In November I'm going to Bhutan, the one place that's topped my bucket list for years, where my singing bowls come from.  When the trip walked into my kitchen, there was an immediate, quiet yes, and then all the reasonable doubt: the money, the time. But the yes came first, and it was truer, because I never want to look back as the woman who skipped her dream to save a little money on a Tuesday.  Then my friend Lauren, who's basically my sister, said, "There are no terms under which you are not going." She said yes to my yes.  This is an episode about trusting the knowing that arrives before the fear. This is an episode about the difference between a knowing and a decision.  Question to carry into your day: What's a yes you already know is true, that you've been letting your fear put on trial?  Want to work together? Me too! Book a discovery call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront Questions or want to share your story? Email me at [email protected]  An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

One of my closest friends has the biggest heart I have ever encountered. And it was hurting her.  She'd done the healing work after a painful relationship, brought her ex back into her life, and found herself carrying their fears and health concerns as her own. So I asked her something simple: "Of course you can handle this. But do you need to?"  This episode is about why your heart doesn't always know the difference between caring about someone and being responsible for them, and why sometimes the most loving thing you can do is release what was never yours to carry.  Question to carry into your day: What are you carrying that isn't yours to carry, and what would it look like to release it and trust that the other person can handle their own journey?  Ready to do this work with real support? Book a strategy call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall-organic  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront Questions or want to share your story? Email me at [email protected]  An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

After my episode on making hard decisions, a listener wrote in with the other half of the question: what do you do when you've already decided, but your mind won't stop spinning?  She's unhappy at her job and staying on purpose, for the insurance, while she goes through fertility treatments to have another baby. Smart, clear, loving decision. And her brain still runs a mile a minute. As the reigning queen of buyer's remorse, I get it.  This episode is about the Harvard research on why an open door keeps the mind spinning, the difference between settling for and settling in, and how to stop being a victim of a choice that was yours all along. Today's reading is Wendell Berry's poem "The Real Work," on how the impeded stream is the one that sings. This is an episode about learning to settle into a decision you don't love but chose on purpose.  Question to carry into your day: Where are you being a victim of a decision that was actually yours to make?  Want to work together? Me too! Book a discovery call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront Questions or want to share your story? Email me at [email protected]  An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

A friend read me one line from a Substack and I felt completely exposed. "Casual indifference protects you from joy."  This episode is about the sneaky way we soften our excitement, downplay our dreams, and act like we don't care, just in case someone doesn't respond the way we hope.  It feels like self-protection. It's actually self-abandonment.  Question to carry into your day: Where are you still playing it cool when what you really want is to go all in?  Ready to do this work with real support? Book a strategy call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall-organic  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

My friend Eileen and I were making a very practical, very sensible plan for our trip to Nepal — and then I heard something a teacher of mine says about levels of thinking.  Stone thinking. Water thinking. Wine thinking.  And I realized we were being stone thinkers when water thinking was right there. What happened next is today's episode. Happiness Now says it like this: "Circumstances and situations do color life, but you have been given the mind to choose what the color shall be."  This is an episode about the level at which you are allowing yourself to think — and what becomes possible when you go one level higher.  Question to carry into your day: Where in your life are you accepting the Kathmandu solution when something bigger might be available?  Want to go deeper into Robert Holden's work? He is one of my new favorite teachers and his books, workshops, and writing will change the way you think. Start at robertholden.com.  Ready to do this work with real support? Book a discovery call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront Write me at [email protected] and tell me about your Singapore. I read every one.  An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

A woman said a sentence to me on a call last week, and it's the one I hear more than any other: "I think I can probably do this myself." She'd spent decades and a fortune trying to fix her relationship with food alone.  And I said six words back that changed the whole conversation: "Here's the thing. You already would have."  Today's episode is about why "I can do it myself" is almost never a plan, and what it's actually protecting.  This is an episode about the hidden cost of doing it alone, and what asking for help really is.  Question to carry into your day: What are you still trying to do alone that the evidence says needs another hand?  Want to work together? Me too! Book a discovery call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

The world was feeling heavy. My nervous system was doing what nervous systems do.  And then I looked out the window and saw Danny, flat on his back in the yard, sunbathing like it was his full-time job.Something shifted. That's a glimmer.  And this episode is about why those small, ordinary moments of safety aren't distractions from the hard stuff, they're the antidote to it.  Question to carry into your day: What's one glimmer you can notice today, one small moment that reminds your body that you're safe, alive, and deeply blessed?  Ready to do this work with real support? Book a strategy call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall-organic  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

I'm staying with friends whose older dog resource guards. We kept the food and toys put away, and he was still growling at my dog over nothing.  So I read about it late into the night and learned there's a third thing dogs guard: closeness. The person they love. And I recognized it, because I've felt that same quiet math start up at a dinner table when an old friend of mine pulled up a chair for a newer one.  This is an episode about why we keep score with the people we love, and what the fear is actually telling us.  Question to carry into your day: Where are you keeping score, as if there isn't enough love to go around? Want to work together? Me too! Book a discovery call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

I spent five days with my godkids, which I love. And I came home steady, present, and not crashed. That had never happened before. The difference? I included myself in the circle of care before I left. This episode is about the line between caretaking and overgiving, why what we call love is sometimes just fear, and why your steadiness is actually your greatest act of generosity.  Question to carry into your day: Where in your life are you overgiving in the name of love, and what would it look like to include yourself in that same circle of care?  Ready to do this work with real support? Book a strategy call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall-organic  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

I hadn't been on a date in seven months, and those were good months. I wasn't hiding, I just wasn't called to it. Then, packing for a few weeks in the mountains, a quiet thought arrived: maybe I could date a little there. See what I'm even like dating as this person, because I've done a lot of work and I'm not who I once was. So I did some love cardio.  Three hours, a wonderful man who lives a few states away, no expectations at all. And I called my friend from the car and said, this guy is an omen. The good things are coming for me, I can feel it. It wasn't the whole meal. It was a foretaste. Today's reading is from The Game of Life and How to Play It by Florence Scovel Shinn, on the "signs of land" that always arrive before the thing you're waiting for. This is an episode about why we refuse to practice the things we most want to be good at, and how to recognize a taste of what's coming when it shows up.  Question to carry into your day: What have you been calling nothing that might actually be a taste of what's coming?  Want to work together? Me too! Book a discovery call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast