareness, why power, aligned action, and grit, all good, but it takes reps to make the shift, right? It takes reps to be aware. You gotta practice it. If you're not used to practicing just the simple thing around pausing, right? You make decisions through your emotions and react, and that's a natural habit. Let's say that for example, and you want to change that habit. You gotta practice, you gotta practice being self-aware to stop when you're feeling emotional about a certain situation, and that can be hard for people to do in real time, and so you got to we have to create certain intentions and how we can remind ourselves in that moment to get a rep in. That's how all of this works, and what today is about is just putting consciousness on it, just thinking about the stuff, because it's not being offered in training workshops. This isn't something you learn in college, right? It's not, bro. It's not, and I like this idea of just thinking about the stuff, having some real conversations, because the title, Why Discipline Stops Working When Life Gets Heavy, it's a misconception that life gets heavy only in the bad times. When we talk about life got heavy in a good time because you just got a job interview. That's right. That's right. So that's why we're thinking about this because it's not always bad.
SPEAKER_02:That's right.
SPEAKER_01:There's high achievers out there right now that are doing excellent work, and four or five different opportunities have opened up from the work that they're doing, and life is heavy for them because they don't know which door to go down, and they're worried that they're gonna make the right decision.
SPEAKER_02:You see what I'm saying? Coach Mo, I just won the Grammy. What are you talking about? I gotta figure out what I'm gonna wear, I gotta figure out what I'm gonna say. That's all I'm saying, bro.
SPEAKER_01:That's all I'm saying. As we close out, man, I just want to say this, man. We bust our ads to create opportunity, right? And when those opportunities show up, we get distracted from our code because we're worried about if we're gonna make the right or wrong decision. And that in itself generates this draining catabolic energy that we feel, and that's the piece we don't understand how to address intentionally, and we react based on that energetic state of being and feeling that catabolic drain of energy. Today was about exploring when life gets heavy, good times or bad times, our code naturally gets off, which meant discipline fails. Swag can be a framework, self-awareness, why power, aligned action, grit. Swag can be the framework that reminds you to just get back on the tracks. And getting back on the tracks sometimes requires reps. You have to define what those reps are to remind yourself of swag. You have to. That's right. You have to, and today it was about thinking about it. Think about it. Think about it. Any final thoughts?
SPEAKER_02:I really love the concept, Coach Mile. And the job interview was a great example because the energy is really high. And how can we let a good thing go bad, right? But that could be the very reason why some people never land a job. And the clarity behind behind having swag, self-awareness, your Y power, aligned action, and your grit is a DNA. It's a DNA code framework that we all need to be aware of. And once you know that that there's no more guesswork, right? And so that creating that habit, that cycle, that anytime you feel those stressors coming on, that that you guys swag on it.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely, brother. Man, I appreciate you for having this conversation with me. It's a much needed conversation, and my goal was to just put awareness how our cold can fail us in certain moments. And thank you. That's another rep in the inner arena. You didn't just listen, you leveled up your swag, self-awareness, why power, aligned action, and grid. If this hit home, share it, subscribe to the Let's Think About It podcast, and lock in with me on YouTube at Swag Coaching. Until next time, stay aware, lead with your why, act in alignment, and keep your grid strong.