There is a specific kind of restlessness that hits a leader right before a breakthrough. It is not the anxiety of failure. It is something else entirely. The room suddenly feels too small. Conversations that used to satisfy you now feel shallow. Strategies that used to work now feel obsolete.
I call this the Agitation of Elevation.
Mistaking peace for progress
We often mistake peace for progress, assuming that if we are in the will of God or aligned with our purpose, everything should feel smooth, settled, and quiet. But physics teaches otherwise. A rocket on the launchpad sits in stillness, but the moment of launch, the moment of elevation, is violent, loud, and shaking. If you are feeling shaken right now, consider a different perspective: you are not falling apart. You are being prepared for a higher altitude.
The stirred nest
There is a profound lesson in how an eagle prepares her eaglets to fly. When it is time for them to leave the nest, she does not gently coax them out. She stirs the nest, removing the soft feathers and fur that made it comfortable, exposing the sharp thorns and sticks beneath. Suddenly, the place that was their sanctuary becomes a source of pain. The eaglet grows agitated, and it is that very agitation that forces it onto the branch, and eventually, into trusting its wings.
Many of you are living in a stirred-nest season. Your job has become uncomfortable. Your circle of friends feels misaligned. The methods that used to build your business are no longer yielding results. You are frustrated, but comfort is the enemy of the next level. If you stayed comfortable, you would never fly. You would die in the nest.
Discomfort is data
When this agitation arrives, our instinct is to retreat: to try to fix the nest, put the soft feathers back, apologise for our own growth. But leaders must learn to view discomfort as data. It is information telling you that your capacity has outgrown your container. Agitation signals transition: the old season is expiring. Agitation requires separation: elevation demands a measure of isolation, because you cannot take everyone with you to the next altitude. And agitation precedes acceleration: the tension you feel is the pulling back of the bowstring, drawing you backward only so you can be propelled forward.
The wrestling before the blessing
From a spiritual perspective, agitation is often the Holy Spirit disturbing your status quo. It is the wrestling match before the blessing. Jacob wrestled in the dirt before he became Israel. If you are wrestling, do not let go until you get your blessing, and do not let go until you understand why you are being shaken.
Check your wings
If your life feels turbulent today, stop trying to quiet the storm and start checking your wings.
You are not losing your mind. You are locating your future.
Do not medicate the agitation, and do not run from it. Lean into it, and ask: what is this discomfort trying to push me toward? The shaking is not the end. It is the announcement that you are ready to rise.
Stay transformed.