The 12-Week Magic: Why Endurance Beats the High-Intensity Hustle
Aug 20, 2025
In our HIIT (high-intensity interval training) and instant results culture, we're rapidly being trained by social media and many well-known thought leaders OUT of emotional and nervous system endurance 🏃♀️ and INTO seeking the high of feeling successful 🍄
When it comes to workouts and working on your business, endorphins and dopamine are f*&^ing magical. It's like a yoga retreat, nice long run, and big hug all wrapped into one!
But the addiction to getting the high, rather than the slow, steady commitment to showing up with love, might just be sapping your energy, reducing your efficacy, and draining your bank accounts.
I'm going to raise my hand here, because changing directions, trying new strategies, and fast-launch plots have kicked my multi-passionate and highly diverse entrepreneurial ass in the past.
But when we faced a big loss, a big move, and my second baby between 2023-2024, I was handed some (sort of unwanted) learned experience:
When it comes to 🪴 houseplants, 💪 physical strength, and 📈 business growth, TWELVE WEEKS is the magic number.
At my movement coaching studio in Madison, Wisconsin, over the course of 12 weeks, I changed how we sell. We watched July blossom into our biggest sales month in 11 years—by close to 125%. But the biggest change was this: we also changed the length of our initial coaching containers from eight to twelve weeks.
Why does this work so well?? Because when you quietly tend to the seeds you've planted for the long haul, magic happens.
After nearly 20 years in the coaching industry, here's what I've observed in clients and in implementing new systems, ideas, and programs in my business:
Weeks 2-4: Excitement and Connection — There's a newness to it all and a sense of that new relationship high for the process you've embraced.
Weeks 4-6: Support and Encouragement — Things get stickier and harder as you learn where your pitfalls have been, discover that new skills are required, and you generally just feel bad at things.
Weeks 6-8: Skills and Behavior Change Develop — Your brain and nervous system develop new skills, better comprehension, and a sense of integration into your daily life.
Weeks 8-10: Visible External Changes Emerge — Bodies, businesses, and relationships start to change!
Weeks 10-12: Mastery and Clarity — A new vision for the future begins to develop as you iterate, integrate, and can think forward even further with clarity and excitement.
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Whether it's your business, your family life, or your self-care: turn off Instagram and plan a longer on-ramp. Give yourself the small wins to affirm you're still in it, but set a trajectory, create a plan, ask for accountability and support during the hard times, and don't change anything for twelve weeks.
We're all living in a HIIT world. But endurance is the skill that will transform your business—and leave your nervous system humming along, unshakeable.
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