Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
🎙️ When “Good” Becomes Emotional Avoidance | Leadership Under Pressure #87
One of Jocko Willink’s most famous responses to adversity is simple: “Good.”
Something goes wrong?... Good.
An obstacle appears?... Good.
Now you have an opportunity to adapt, grow, and become stronger.
It is a powerful mindset. But in this episode of Leadership Under Pressure, Mark Odland explores how many high-performing men unintentionally misuse that principle—not as resilience, but as emotional avoidance.
Mark breaks down:
✅ The difference between resilience and emotional suppression
✅ Why many disciplined men override pain instead of addressing it
✅ How unresolved stress quietly impacts marriage, health, parenting, and leadership
✅ Why “pushing through” is not always strength
✅ The hidden emotional cost of constantly staying in motion
✅ How burnout, numbness, irritability, and disconnection slowly build over time
✅ Why wisdom is knowing which pain to endure—and which pain to process
This episode is not about becoming fragile.
It’s about becoming whole.
Because some pain is meant to strengthen you…
but some pain is trying to tell you something.
And many high-performing men have spent years overriding signals that actually needed attention.
At Lion Counseling, Mark works with disciplined, resilient men who are successful on the outside—but who may still be carrying unprocessed stress, pain, and emotional exhaustion underneath the surface.
Sometimes the real “good” is not just that you pushed through.
Sometimes the good is finally facing what you’ve been avoiding.
🎙️ Book a Clarity Call with Mark:
https://escapethecagenow.com/call/
📘 Get Mark’s FREE book + join the newsletter:
https://escapethecagenow.com/subscribe/
Click here to watch a video of this episode.’
About Leadership Under Pressure:
Leadership Under Pressure is a series from Lion Counseling exploring the hidden psychological layer of leadership, discipline, relationships, and performance. Mark Odland combines trauma-informed therapy, EMDR expertise, leadership principles, faith, and real-world experience to help high-performing men operate with greater clarity, steadiness, and freedom under pressure.
One of Jocko Willink’s most famous responses to adversity is simple: “Good.”
Something goes wrong?... Good.
An obstacle appears?... Good.
Now you have an opportunity to adapt, grow, and become stronger.
It is a powerful mindset. But in this episode of Leadership Under Pressure, Mark Odland explores how many high-performing men unintentionally misuse that principle—not as resilience, but as emotional avoidance.
Mark breaks down:
✅ The difference between resilience and emotional suppression
✅ Why many disciplined men override pain instead of addressing it
✅ How unresolved stress quietly impacts marriage, health, parenting, and leadership
✅ Why “pushing through” is not always strength
✅ The hidden emotional cost of constantly staying in motion
✅ How burnout, numbness, irritability, and disconnection slowly build over time
✅ Why wisdom is knowing which pain to endure—and which pain to process
This episode is not about becoming fragile.
It’s about becoming whole.
Because some pain is meant to strengthen you…
but some pain is trying to tell you something.
And many high-performing men have spent years overriding signals that actually needed attention.
At Lion Counseling, Mark works with disciplined, resilient men who are successful on the outside—but who may still be carrying unprocessed stress, pain, and emotional exhaustion underneath the surface.
Sometimes the real “good” is not just that you pushed through.
Sometimes the good is finally facing what you’ve been avoiding.
🎙️ Book a Clarity Call with Mark:
https://escapethecagenow.com/call/
📘 Get Mark’s FREE book + join the newsletter:
https://escapethecagenow.com/subscribe/
Click here to watch a video of this episode.’
About Leadership Under Pressure:
Leadership Under Pressure is a series from Lion Counseling exploring the hidden psychological layer of leadership, discipline, relationships, and performance. Mark Odland combines trauma-informed therapy, EMDR expertise, leadership principles, faith, and real-world experience to help high-performing men operate with greater clarity, steadiness, and freedom under pressure.
Creators and Guests
What is Lion Counseling Podcast?
The Lion Counseling Podcast helps men escape the cages that hold them back and become the Lions they were created to be. It exists to help men obtain success, purpose, happiness, and peace in their career and personal lives. The podcast is hosted by the founder of Lion Counseling, Mark Odland (Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Certified EMDR Therapist), and Zack Carter (Counselor and Coach with Lion Counseling). In their podcasts, they address a variety of topics relevant to men, including: mental health, relationships, masculinity, faith, success, business, and self-improvement.
One of Jocko Willink's most famous responses to adversity is simple. Good. Something goes wrong. Good. A problem shows up.
Mark Odland:Good. An obstacle appears. Good. Now you have a chance to learn, to adapt, grow, and get stronger. I love that mindset.
Mark Odland:It is strong. It is useful. It keeps men from collapsing into self pity, and a lot of men need more of that. Our society needs more of that. But like every powerful principle, it can be misused.
Mark Odland:Here's where I see high performing men get into trouble. They use good not as resilience, but as avoidance. Something hurts, good. Marriage is strained, good. Burnout, good.
Mark Odland:Grieving, good. Exhausted, good. But here's the thing. Instead of taking their power back through the word good and then doing something about it, instead of dealing with what's actually happening, they override it, and they push it down, and they keep moving. They tell themselves that they're being strong.
Mark Odland:Sometimes they are, but sometimes they're simply refusing to face pain, and that distinction matters. Resilience means that you can face pain and keep moving forward with purpose. Avoidance, on the other hand, means you refuse to feel pain and instead keep moving so you don't have to face it. Those are not the same thing. And over time, avoidance has a cost.
Mark Odland:The body keeps the score. The marriage keeps the score. The kids keep the score. Your health keeps the score. Your nervous system keeps the score.
Mark Odland:A man can say good for years while becoming more irritable, more disconnected, more exhausted, and more emotionally numb. And eventually, something breaks. This is not because the principle is wrong. The principle is excellent. The problem is when men use that principle to bypass what actually needs attention.
Mark Odland:If you get hit in jujitsu, what do you do? You adjust. If you wipe out surfing in cold water, you learn. But if you're injured, pretending nothing happened doesn't make you tougher. It makes you foolish.
Mark Odland:The same is true emotionally. Some pain is meant to be endured. Some pain is meant to be processed. Wisdom is knowing the difference. At Lion Counseling, I work with men who are tough, who are disciplined, and resilient, but but who may have spent years overriding their pain, pain that actually needs to be addressed.
Mark Odland:The goal here is not to become fragile. The goal is to become whole. So, yes, when adversity hits, there is often a good in it. But sometimes the good is not just that you push through. Sometimes the good is that you finally face what you've been avoiding all this time.
Mark Odland:If that resonates with you, you can book a clarity call at escapethecagenow.com. Thanks.