By Marian Evans, Business & Success Coach.
I’ve never believed that success belongs only to the naturally gifted. In my experience — from the farm in West Wales where I grew up to the boardrooms I sit in today — success comes from something much simpler: grit, consistency, and the willingness to look honestly at your whole life, not just the part people can see.
High performers often convince themselves they can power through anything. For a while, that works — until it doesn’t. When you push hard in one area but neglect the foundations that hold you together, it catches up with you. You can only rise sustainably when every part of your life is supporting the direction you want to go.
This is where I often share a simple equation with leaders:
Success = Potential – Interference
Not interference from others — interference from within. The small stresses, the lack of sleep, the unhappiness you push aside, the relationships you stop tending to, the habits that drain rather than nourish. All of it chips away at your potential.
The question I ask leaders is: Are you truly meeting your potential — or are you just coping?
Below are the principles that can help you rise without compromising your wellbeing or the life you’re working so hard to build.
1. Grit Isn’t About Pushing Harder — It’s About Aligning Better
Grit is often misunderstood as relentless effort, but real grit is quieter. It’s the discipline to make the choices you don’t want to make, consistently. It’s the courage to face the areas of your life that need strengthening. Sometimes the bravest thing you can do is slow down, reflect and realign.
Ambition without alignment leads to exhaustion. Ambition with alignment leads to sustainable growth.
2. Strengthen the Foundations: Sleep, Food, Movement and Calm
Peak performance isn’t created in the office — it’s created in the margins of everyday life.
- Sleep is where emotional stability and good decision-making begin.
- Food fuels clarity, mood and energy more than we admit.
- Movement resets the body and the mind; it’s often the quickest route back to calm.
- Emotional regulation comes from understanding your personal energy: what lights you up, and what drains you.
Your energy naturally follows what you enjoy. The tasks that feel effortless — the ones that come from your strengths — are often the ones you need to lean into more. They build confidence, momentum and resilience.
When you nurture the basics, everything else rises with you.
3. Choose Your Circle Wisely: We Become Who We Surround Ourselves With
One of the biggest predictors of long-term success is your inner circle. Not the number of people around you, but the quality.
Surround yourself with those who are grounded, honest, generous with their energy and serious about their own growth. These people steady you when the pace intensifies and remind you who you are when self-doubt creeps in.
Your connections either amplify your potential or interfere with it. Choose wisely.
4. Notice the Interference: What’s Really Getting in Your Way?
When performance dips, we often look at our workload. But the real interference usually lies elsewhere:
- Are you unhappy outside of work?
- Are you neglecting your health?
- Are you carrying emotional stress that you’ve never had space to name?
- Are you over-committed because you struggle to say no?
Once you identify the interference, you can work on it. You don’t need to transform everything at once — just commit to progressing one thing that will support your whole life, not just your career.
5. Micro-Progress Over Perfection
High performers often wait for the “right time” to reset. But resilience is built through small daily actions — micro-progress. Five minutes of reflection. A walk between meetings. Going to bed half an hour earlier. One supportive conversation. These shifts compound.
You don’t build resilience in crisis; you build it in calm, through the choices nobody sees.
Final Reflection: Rising Well Is the Real Win
We tend to celebrate the outward markers of success — titles, recognition, opportunities. But the leaders who lead longest and strongest are the ones who take responsibility for their whole life.
Ask yourself honestly:
What would my potential look like if I removed the interference?
Then make one change — one small decision — that supports the life you want, not the pressure you’re tolerating.
Success isn’t about striving harder. It’s about building the resilience, habits and support that allow you to rise without losing yourself. That’s when we become unstoppable.
About the expert
Born and raised on a farm in West Wales, Marian Evans has gone on to become a multi-award-winning business leader, investor, and board advisor.
Recognised in the King’s Honours for her contribution to business, she now serves as Chair of Monmouthshire Building Society—one of the few women to lead a financial services board. Marian also earned a place on the prestigious Midas List as one of the top British women to follow, alongside figures such as JK Rowling and Adele.
With a distinguished career in financial services, Marian was one of the industry’s youngest professionals to achieve both Chartered Insurer and Chartered Broker status. She previously led Thomas Carroll’s Special Risks Division and played a key role at NFU Mutual, managing a £58 million portfolio. Today, she serves as a Non-Executive Director and Senior Independent Director across multiple boards, bringing strategic insight and commercial acumen to the organisations she supports.
Beyond finance, Marian is a sought-after executive coach and founder of Elevate Business Consultancy. Through Elevate BC, she works with senior leaders across corporate and government sectors, helping them navigate complexity and unlock high performance.
A passionate advocate for mentorship and leadership development, Marian has been honoured as Inspirational Woman of the Decade (WIB Awards) and UK Mentor of the Year (WIFA Awards). She is a Fellow of both the Institute of Leadership & Management and the Chartered Management Institute.
Find out more at marian-evans.com
