Being comfortable with not knowing what you’re doing

Do you really need to know what you’re doing?

Do you really need to have a strategy all mapped out?

I read so often that to succeed in business or an enterprise you need to have a detailed strategic plan and stick to it. Know where you’re going, and you’ll achieve success!

Yes, it makes sense, but there’s a gut feeling I have which says the opposite.

Most of it is subconscious, but when I unpack it, it goes like this: listen, feel, go, flow.

Listen to what’s going on inside me.
Feel an idea, or sensation or urge.
Go with it and make it happen.
Flow with it and see where it leads.

That’s how I started my copywriting business and it’s how I’ve (mostly) done the kid’s stuff.

Listen, feel, go, flow.

It’s doesn’t mean that I don’t get riddled with self-doubt and anxiety about what I’m doing. My childhood trauma keeps jumping in and wants to be in control, but it’s not a strategic kind of control. It’s a desperate clawing survival, destructive type of control. It’s the only way my little 8-year-old self thinks he can feel safe.

However, there’s a larger, more vast part of my inner world that knows everything is already fine and more amazing things are waiting around the corner and that all I need to do is to trust it.
Big call I know. However, when I do, it never disappoints.

‘Send an email to this person’
‘Here’s an idea for a new kid’s book’
‘Share that photo on socials’
‘Sit and be quiet’

When I add up all these urges and hunches and others like them, I end up right here, with you reading this post.

I recently felt the urge to wind up the copywriting side of the business I started in 2000 and focus full time on growing Inspiring Kids.

While the transition hasn’t been smooth sailing, I know it’s the right thing to do, simply because it’s bigger than me and all my insecurities.

Do I have a plan on where it all will go? No.
Do I have a hunch that it’s going to be big and help lots of kids? Yes.
Do I know what to do next? Yes, press publish on this post.
And see what happens.

You can do the same.

Listen, Feel, Go, Flow.