You used to be much muchier. You’ve lost your muchness.

I came across this quote recently where the person posting said that every time she feels the need to apologize for being too much, she remembers that this is what the Mad Hatter told Alice.

I naturally assumed it belonged to Lewis Carroll’s 19th-century Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, but a little digging revealed, it isn’t in the original novels at all.

It is from Tim Burton’s 2010 Disney film Alice in Wonderland and isn’t a simple remake of the children’s classic.

Screenwriter Linda Woolverton imagined Alice as a nineteen-year-old in Victorian England, standing in a manicured garden at her own surprise engagement party. The suitor is polite and wealthy, the match socially perfect—and entirely unchosen.

Alice hesitates. Something in her resists the narrow path being laid before her. When she sees a white rabbit in a waistcoat darting through the hedges, she follows on instinct and tumbles once again into the underworld Carroll called Wonderland (here renamed Underland).

This is where Burton and Woolverton’s story diverges from the 19th-century novels.

Alice isn’t a curious child. Now she’s a young woman full of self-doubt, questioning her courage, her imagination, and her right to choose a life different from what is expected.

The Mad Hatter’s Challenge

In Underland she reconnects with familiar figures—the Cheshire Cat, the White Queen, and the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp), who becomes more than comic relief. Sensing her hesitation, he says:

You used to be much muchier. You’ve lost your muchness.

It’s a wake-up call. He’s telling Alice that the fearless, imaginative spark that once made her extraordinary has gone dim.

The invented word muchness—though not Carroll’s—captures something profoundly true about adulthood: how easily we trade vivid originality for polite conformity.

Too Much Is Exactly Enough

That single invented word invites a deeper examination of how “too much” is perceived in our own lives.

• Too much creativity? Or exactly the jolt that reinvents an industry.
• Too much clarity? Or the precision that ends endless meetings.
• Too much conviction? Or the steadiness that keeps a team from drifting in crisis.

What’s dismissed as excess is often the very energy that makes transformation possible. The accusation of being “too much” often means more than the room’s comfort level, not more than reality requires.

From Apology to Authority

Many of us, like Alice, learn to edit ourselves. We sand off edges so we don’t intimidate or invite criticism. Apology becomes habit.

• Apology waits for permission. Authority names what
  is true and acts.
• Apology softens language to fit the room. Authority refines language so it lands with integrity.

Authority is the quiet confidence that comes from knowing who you are and moving accordingly—without spectacle and without shrinkage.

Reclaiming Your Muchness

Alice ultimately remembers who she is. She faces the Jabberwocky, claims her own choice about marriage, and returns to the world above with the clarity to chart her future.

Reclaiming muchness in our lives isn’t about slaying mythical beasts. It’s about daily recoveries:

• Saying the idea you almost self-censored.
• Building the offering you’ve delayed because it feels “too bold.”
• Allowing your color, your curiosity, your full-scale thinking to show.

Far from overpowering others, this presence liberates them. When you stop apologizing for your natural amplitude, you create a culture where everyone can bring their full self to the table.

Strategic Reflection Prompt

1. Where have you been apologizing for the very qualities that once made you unmistakable?
2. What one decision today would help you bring back the much muchier version of you?

About Giselle

About Giselle – Giselle Hudson is a writer, possibility thinker, Strategic Alignment Facilitator™, and MCODE Legacy Coach whose work revolves around asking the one question Every engagement begins with The One Question Every Business Must Answer™ — the catalyst for every strategic decision we’ll make together.