Take the Smallest Possible Step. I’ve been thinking a lot about timing lately. Not in the abstract sense, but in the way it actually shows up across a career.
There’s a phase early on where it feels like you’re playing catch-up. You can see something big happening… a shift, a wave, an opportunity… but you’re not quite in a position to step into it yet. You’re close enough to recognize it, but not established enough to really participate. It can feel like everyone else is already in motion while you’re still trying to find your footing. And in a strange way, that gives you energy. It gives you something to chase.
Then later, there’s a different version of that same feeling. Another shift happens. Another wave builds. But this time, you’re more established. You’ve built something. A path, a reputation, a rhythm. And even if you see the opportunity clearly, stepping out of what you’ve built doesn’t feel as simple. So instead of jumping, you double down. You refine. You get sharper at what you already do well. That creates a different kind of drive.
Somewhere along the way, most of us learn how to live between those two tensions. Catching up… or staying ahead. Either way, something is always pushing us forward. And for a long time, that’s what momentum looked like for a lot of us.
But something about this next “Act 3” feels different. Over the past fifteen weeks, I’ve been stripping things down… getting clearer on what fits and what doesn’t. And what I’m starting to realize is this:
For most of my career, I was trying to get somewhere. And this might be the first time I’m actually standing on something I’ve been building all along. Because when you’re not trying to catch up or stay ahead, the pressure that used to drive you isn’t there in the same way.
Which means the next step may feel smaller than you expect… even though it isn’t. But maybe that’s the shift. Maybe this is what it feels like to move from something you’ve already built instead of trying to prove it.
The shift isn’t in how big the step is… it’s in where you’re taking it from.
So don’t second-guess the next step. You’ve already done the work to know where it leads.
“Your 50” is a 50-week reflection series about realigning, activating, and expressing what comes next.