Workplace Wellness Insight 005: From Achievement to Fulfillment: What From Strength to Strength Teaches Leaders About Workplace Wellbeing

From Achievement to Fulfillment: What From Strength to Strength Teaches Leaders About Workplace Wellbeing

Author: Chiru Tsai, MBA

The problem? Many high performers experience a paradox in mid-career: the more complex they push, the less satisfied they feel.

Arthur C. Brooks calls this the striver’s curse:

"The striver’s curse is the anxiety and disappointment that arise when we cling to earlier success modes even as the returns diminish."

In Brooks’s framing, the path out is not to “double down” on what used to work, but to pivot our definition of success and the way we create value at work. As he puts it in a 2022 HBS excerpt, Raymond Cattell’s insight about how our abilities change with age “can defeat the striver’s curse—and change your life.”

This piece distills Brooks’s core evidence and presents four practical shifts you can build into your personal routines and your organization’s wellbeing strategy today.

1) Understand the Two Curves—and Why the First One Fades

Brooks’s argument distinguishes fluid intelligence (rapid problem-solving and novel insight) and crystallized intelligence (pattern recognition, teaching, synthesis). In his widely cited essay for The Atlantic, Brooks summarizes Cattell’s definitions succinctly: “Fluid intelligence is the ability to reason, analyze, and solve novel problems… [Crystallized intelligence] represents a person’s knowledge gained during life.”

The implication is not fatalistic. As the HBS excerpt explains, careers built solely on fluid ability peak earlier; but careers that shift toward crystallized strengths—advising, mentoring, integrating—can plateau later and decline much more slowly.

“If you can repurpose your professional life to rely more on crystallized intelligence—your peak will come later… If you can go from one type to the other—well, then you have cracked the code.”

This is pivotal for workplace well-being. Burnout often masquerades as a motivation problem when it is actually a mismatch of curves—we keep measuring ourselves by speed and novelty long after our comparative advantage has moved to wisdom, synthesis, and relationship-rich work.

2) Four Evidence-Based Shifts You Can Integrate Now

Shift A — Rethink Success: From Attachment to Contribution

Brooks urges readers to reanchor their identity away from “empty rewards” and toward service, connection, and spiritual/ethical growth.

Put this into practice (individual):

• Run a "weekly reward audit": what fraction of your effort last week went to metrics that are externally bestowed (titles, likes, status) versus contribution (mentoring, capability-building, client benefit)? Rebalance by 10–20% next week toward contribution.
• Build a “legacy skill” by identifying one piece of institutional knowledge you possess and converting it into a teachable workshop or playbook.

Put this into practice (organization):

• In performance reviews, add a "Contribution & Stewardship dimension" (mentoring, knowledge transfer, judgment in ambiguity). Weigh it materially in promotion and bonus decisions.
• Redesign senior individual contributor roles into advisor/architect positions that prize synthesis and teaching—explicitly rewarding crystallized strengths. For many, this is the gateway to the “second curve.”

Why does it help well-being? 

Identity tethered only to external markers becomes fragile; detachment plus contribution broadens sources of meaning and reduces the compulsive striving that fuels the striver’s curse.

Shift B — Live Well by Facing Fear: Make Mortality Part of Your Mental Hygiene

One of Brooks’s most pragmatic tools is a short “death meditation” to neutralize fear of decline. In the HBS excerpt, he recommends: “Practice a death meditation to neutralize fear of decline,” followed by a numbered, stepwise contemplation (e.g., “Those close to me begin to notice that I am not as sharp as I used to be… I am no longer remembered at all for my accomplishments”).

Put this into practice (individual):

• Use that meditation weekly. Then write a one-line response:

"What would I prioritize this week if the above were true tomorrow?"

• Reschedule accordingly.
• Establish “enough” thresholds for income, status, and scope. Anything beyond “enough” must justify itself regarding learning, service, or relationships.

Put this into practice (organization):

• Build values and legacy modules into leadership programs; normalize planning for transitions and role redesigns before people burn out.
• Offer career pivot fellowships (6–12 weeks) for senior talent to prototype mentoring, teaching, internal consulting, or client-education roles that emphasize crystallized strengths.

Why does it help well-being?

Exposure therapy principles apply: fear shrinks when faced systematically. Leaders who reduce fear of professional mortality can choose wisely—toward roles that fit the second curve—rather than clinging to misfit expectations.

