Growth Doesn’t Necessarily Start With Doing More

Simplify. Simplify. Simplify.

Author

Faith Rivera
January 14, 2026

January often brings a familiar pressure: new goals, new plans, new initiatives. There’s an unspoken belief that growth requires adding more. More meetings. More programs. More responsibilities. More hustle. More offerings.

But in my work with nonprofit and business leaders and through my own personal experience, I’ve found the opposite is usually true. The thought of doing more versus simplifying often comes from scarcity mentality that if aren’t doing more then we aren’t doing enough.

Sustainable growth starts with simplification.

Simplifying doesn’t mean lowering your standards or ambition. It means creating clarity about what truly matters, what actually moves the mission forward, what is actually bringing in revenue, and what no longer deserves your limited time and energy.

When leaders don’t simplify, everything starts to feel urgent. Decision-making slows. We become confused about priorities. Strategy stays stuck in theory because our execution is spread too thin.

Simplification is a leadership skill. It creates focus, momentum, and space for intentional growth.

Here’s a simple place to start:

The “Stop Doing” Audit
Take a few minutes this week and ask yourself:

  • What am I currently responsible for that no longer aligns with our core goals?

  • What am I doing out of habit rather than impact?

  • What could be paused for the next 90 days with little downside?

Choose one thing to release this month. One meeting. One project. One responsibility that no longer serves the bigger picture or you.

At Alo Civitas Consulting, we always begin our strategic work here—helping leaders simplify before they systemize or scale. Because no system, funding plan, or growth strategy works if everything is treated as a priority.

If your goals feel heavy instead of energizing, that’s not a personal failure. It’s a signal that clarity, not more effort, is what’s needed next. As mentioned to you last week, my word of the year release. One of the things that I am releasing this year is the need to have meetings on my calendar every single day. I am shifting my schedule to allow me more spaces to be creative, complete the projects for my client work, and space to step into my CEO role more directly. By releasing the need to jam pack my calendar, I am allowing myself to do the things that will actually move the needle. What about you? What can you release to move the need forward?