Get in the Weeds

My daughter took this silly photo of me power posing after my mom and I laid down 10 bags of mulch and pulled about 4,000,000,000 weeds in one afternoon. We worked our hineys off, got caked in dirt, and made a little corner more beautiful.

On Friday morning in our weekly co-working cocoon for paid subscribers, one of my clients shared something that made my heart ache in recognition. She'd been holding back on launching her newsletter for months. It was sitting there in drafts, getting more polished and more perfect and more paralyzed with each revision.

Another woman in our group had the most brilliant suggestion: "What if you just send it to us first? We're here, we're real people, and we already want to cheer you on."

By the end of that session, she'd hit send to our small group. We all followed her immediately. Suddenly, she had an audience! More importantly, she had evidence that sharing her work felt scary but survivable. And now, she’s sharing it with the world. Check it out and follow her. It’s so good and you’ll be supporting a true Uplifter!!

Tiffany’s 2% wasn't launching to thousands of subscribers or a nameless, faceless void. It was sending one email to a handful of trusted women who already believed in her.

This is what I call the 2% Principle, and it's become one of the most powerful tools I share with women over 40 who feel stuck between wanting something and actually doing something about it.

In business, we're constantly told to "get out of the weeds" and think strategically. But I'm discovering that for women in midlife, getting INTO the weeds can be the most powerfully activating strategy of all.

When we've spent decades accumulating experience, we know all the things that could go wrong. We can see the full scope of what a project might require. That bird's-eye view, ironically, can become paralyzing. The gap between where we are and where we want to be feels impossible.

But when we get really granular about what's actually possible today, we discover something freeing: we can start anywhere. We don't need the full business plan. We don't need perfect conditions. We just need the 2% that fits in our current reality.

Jenny Jing Zhu, founder of Lush Decor, taught me this when she shared how she applied to Fashion Institute of Technology without speaking English. When they asked for a portfolio (a word she didn't even understand) she didn't spend months taking design classes or learning perfect English. She went to Pearl River Mart, bought art supplies, worked for three days straight, and submitted what she had.

Her 2% was those three days of creating. That's it. That got her accepted and launched her career.

Terry Grahl's 2% was saying yes to painting one wall at a women's shelter. Just one wall. Seventeen years later, Enchanted Makeovers has transformed shelter spaces across the country for women and children escaping domestic violence.

Here's what I've learned from working with hundreds of women in midlife: we often get trapped by our own competence. We know how to do things well, so the thought of doing something badly feels unbearable. We've built credibility over decades, so starting over as beginners feels risky.

The 2% Principle gives us permission to be gloriously imperfect while still being courageously active. It lets us work with our real lives—the teenager drama, the aging parents, the career demands, the energy that fluctuates more than it used to.

Most importantly, it builds what I call courage capital. Each small action creates evidence that we can handle uncertainty, that we can start without knowing exactly where we're going, that our dreams don't have to stay dreams forever.

Your 2% This Week

What's something you've been perfecting instead of sharing? A project sitting in drafts? A business idea you keep researching? A creative pursuit you're not "ready" for?

Maybe your 2% is sending one email, making one phone call, posting one imperfect thing, or having one conversation. Maybe it's buying supplies, signing up for one class, or simply telling someone what you're thinking about doing.

The magic isn't in the size of the action. It's in the shift from thinking to doing, from someday to today, from perfect to started.

After all, at our age, we know something our younger selves didn't: done is better than perfect, and started is better than stuck.

What's your 2% going to be?

More guiding questions to help you move forward in the paid subscriber section.

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