Shift C — Know Yourself: Move from External Achievement to Inner Strength

Brooks’s counsel to mid-career professionals is clear: pivot from roles that require raw speed to roles that leverage wisdom and synthesis, such as moving into mentoring and supervisory work.

He wrote in The Atlantic:

“Go be successful, then pivot… from work that rewards fluid intelligence to that which rewards crystallized intelligence"

Put this into practice (individual):

• Map your calendar by mode: Maker (new problems, speed) vs. Mentor (synthesis, coaching, translation). If you are past your fluid-ability peak, aim for a 60/40 split (Maker/Mentor), then steadily move to 70/30.
• Codify your pattern library: write a one-page note each week titled “What I know now,” capturing heuristics and failure patterns junior teammates can use.

Put this into practice (organization):

• Create "dual ladders" that do not force top performers to choose between people-leadership and high-impact teaching/synthesis tracks.
• In staffing, reserve a proportion of complex engagements for “architect-mentor” pairings so that senior staff design and teach while juniors execute and explore.

Why does it help well-being?

When the job fits the curve, flow, and satisfaction return, people experience restored competence, and teams benefit from wisdom that was previously trapped in one person’s head.

Shift D — Turn Weakness into Strength: Use Vulnerability to Grow Relationships

Brooks’s program, by design, tilts our attention toward relationships and service, not just output.

Put this into practice (individual):

• Run a transparent practice each week: in one meeting, speak for two minutes about a current limitation (e.g., attention, new tech) and how you address it. Ask a teammate to teach or pair with you.
• Move one recurring task you do alone into a "co-created ritual" (office hours, brown-bag teaching, code or case reviews).

Put this into practice (organization):

• Institutionalize "mentor circles" (small cross-level groups) with explicit norms for sharing setbacks and extracting teachable patterns.
• Shift a fraction of senior incentives to "relational outcomes"—mentee promotions, cross-team capability uplift, internal NPS from knowledge-sharing sessions.

Why does it help well-being?

Vulnerability increases relatedness, a central pillar of human motivation and a robust predictor of long-term satisfaction at work. Brooks’s emphasis on connection and service is not sentimental; it is an operational route to "durable meaning" that counteracts the isolation of status-driven striving.

A Simple Implementation Plan Template

1. Rewrite success (Week 1–2)
2. Normalize mortality & transition (Week 2–4)
3. Design for the second curve (Month 2)
4. Architect vulnerability into the system (Month 3)

What This Looks Like in Practice

Consider three common mid-career profiles and how the shifts play out:

• The Time-Pressed Expert: Former top performer now dreads complex “from-scratch” work and feels inexplicably slower. Shift 20–30% of load to advisory/teaching functions; pair them with two juniors and make “library building” (playbooks, design reviews) their signature deliverable. The north star is the Atlantic’s guidance—pivot to roles that reward crystallized intelligence.
• The Perfectionist Manager: Defines identity by being proper and indispensable. Run the reward audit (Shift A) and death meditation (Shift B). Move one “heroic” task into a system the team owns. Detachment from “empty rewards” and diversified sources of meaning will lower stress without lowering standards.
• The Veteran IC Near Burnout: Loves the craft but feels invisible next to faster peers. Re-scope the role of architect-mentor: reduce urgent production work, increase design reviews, provide training, and address incidents post-mortems.

Next Steps

Brooks’s challenge to leaders is practical and humane: accept the reality of the first curve’s limits and embrace the second curve’s gifts. In his words, careers that adapt to crystallized strengths are where “you have cracked the code.”

Your challenge for this week:

1. Run the reward audit and move one block on your calendar from status-seeking work to contribution (mentoring, synthesis, service).
2. Do the death meditation once; make one concrete change that reflects your priorities beyond achievement.
3. Choose one person to teach something you’ve learned the hard way. Then ask what they can teach you.

The long game in performance and well-being favors those who pivot from achievement to contribution. With Brooks’s roadmap, that pivot is no longer abstract—it’s a set of habits you can start today.

Disclaimer

The views and insights expressed in this newsletter reflect my personal interpretation of current scientific research and do not represent the views of my employer or any organization with which I am affiliated. This content is shared solely for educational and professional discussion purposes and should not be used as formal advice or consultation.