What I Do When Things Feel Fuzzy

Hi! New here? Welcome to the Uplifters! I'm Aransas Savas. I've spent the last 20 years at the intersection of behavior change research and coaching. On The Uplifters Podcast, we share diverse stories of women who have found something beautiful on the other side of the hard stuff. Despite self-doubt and fear (and honestly, who doesn't have those?), they've done big, brave things anyway, and show us how we can too!

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Here we are on a foggy Mt Etna, a couple of years ago, long before the dramatic eruption there last week. Could this be a metaphor for my current state?

I keep joking to

Kara Cutruzzula

that I'm having an existential crisis. She laughs and tells me that when most people have an existential crisis, they stop moving, but that I just move differently. Whatever this is, there's definitely a professional fog rolling in where I used to see clear horizons. The irony isn't lost on me that I spend my days helping women navigate exactly this kind of uncertainty, yet here I am, the cobbler with the shoeless kids, wondering what the heck comes next.

My fortune cookie this week promised that "a new perspective will bring clarity." Helpful, right? About as specific as telling someone to "just be brave" when they're standing at the edge of a major life change. But instead of rushing ahead or staying frozen in place, waiting for some grand revelation, I'm trying something different.

I'm focusing on what I know for sure.

Not the big, sweeping life decisions that feel too heavy to hold right now. The small, true things that feel solid under my feet. Because here's what I see all the time in my coaching work: we get so fixated on what we don't know that we either stop completely, waiting for certainty that never comes, or we half-heartedly do the things we think we "should" do, then wonder why they're not creating the impact we crave.

So I'm building from what feels unshakably true, even when everything else feels like shifting sand.

I know I need to refill my social battery, so I'm reaching out to people I haven't connected with in ages, planning gatherings with the groups that actually energize me instead of drain me.

I know those boring tactical things I push aside when I'm moving full steam ahead actually matter, so I'm renewing coaching certifications, filing business paperwork, and doing the unsexy foundation work that supports whatever comes next.

I know there are parts of my work I want to do more of, regardless of whatever bigger shifts might be coming, so I'm leaning into those.

And I know there are completely non-work things that feed my soul, like finally figuring out what the heck those mystery plants are in my new garden, actually watering them consistently, and – this is embarrassingly exciting – cleaning my Le Creuset pans with Easy-Off Oven Cleaner. (Seriously, life hack of the century! One wipe and all that baked-on gunk just disappears. So freaking satisfying.)

These tiny, true things we know for certain aren’t going to magically reveal our entire life path, but they will keep us moving, keep us engaged, keep us connected to what matters while we wait for that new perspective to emerge.

Questions to explore:

• What do you know for sure right now, even if everything else feels uncertain?

• Where are you waiting for clarity before taking action, and what small true thing could you act on instead?

• What tactical or foundational work have you been pushing aside that might actually support whatever comes next?

Maybe that's enough for now.

XO,

Aransas

P.S. If you're navigating your own messy middle of change, I'd love to explore it with you.

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Listen to the latest episode of The Uplifters Podcast here for living proof that we can find new purpose on the other side of the hard times.

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