Already Successful? Here's How to Take It to the Next Level

I sat across from Craig Groeschel, one of the most respected and prolific leaders I’ve ever known. A man who’s built something vast and sacred and stunning, and who manages to lead it with intention, excellence, and energy. And I found myself wondering, silently: How could I possibly sit with an executive like that and tell him something could be better?

But still. I wondered. Because when you work in the world of white space, this odd little kingdom of strategic pauses and thinking time, you start to see a truth that most people overlook: Even the best of the best are often operating with less oxygen than they realize.

Craig was generous and open. He asked questions. He nodded along as I shared the idea of "the wedge," those tiny 10 or 15-minute spaces that we insert between meetings or tasks to breathe, to reflect, to prepare. He even teased me a little: “I would not have many wedges.”

And then he challenged me with something I hear from a ton of leaders:

“Help me understand how creating some buffers will actually make me more productive rather than just take more time.”

It’s a fair question, isn’t it? Especially from someone whose current system is working. Craig is, by any measure, at the top. He runs a global ministry, leads a massive team, writes books, hosts one of the top leadership podcasts in the world, and somehow still manages to lift the people around him. He’s not lacking success. He’s already there.

So what is left to optimize?

That’s the question that lit up something inside me. Because maybe that’s where we go next in the conversation about performance. Not just: How do we get to the top? But: What’s above it?

In leadership development, we spend so much time helping people reach a certain altitude. But we rarely ask what happens after that. What happens when you’ve scaled the mountain and still feel the quiet sense that there might be another gear?

Here’s what I believe: When you reach the top of your game, the next level isn’t about doing more. It’s about becoming more available to your own brilliance.

Because no matter how successful you are, there are thoughts you haven’t thought yet. Ideas you haven’t connected. Inner landscapes you haven’t wandered because the calendar never left room for wandering. There is, even at the highest levels of excellence, untapped altitude.

The Space Beyond Success

At one point in my conversation with Craig, I said this to him, part musing, part challenge:

“We don’t know what you’re capable of with more margin. And we don’t know what magical next-level thoughts could appear if you were sitting, looking out a window for 15 minutes a day, cooking, playing, and iterating. Who knows what the next planetary level of genius is possible?”

He took it in. Not defensively, not dismissively. Just… with curiosity. That’s the moment I realized: The real question isn’t whether someone like Craig needs White Space. The question is: What might be born in it?

Bill Gates famously disappears twice a year for what he calls “Think Weeks.” He holes up alone in a cabin, reading and scribbling and following his mind wherever it leads. These deliberate breaks, he’s said, are where some of Microsoft’s most important ideas first sparked.

Gates had already “made it.” But kept climbing, not by pushing harder, but by getting quieter. And that, perhaps, is the real difference. High performers squeeze every drop out of the day. But the ones who transcend even their own expectations are the ones who leave a little space in the glass.

The Illusion of Completion

This is where many leaders stop, right at the edge of what’s next. Because success has a sneaky way of whispering, You’re done.

It tricks us into thinking we’ve reached the final form of our effectiveness. But the mind never stops evolving; it just needs room in which to do so. And it's that space that leaders tend to fill, because we're so used to equating value with activity.

Here's what I tell the executives I work with: You are not infinite. But the work is. So what if you traded one email for one idea? One meeting for one moment of true clarity?

Not because you're inefficient. But because you’re already excellent, and now you're curious about what else might be possible.

An Invitation

So I'll leave you with this thought: Is there something higher than the top? And if there is, what would you need to do differently to reach it?

Not every leader will be ready to ask that. But some will. And if that’s you, then I hope you’ll take a wedge. Just one. Fifteen minutes. Sit. Breathe. Let your brain wander.

Don’t try to solve anything. Just create the conditions where something might come.

Because if this is what you’ve built without margin… I can’t wait to see what’s next.

This was also published on Juliet Funt's LinkedIn.

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