Why Slowing Down Feels Like a Threat (And What to Do With the Agitation)
Let’s just say it: stillness is weirdly loud.
You wrap up a launch. You finish onboarding new team members. You hit your quarterly goals. Logically, things should feel good. But instead? There’s a restless buzz under your skin. You feel agitated. Uneasy. Your brain’s spinning with ideas for what to fix next — even if nothing’s broken.
That’s the space we dig into in this episode of the Culture Focused Practice podcast, where I sit down with Dr. Jeremy Sharp (of The Testing Psychologist) to talk about the emotional whiplash of slowing down. It’s the first time I’ve ever brought someone into The Owner’s Room, and it was the perfect episode to do it.
Jeremy and I talk about right-sizing his multimillion-dollar practice, what it really means to “feel behind,” and the parts of ourselves that get activated when we stop moving. We swap stories about inbox avoidance (hi, it me), people-pleasing patterns, ADHD time distortion, and the identity grief that comes with choosing rest over hustle.
It’s not just a productivity conversation — it’s a value conversation. When our sense of worth is tethered to motion, slowing down can feel like we’re disappearing. And when we’re used to sprinting through life, walking can feel like failure. Even if it’s exactly what we need.
We also talk about grief — the quiet kind that sneaks in when a season ends, a big project wraps, or we step away from something we’ve built. It’s a grief that’s easy to miss… but when you name it, it opens the door to something deeper. Something more grounded. More true.
This episode is for the leaders who can’t sit still, the visionaries who build sandcastles at the shoreline and wonder why they’re gone the next day, and the achievers who need permission to breathe. (And maybe cry a little while they’re at it.)
If you’ve ever felt like rest was a betrayal of your ambition, or like stillness was just too uncomfortable to sit in — this one’s for you.
🎧 Listen to the full episode here.
🌀 And if this conversation speaks to your soul, join us Inside the Living Practice, where we do this work together — messiness and all.
About the Author
Dr. Tara Vossenkemper is a gently-candid consultant who’s been in the trenches of group practice ownership since 2017. With a hearty blend of depth, irreverence, and a solid dash of humor (or so she hopes), Tara helps practice owners navigate the can-be-messy process of hiring, culture-building, vision generating, people-y issues, and all the other things that keep you up at night. When she’s not consulting, she’s probably wrangling her animals or homeschooling her kids—because why not add more chaos to the mix?
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