In this intimate, story-driven episode, Tonya Richards names something many high performers feel but rarely articulate: the unspoken contract that quietly forms when being capable becomes the price of belonging.
Lifted from her leadership journal, listeners are dropped straight into a familiar moment; a meeting where praise sounds like trust and opportunity. This episode explores how responsibility accumulates long before it ever feels like burnout. Not through crisis or chaos, but through steady absorption. Through being “the one who can handle it.” The one people rely on. The one who makes things work.
The Unspoken Contract of Excellence traces how this dynamic often begins early when competence is rewarded, needs are minimized, and being low maintenance becomes a form of safety. Over time, that pattern follows us into adulthood. Different rooms. Different titles. Same role.
You’ll hear reflections on:
This episode isn’t about quitting or blowing things up. It’s about noticing. About recognizing when excellence shifts from a choice into a requirement and what that demand slowly takes from you.
Season 1 of Restless Excellence is about breaking silence around the hidden costs of high performance. Episode 1 explored how excellence gets wired into us. This episode explores what it quietly demanded in return and why feeling tired doesn’t mean you’re weak, broken, or ungrateful. It means you’re waking up.
© 2025 Tonya Richards. All rights reserved.
Restless Excellence™ is a trademark pending.
All original content produced are the intellectual property of Tonya Richards and may not be reproduced or presented as original work without prior written permission.
