Two hundred episodes. I can hardly believe it, and thank you for being here for it.

Here's what's perfect: today's episode is about not waiting for the good day to start, which is exactly how we got to two hundred. I'm living in the mountains with three dogs right now, where the weather does whatever it wants, sunny one minute, pouring the next.

So I stopped checking the forecast and made a rule: we walk rain or shine. And somewhere in there I stopped tolerating the rainy walks and started loving them. I've basically become one of the dogs. Because they were never going to postpone their lives for the weather, and it turns out neither should I.

Today's reading is from John Muir's Our National Parks, on how the winds will blow their freshness into you, and the storms their energy.

This is an episode about not waiting for a clear forecast to start living.

Question to carry into your day: What have you been putting off until conditions are perfect, that you could go do today, exactly as the day is?

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

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I was sitting at brunch with one of my oldest spiritual advisors, telling her I was in a hallway. Gray, heavy, can't see what's next.

And she looked at me and said, in her British accent, "Molly, you are not in a hallway. You are ascending. This is what it feels like to ascend." Something cracked open.

This episode is about what happens when we stop labeling hard seasons as regressions and start recognizing them as the steepest, most sacred part of the climb.

Question to carry into your day: Where in your life can you shift from "it's murky" to "it's moving"?

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:

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My friend Michelle and I built a movement together called Connecticut Women's Club, and we were planning an event with my friend Jess. From the first second it felt like the easiest, most aligned thing I'd done in ages, like we were simply meant to be doing it together.

And then we sat down to plan and immediately started gripping the wheel, whose house, how many people, how do we manage it. So I stopped us and said, why don't we just see who wants to come, and then plan it from there. There's a line I've held onto for years: we row, and the universe steers.

This is an episode about the difference between rowing and steering, why gripping the wheel is so often the thing that sinks us, and how the universe never roars, it just carries.

Today's reading is from Mark Nepo's The Book of Awakening, on how struggling to stay above the water only makes things worse, and how surrender can hold us up.

This is an episode about doing your part and letting go of the outcome.

Question to carry into your day: Where are you gripping the wheel of something you were only ever meant to row?

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:

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I was at the beach, surrounded by my favorite people, with the ocean as my backyard. And inside, I was completely empty. So I prayed. Hard.

I was ready to spend money, travel, do whatever it took. And the answer came as a quiet woman in one of my fellowships, two lattes, and a Tuesday morning at a coffee shop.

This episode is about what happens when we stop waiting for the burning bush and finally open our hands to what's already been placed right in front of us.

Question to carry into your day: What prayer have you been waiting for an answer to, and could you open your hands just a little wider this week to see what's already here?

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:

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I had a night I'm not proud of. Depleted and scared, with a dog who can get aggressive around food in the house, I roared when my dog stole something, and I scared everyone. I apologized, Michelle said there was nothing to repair, I called my spiritual advisor, and I still couldn't shake it. I even started planning to leave two weeks early.

Then the next morning, Michelle thanked me for emptying the dishwasher, and when I apologized again she said: that was last night. We're family. We have moments. This is an episode about why shame keeps us stuck in the past, and what it takes to finally come home to today.

Today's reading is from Kristin Neff, on how compassion is not only for the blameless, but for those whose suffering comes from their own failures and bad moments.

This is an episode about being loved through your worst moment, not despite it.

Question to carry into your day: What are you still punishing yourself for that everyone around you has already let you leave?

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:

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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:

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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:

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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:

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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

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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
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• Write me at [email protected] and tell me about your Singapore. I read every one.

An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast