Something I've been sitting with this week is what we call being stuck in the middle.
It's the place where you know exactly what you want to change. You've thought about it, you've talked about it, maybe even in our circle on a Saturday. But you haven't taken the action that actually makes the change happen.
It might be:
- The job you keep saying you'll leave.
- The conversation with your partner you keep putting off.
- The body you keep saying you'll get back, or the pain you say you're finally going to get rid of.
- The drink you keep saying you'll cut back on.
- The dream you keep saying you'll start "next year."
We get stuck there because the middle feels safe. There's nothing at risk, because you can't fail at something you haven't started.
But it costs us. It just costs us slowly, so we don't notice.
When I decided to have a crack at the CrossFit Games at 40, the decision was easy. I'd been "thinking about it" for ages. The hard bit was the moment I committed and told people. Once it was out there, there was no hiding. I had to show up. It made me anxious and it created pressure, but by fuck did it make me work my ass off. Just having other people know my goal made me feel like I had more skin in the game. It's exactly what I needed. If I hadn't done that, I feel it would have been very easy to slow down or stop when things got challenging, and not push as hard.
The action is what forces the change. Not the thinking or just talking about it.
It also starts with telling the truth.
First to yourself, by actually admitting what you want and what you're scared of. Then to someone else. We need to say it out loud to another person, so it stops being a wish and starts being a plan.
The other part is trust. Trusting what makes it possible.
You don't need the whole plan mapped out. You likely won't have it anyway. What you need is to trust yourself enough to take the first step, and to trust the people around you to have your back when it gets hard.
It's never as clean as we want it to be. It's messy. But it's a lot less messy than standing still for another five years wondering "what if."
So here's your challenge for this week.
Pick the one thing you've been sitting on and tell one person the truth about it. Then take one action you can't easily undo. Book it. Sign up. Send the message. Have the conversation.
The goal is to get out of the middle and start living your truth.