Yes, it's the halfway point of the year

But you're probably making a lot more progress than you're giving yourself credit for

The votes are in, and you've chosen our next series (by a landslide, BTW):

Late Bloomers! 🌸

There's something super inspiring about women who rewrite their stories in the second (or third, or fourth!) act of life. Maybe it's the 50-year-old who finally opened her dream bakery, the grandmother who went back to school, or the corporate executive who left it all behind to become a wilderness guide.

Do you know a woman whose late-blooming journey would inspire our community? Perhaps someone who proves it's never too late to chase a dream, change direction, or discover what truly lights them up?

Or maybe that someone is YOU?

I'd love to hear these stories! Hit reply or fill out this form to nominate someone for our Late Bloomers series.

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Most mornings, I run along a bay, not on the great big, wild ocean just behind the little spit of water. You can imagine what’s over there, can’t you? Dramatic, movie-scene waves crashing and announcing themselves, impossible to miss. Well, the bay doesn’t do that. She flows. Subtly, quietly, constantly, often imperceptibly. Each small movement carrying sediment, repositioning shells, carving new channels.

I keep seeing social posts lately about hitting the halfway point of the year. Most of them carry a subtle panic underneath, something that whispers, "Hey, you had big dreams when you started this year – you should be freaking out right now if you haven't fulfilled them."

I think that's total baloney.

When I look at myself, my clients, and my friends, here's what I actually see: people who, yeah, have big dreams, and yeah, maybe haven't accomplished them all yet. But we're doing the really hard part. We are building pipelines and filling them with possibilities. We are having conversations. We are saying to ourselves and others what we want. We are enlisting support. We are acknowledging all the things that can get in the way of what we want, so we can build paths around and through them.

In short, we are building so much courage capital.

But that work doesn't get the credit it deserves. Instead, we think to ourselves, "Ugh, I haven't made any real progress. Where's the big splash? When will I ever get my act together and make this dream happen?"

Maybe that's why we lose belief in ourselves. Maybe what we need is full credit for the really hard parts we've been doing all year long.

Every time you've asked the hard question in the meeting. Every conversation you've had about that business idea that keeps knocking around in your head. Every boundary you've set, even when it felt awkward. Every morning that you've chosen to show up for yourself, even when time, energy, and motivation were nowhere to be found. That was you building your courage capital.

Small movements. Investments. Reshaping the terrain.

That's not "getting ready to be brave." That's being brave.

Recently on The Uplifters Podcast, I talked with a founder who spent two years having coffee conversations before she ever wrote her first business plan. Two years! She kept thinking she was "just dreaming," but what she was really doing was building the foundation for everything that came after. Those conversations became her network, her market research, her confidence, and eventually, her customers.

She was building courage capital, one conversation at a time.

So here's what I want you to try this week: Instead of measuring yourself against some imaginary timeline of where you "should" be, notice where you've been building. Notice the conversations you've been having. Notice the small experiments you've been trying. Notice how your thinking has shifted, how your network has grown, how your courage muscle has gotten stronger. Write them down as proof to yourself that you’re actively building and growing.

You're doing it. We’re doing it. And I’m really freaking proud of us.

Aransas

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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! If you love Uplifting stories and believe that we could all use more of them, consider becoming a paid subscriber. You’ll help us continue amplifying these amazing women’s stories and get instant access to our paid subscriber benefits, including:

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• Weekly journal prompts that will help you keep working and playing bigger and braver!

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✨ As always, you can listen to every episode of the podcast for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Substack, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also watch new episodes on YouTube!