Reader,

I’ve noticed a theme in online spaces lately: women who are doing wildly successful work are making space to pause.

Amy Porterfield was the first to draw my attention with an email she sent in December. It carried the subject line:

“I'm pausing my podcast (and the ‘experts’ think I'm crazy)”

Her reasoning: so she could devote her time to one thing with long-term impact. This was the sentence that resonated with me the most:

“December has to belong to deep work.”

Then, a few weeks later, Jenna Kutcher made an announcement that she was pausing her podcast indefinitely to make room for the life she wants to lead as a mom, wife and business owner.

I don’t know if you follow either of these online business leaders, but for me, it felt validating to see other women very publicly making decisions similar to the one I made in September.

And then, just a few weeks ago, my 11-year-old daughter told us she wanted to quit the gymnastics team so she could take dance classes instead.

For some reason, that one threw me for a loop.

As I’ve processed with friends, several wise mamas have made comments like:
​“This is the time for her to experiment and see what she likes and what she doesn’t.”

Oh, 100%! That makes so much sense to me, and I still don’t know why it felt like such a loss to me.

“She’s young,” they’d say. And they’re right.

But something about that statement didn’t sit well with me.

We tend to think “she’s young” as a way of giving children permission to explore, to change their minds, to try something new without it meaning they failed or wasted their time.

But somewhere along the way, we quietly revoked that permission for ourselves.

We started to believe that if we haven’t figured it out by now, we’ve missed our chance. Or that changing direction means we were wrong. Or that we should wait until we feel more confident, more prepared, or more certain before taking a step.

And yet, what I keep seeing in women I respect, whether it’s leaders like Amy P. and Jenna K. or the women I work with every day, is this truth:

Brave decisions are rarely made with full clarity.

They’re made with listening and then movement.

Amy and Jenna likely have a sense of what they want more of or less of in their season of pause. But they don’t know exactly how it will all turn out.

They could come back with something new. They could decide to sell their business. They could simply be making space to breathe.

What they’ve chosen is not certainty.

They’ve chosen faithfulness for the moment they’re in.

And that’s the part I don’t want you to miss:

There is no magic future moment when you will suddenly feel “ready” to pursue a big dream.

Readiness is something that comes after you take the first step, not before.

Just like my daughter won’t know if dance is truly her thing until she shows up to class week after week, you won’t know what your dream could become if you never give yourself permission to begin.

Listening matters. Discernment matters.

But listening is meant to lead somewhere.

If you’ve been praying, reflecting, journaling, and circling the same idea for months or years, it might not be that you need more clarity.

It might be that you need support in taking the first brave step forward.

That’s the space I love to walk with women in.

Not when everything is figured out, but when the desire is there and the path still feels a little foggy.

Your dream doesn’t need to be fully formed.
You don’t need to know where it will lead.
You just need to be willing to move.

With you,
~Merritt

P.S. Looking for a practical way to move? My Quick-Wins freebie is just the thing for moments like these. Click the link and download the PDF for 17 ideas to help you make forward movement today.

Choose one and then come back here to let me know which one you took action on.

Just hit “reply” and tell me what you did.

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