Grounded clarity just feels different
Am I doing it right? Am I doing enough? What am I missing? What if I am wrong? What if I make a mistake? Am I too late? Is it okay to change my mind, change my tactics, reassess?
It is so easy to get lost in the mental churn. Doubt. Over-thinking. Second-guessing. Spinning in place.
Holding on to the thing that no longer works because the unknown feels like flirting with the edge of a cliff. And because your “sunk cost” feels too significant to walk away from.
Reaching for the “magic” formula, strategy, roadmap, certification, or checklist that is going to guarantee the outcome you desire. But still being overcome with self-doubt more often than not.
TL;DR: There is no fool proof and fail proof plan. And the only constant is change.
In moments of grounded clarity, I have made decisions that didn’t “make sense”:
… staying in certain volunteer roles that I barely had the bandwidth for after the birth of my second child in 2006 because I just knew I was supposed to be there (even though I didn’t fully understand why);
… reorganizing myself out of a ten-year career in commercial real estate and stepping out on faith right before the bottom dropped out of the market in 2008;
… committing to a personal visioning process to gain clarity about who I was and what I wanted for myself and my life going forward; and
… turning down multiple opportunities to reprise a role that I knew like the back of my hand for other companies when doubling-down on a decade of experience would have been the logical thing to do.
It turns out that each of those decisions paved the pathway to my next role as a nonprofit CEO doing work that I loved. And yet, I could not have predicted that path or that outcome.
The only thing I knew for certain when I left the real estate company was that it was time to go.
The thing I hoped for when I left (but wasn’t 100% convinced of) was that the universe would catch me.
The permission I gave was to trust myself and my knowing and to take the first step forward and the next step after that, and the next step after that.
The commitment I made to exploring my personal vision created the framework and the lens for making decisions about which opportunities to explore (or not explore).
By multiple objective measures, I was taking a huge risk. And I had a family to feed.
It isn’t that doubt and worry never creeped in. It’s just that I kept coming back to trust; in my own knowing and in the universe. Again and again and again. Even when other people didn’t “get it.”
There are probably a lot of things about the way that I live my life that don’t “make sense” to other people. But the truth is, I don’t second-guess myself very often. And even when I do, the doubt usually passes pretty quickly.
I can also look back and see the moments of my life when I set a series of events into motion by claiming my desires and/or my vision. Even when I didn’t realize it at the time.
It is impossible to know all of the steps that it will take to get from where you are today to where you want to go. I don’t care how good you are at creating a plan and following through. Because life, circumstances, relationships, markets, resources, challenges, opportunities and culture are constantly changing.
The complete strategic, cultural and operational overhaul we undertook at that nonprofit led to a book of business in strategic planning consulting once I left that job. There is a part of me who loves a good plan complete with goals, metrics, initiatives, champions and timelines. And there is a part of me who knows that the minute the ink hits the paper (if it ever ends up on paper anymore), the world has already shifted.
Even a decade ago–within my own organization and then for my clients–we used a framework to touch base at least quarterly to review the plan and to re-align goals and action steps based on what we would know then that we didn’t know before. The pace of change has only accelerated.
In other words, you cannot know all of the answers before you begin. You don’t need to know. The truth is, you might not (really) want to know what will unfold on your path.
But you do need to know where you want to go and why. Your values serve as your anchor. These values have to be sourced from deep within to stick. Your vision serves as your compass. Together your vision and values will help you stay steady in the face of obstacles and setbacks.
You do need a framework to support you in making grounded decisions about the “how” in real time. The kind of decisions that feel deeply rooted and steady but also energized and expansive. The kind of decisions that feel so attuned to who you are and what you desire that it becomes so much easier to turn down the volume on the noise from the outside and even the noise from your own mind. The kind of decisions that feel deeply resonant even when you do not know what the end result will be.
And you do need the nervous system capacity to discern the next steps and take aligned action. Because often, clarity arrives in small doses; the fog clearing slowly in front of you as you take each new step forward. And capacity grows each time you reinforce your own self-efficacy and resilience through action and integration.
Grounded clarity saves time and energy (and sometimes money). When you move from grounded clarity, even the steps that don’t turn out the way you intended feel purposeful. Necessary even. You spend less time doubting, churning and spinning. You are able to buffer the noise from the outside and discern what new information you need to integrate or act upon and which information isn’t yours to hold or manage or even respond to. You feel sure. Even though nothing about the way the world works has shifted or changed. Even though the outcome is still uncertain.
Grounded clarity just feels different. If you desire more grounded clarity, self-trust, intuitive, confident, consistent action, and permission to be your whole self, then VisionSeekers is for you. More details below.
Love,
Booth
VisionSeekers: A three-month group program supporting you to source, claim, embody and expand your capacity to hold vision.
When: June-August 2025 (see Monthly Rhythm for dates)
Monthly Rhythm:
Week 1: Group Nervous System Expansion (June 10, July 8, Aug 5)
Week 2: Asynchronous (receive frameworks, resources, reflection questions and/or audio meditations to work with) (released June 17, July 15, Aug 12)
Week 3: Group Coaching (June 24, July 22, Aug 19)
Week 4: Integration and/or *1:1 Nervous System Healing and Expansion Session
*Upgrade and receive a monthly personalized 1:1 nervous system healing and expansion session during Week 4, to be scheduled separately.
Program Capacity: 5 people 2 spots left in the inaugural cohort
Cost: $999 paid in full or $333/month OR$1,665 paid in full or $555/month with 1:1 upgrade
Register: To register click on the payment amount above for the option that works best for you.
If you are ready for this work, but would prefer an exclusively 1:1 option, please reach out for pricing.
If you have any questions that are not answered here, please do not hesitate to reply to this email.