The Threshold is the Work
This is Part 3 of a 3-part series on why capable people struggle to take action on what they know they want to do.
The Threshold Is the Work
There’s a moment just before things begin. Not when the decision is made, but when your body knows it’s close.
You can feel it. Like something inside is holding its breath.
It’s not overwhelming. But it’s not peace either.
It’s the weight of a future that’s about to ask more of you.
That’s the threshold.
And this is where so many of us pause. We’re waiting to feel something that never fully arrives.
We’re waiting to feel ready.
The belief that we need to feel ready before we act is one of the most elegant traps we can create.
It makes sense. We’ve been conditioned to believe we need to be certain, confident, regulated, and rehearsed.
However, in my experience, clarity rarely arrives in advance. It shows up after we take a step.
Not insight, then motion.
Motion, then insight.
We become ready by moving. Not before.
Taking Action
I still spend a lot of time in my head.
It’s where I make sense of things, where ideas start to take shape.
But I’ve learned that clarity only goes so far when it stays in the mind.
The shift always comes when I take an action and let something be seen.
I used to think I had to wait until I was fully confident, fully polished, fully certain.
Eventually, I started taking action anyway by posting and commenting on social media, launching a newsletter, and trying out coaching offers that sometimes landed and sometimes didn’t.
And what happened surprised me — not just the engagement or responses (which were lovely), but the way I felt inside.
Something opened.
The more I engaged, the more I learned. The more I learned, the more fun it became. And people I hadn’t heard from in years started reaching out. Clients, old friends, curious humans. They weren't responding to something perfect. They were responding to something real.
I’ve had moments where I felt clear and confident in private and then, just before hitting publish, I suddenly remembered seventeen other “urgent” things to do instead.
None of that clarity mattered until I took the step.
I’ve seen this with clients too.
Things they’ve put off, like creative projects, boundary-setting, and career pivots, suddenly become possible when we explore the fear underneath the delay.
Once they stop waiting to feel ready, and start moving from a place of grounded self-trust, the experience shifts.
Even if the result is messy or unexpected, it almost always turns out better than you may have imagined. And most importantly, there’s no regret. Just movement, learning, and often… a kind of quiet joy.
A Gentle Step Toward Motion
If you’ve been circling something like a conversation, a project, an idea you haven’t shared, here’s something that may help.
Take one small, visible step.
Not the whole leap. Just something that nudges the idea out of your head and into the world.
Not to get it right. Not to finish.
Just to let it exist.
What I’ve noticed is that something shifts after that. Not because the fear disappears. But because there’s something new to work with.
Something real.
The Real Threshold
I often come back to this question when I feel myself hanging back:
What might become possible if I let this be enough to begin?
Not when I feel more confident.
Not when I’ve figured it all out.
Just… now.
There’s usually something waiting on the other side of that step.
It’s rarely perfect.
But it’s almost always more alive than I expected.
You may never feel fully ready.
But you can still begin.
If you’re circling something that feels alive but not yet clear and you’d like to explore it in a grounded, real conversation, please reach out. I’d love to hear from you.
We’ll talk about where you’re holding back, what you want to create, and how to cross that internal threshold without abandoning yourself.
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