Hi Reader,
I’ve been standing on the beach a lot lately.
My daughter got surfing lessons for Christmas, and I’ve been watching from the sand. If you’ve ever surfed, or even tried, you’ll know it’s not just physical. It’s constant awareness. Other surfers. Swimmers. Waves. Rocks. Conditions. Timing. Everything at once.
By day four of lessons, two things landed hard for me.
The first was this. The ocean does not care about your plans.
I booked the lessons months ago. Lesson times shifted because tides and weather do what they do. One of those changes meant the lesson landed on the same day as a workshop I’d scheduled.
Past me would have bent myself into a pretzel to avoid inconveniencing anyone. People rely on me. People plan around me. Letting people down has always been a sore spot.
This time I paused. There was a replay. It was a bonus workshop. I made it clear that if anyone was genuinely stuck, they could reach out.
So I moved the workshop.
I chose to stand on the beach and watch my kid do something brave.
Here’s the question that followed me home.
Are you willing to inconvenience someone else in order to support yourself?
Lesson two came fast.
The beach was chaos. Big waves. Lots of people. My daughter is very accommodating, sometimes too accommodating. If someone else looks like they might want a wave, she backs off.
At one point the instructor said, “If you’ve got the wave, take it. Other people can move".
That hit me straight in the chest.
If you wait until everyone else is comfortable, ready, approving, and out of the way, you never stand up.
Later the instructor told the kids the photographer was in the water. “If she’s in your way, she’ll duck. Don’t hold back. It’s her responsibility to move.”
She got some mighty fine pics if I do say so myself, here's one:
In life, where are you still holding back?
Where are you over-accommodating? Overthinking? Waiting for perfect conditions?
In business, I hear it all the time. It’s been done before. What if people think I’m copying? What will they say?
So people sit on their boards watching everyone else ride waves while they bob up and down convincing themselves they’re being sensible.
Sometimes when people leave your world, it stings. Your email list. Your community. Your work.
Instead of asking what you did wrong, consider this.
They’re getting out of your way.
This is your wave.
As things grow, people will come and go. Some quietly. Some loudly. That’s healthy. Space gets made for the people who are aligned.
At one point during the lesson, three kids rode the same wave together. Far enough apart not to crash. Close enough to share it. They laughed, wiped out, paddled back out, tried again.
That’s the energy.
Not tiptoeing around what people might think. Not shrinking to avoid inconvenience.
At the end of the lesson my daughter said, “Mummy, can I do it again?”
She’s in.
So here’s my invitation to you.
Where are you holding back because you’re worried about being too much or not enough?
What would it look like to take up space?
To post, share, speak, build, create, without waiting for permission?
That’s the heart of The Done Era.
If this resonated and you want to be in a space where this kind of conversation is normal, the community lives on Skool. You can lurk, participate, or dive right in. All of it counts.
You can join us here.
Sometimes other people can duck.
This is your wave.
Much love,
Suzanne
