🚀High-Performance Strategist | Marissa Brassfield ✨Ridiculously Efficient | Future-Ready Mindset 🤖AI & Tech Tools | Elevate Work-Life Alignment
Los Angeles, CA
Joined January 2009
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On September 28, I had Mohs surgery to remove basal cell carcinoma from my nose.
The cancerous tissue was smaller than the eraser on a #2 pencil, and based on a review of my camera reel, seems to have come up around 2015 or 2016.
I tolerated the bump for nearly a decade while it slowly grew, covering it with makeup.
All the while, I was in full denial
the fractional CTOs and coaching clients I work with when they're weighing a big change. What happens if nothing changes in 6 months or 12 months?
Am I satisfied living another 6 months knowing that this bump on my nose is skin cancer and that I can remove it fully, but am choosing not to?
Clearly, clearly no.
It was a no-brainer to remove it. We don't always get such clear-cut choices to remove things that are slowly harming us under the surface.
And yet, we do have this freedom of choice.
Right now, and every day, is a choice point.
You can choose a way of life that nourishes you and your family. Or you can allow others, external forces, or fate to choose it for you. Not choosing is a choice in itself.
What are you no longer willing to tolerate?
Try this experiment:
This week, review everything in your life: health, relationships, finances, home, and so on.
Then decide: what cannot continue as is into 2027?
Make the list. Don't worry about feasibility. This is you declaring what no longer fits into your bigger, better future.
Choose one item from this list and ask advice of someone who is on the other side of that decision. It's ideal if they've helped many people through it, like a coach or a therapist.
If you don't have someone to talk to yet, prompt about it in your favorite AI tool.
Let's make this the season we choose to embrace change.
If you're good at your job and bored by your own competence, the role that looks great on paper may have already stopped fitting...
And your body has probably been sounding alarms for weeks (months) that you've been absolutely determined to ignore.
Specific sensations in specific places, rising frustration in situations that used to be fine, stalled momentum, guilt for feeling ungrateful... Exhaustion rest can't touch.
Sound familiar?
Read more about what it looks like when you outgrow your career:
ridiculouslyefficient.com/si…
I keep seeing people act like your 40s are when you make peace with what you didn't get.
I have to disagree.
Most of the women I know in their 40s are launching the vision, buying the practice, leaving the marriage that stopped fitting a decade ago, going back to school, or fractional, writing the book, or announcing a move to a different country.
And maybe we've been told that this is what a midlife crisis looks like... But nobody I know is losing it.
They're becoming.
Finding space to expand, and taking the leaps that have been calling to them for decades.
These women have the receipts, the network, the money, and the "I am done pretending" energy to actually do it.
If you're dreading what comes next, go look at the math on what's actually ahead if you take action on those things you've been dreaming about.
Actually ask yourself: "What if it all works out?"
Click below for the Tuesday newsletter I send to women writing a different story:
ridiculouslyefficient.com/#/…
One day you'll be at dinner with your family and your watch will buzz, your phone will light up on the table, someone will pop up in Slack, an email will slide down from the top of your screen, a text will interrupt the notification about the email, WhatsApp will chime in a group chat you muted six months ago, and X will remind you someone tagged you in post you haven't seen yet...
And then your kid will ask you a question and you'll have to say "what?"
... Because you haven't actually been listening for the last twenty minutes.
You've been pinged every ninety seconds for ten years.
Your nervous system has forgotten how to be in one place at a time.
Your day becomes a series of reactions, and the work that matters keeps getting pushed to later.
I refused to let that be my life.
So... I built systems with my AI partners, deleted, delegated, and redesigned the way I work.
You can do it too:
ridiculouslyefficient.com/#/…
I say no to good things every week.
A great invitation, shiny project, an excellent opportunity that would make total sense on a five-day calendar.
But on a 3.5-day week every yes has a price, and I refuse to pay it with my mornings and evenings.
Saying no to bad things is easy... Try it with the good ones.
Fear doesn’t look like panic for me.
It looks like productivity… and people praise it.
Overworking, perfectionism, people pleasing, “research” (actually hesitation), and staying busy with ‘productive’ distractions (like scrubbing grout instead of whatever’s actually important).
From the outside... Overdrive.
But inside… Stuck.
I found three things to stop fighting the fear:
1: Micro-dose courage.
Take the smallest possible step toward the thing you’re avoiding. Open a draft, make a list, outline, or plan.
2: 90-second allowance.
When fear hits, let your body feel it for 90 seconds. No fixing or fighting. Just breathing with it.
Then choose what happens next.
3: One tiny win a day.
Pressure is never the way… You gotta have progress.
A single completed action creates more momentum than a year of pressure.
If you’re running on fear, awareness is already movement in the right direction.
You’re paying attention now, so congratulations!
You’ve already started.
There’s your win for the day.
Save this for the days your nervous system screams “safety” but you’re really just stuck.
And tomorrow… choose one tiny win.
"What's the point of being productive if you can't choose how you spend the time you create by being effective?"
I stay ridiculously efficient with my work, and these days I enjoy a 3.5-day week, never miss a school drop off, and there's always a vacation on my horizon. My heart, soul, and bank account have never been so full.
The things ‘stopping’ you from living your dream life are worth a harder look. If you want help challenging those beliefs, systems, and even the people who contribute to your stuckness, comment “Simplicity” and let’s meet up in your inbox.
I would be honored to explore the possibilities with you.
A year ago today, I launched an experiment: The Season of No.
For all of Q4 2025, I declined external requests that infringed on my peace.
No side quests, no easy-sounding one-off projects, no "can I pick your brain" meetings, no last-minute travel.
One guiding question: "Does this nourish me?"
And a LOT of practice at saying, "No," "No thanks," "Thanks for thinking of me, but no," and "Not right now."
The old me had a lot of conditioning to unlearn, and cautionary tales about the lifelong cost of saying no instead of saying yes. Exceeding others' expectations of me and overriding my inner voice once helped me survive.
The practice felt odd at first. "All I have today is... baking gingerbread with my son, like I wanted?"
The silence was foreign. Sometimes I'd even forget my phone in another room. I kept reminding myself, "This is what you wanted, this is the space you've craved."
The weirdest part was that every time I said no to something I didn't actually want to do anyway, it felt right and natural. And every time I said no, I got better at doing it.
All that practice in Q4 set me up beautifully for 2026, a year that's changed my life in all the best of ways. Healthier body, clear mind, connected family, even better work-life integration, and a grounded spirit. Everywhere I look, my life feels self-authored and aligned to my values.
In a world that benefits when we're busy and distracted, sometimes prioritizing peace is the only path forward. What will you prioritize this Q4?