A wardrobe full of suits

I have a wardrobe full of suits, crisp shirts, ties, cufflinks, stiff leather shoes.
All the accoutrements of my long corporate career.

For decades they were my daily uniform.
They carried me through boardrooms, pitches, tough conversations.
Highs and lows.

Two years ago I stepped away from corporate life.
I still like to look smart, but now the corporate uniform is less important.
And those suits have been hanging there ever since, quietly asking me every day: Do we still have a role?

I have known for a long time that I had moved on.
But I think I hadn’t completely marked it.

Those clothes were one of the last physical connections to a chapter that defined me for a very long time.
Letting them go would have felt like closing a door for good.

So today, I finally did something about it.
I tried everything on.
This suit can stay for weddings and funerals.
That shirt still works with the newer version of me.
And the rest went into boxes for charity.

Several very large boxes.

As I worked away sorting through my past corporate regalia, I felt lighter.
Like a snake shedding its skin.

It reminded me how important it is to mark the end of each phase in our lives.
We are good at starting things.
New roles. New businesses. New milestones.
But we are much worse at acknowledging when something has run its course.

Psychologists talk about the importance of closure and transition rituals.
Without them, we can carry old identities forward even when they no longer fit us.
We keep wearing clothes that are a size too tight, metaphorically speaking.

I see this often in my coaching work.
Founders who have outgrown the version of themselves that built their business.
Executives holding on to an superhero identity that once served them well but now crowds out their teams.
People standing at the edge of a new chapter while still gripping the last page of the old one.

Sometimes growth doesn’t come from adding something new.
It comes from consciously letting something go.

For me, today, that meant a wardrobe clear out.
A small, tangible way of saying thank you to a chapter that was a very important part of me.
And an equally clear signal that I am fully engaged in my new role as an executive coach to founders, CEOs and leaders.

Funny how a few boxes of suits can do that.