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Anthony Kenneth Spark Founder, Spark A Change Coaching Life & Business Coach | Entrepreneur Co-Founder: Operation Impact • Punk Rock Run Podcast Co-Host: ExtraOrdinary Excellence 📞 +631 327 2241 ✉️ [email protected] 🌐 www.sparkachangecoaching.com |
Spark's Notes
When Your Baseline Is Broken, Progress Feels Invisible
Anthony Spark
2/06/2026
There’s a quiet problem high performers run into after years of overworking.
Your baseline gets distorted.
I had a moment recently where I genuinely thought, “I barely worked this week.” I felt like I was home all the time. Present.
Around my wife and kids more than ever.
And Callan looked at me and said something that stopped me cold: “You used to be a workaholic.
So what feels like ‘barely working’ to you is just… normal.”
That hit.
When you’ve lived in deficit long enough emotionally, relationally, physically normal starts to feel excessive.
Rest feels lazy.
Presence feels indulgent.
Balance feels suspicious.
So even when you’re objectively doing better, it doesn’t feel better yet.
This shows up everywhere:
• People who’ve healed but still feel behind
• Leaders who’ve improved but still feel guilty
• Parents who are present but still feel like it’s “not enough”
The issue isn’t effort anymore.
It’s calibration.
Your nervous system hasn’t caught up to reality.
If you don’t consciously reset your baseline, you’ll keep chasing a version of “enough” that was designed for a life you no longer want and no longer need.
That’s how people burn themselves out after they’ve already won.
Questions worth sitting with:
• What still feels “lazy” that’s actually healthy?
• What standard are you still living under that came from an older version of you?
• If this pace was normal, what would you finally stop apologizing for?
Progress isn’t just doing less damage.
It’s relearning what normal feels like.
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