The Emotional Drag Coefficient

Nov 16

NOVEMBER 17, 2025

When we avoid what’s uncomfortable, personally or organizationally, it compounds. The things we don’t talk about quietly run the show.

Before your next meeting, pause and ask: What’s the elephant in the room, and what’s it costing us not to name it?

When I landed in Germany this week it was non-stop: two clients, two days, zero sleep… I was ready to go.

But something felt off.

Even though I was excited, every move felt heavy. I felt tired, slow. I was doing everything “right,” but it felt like I was dragging a parachute behind me.

And it wasn’t just jet-lag. I was carrying emotional weight from a conversation back home I hadn’t resolved.

That unspoken tension was resistance.
An emotional drag coefficient.

Just like air slows a moving car, unprocessed emotions slow your forward motion.
You still move, but it takes way more effort.

Carl Jung once said…

“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”
The emotions we ignore don’t disappear, they take the wheel.

And research backs it up: negative emotional states increase cognitive load, draining energy and focus. The more emotional baggage you carry, the more energy you burn just to stay in motion.

Before the first client keynote, I caught myself and shifted one thing: I checked in, out loud, with myself and those around me. Seeing what was actually true for everyone right in that moment.

Everything shifted.
Energy up. Connection stronger. Drag gone.

Here’s the bigger truth:

What’s unspoken personally becomes systemic collectively.

The same drag that slows one person down eventually slows everyone down. When teams don’t name what’s under the surface: resentment, fear, disconnection, it spreads through meetings, decisions, and culture. The elephant in the room isn’t just awkward… it’s expensive.

We think performance is about pushing harder. And sometimes it is. But very often real performance is about releasing what’s pulling against us, individually and together.

Key Idea

Emotional drag is the resistance created by unprocessed feelings: you move slower, even when you’re working harder. When we avoid what’s uncomfortable, personally or organizationally, it compounds. The things we don’t talk about quietly run the show.

Takeaway

Before your next meeting, pause and ask: What’s the elephant in the room, and what’s it costing us not to name it?

Build your Movement

What emotion or truth is quietly slowing you down? And who else might be feeling the weight of it too?