Time to Stop Planning and Try the Thing
Once you've dreamed your beautiful dream, it's time to do something about it
If you’re just joining, catch up on Stage 1 and Stage 2.
Stage 3 is where your ideas get to come to life. The energy shifts. You go from wondering what if? to deciding I’ll try.
This doesn’t mean taking giant, scary leaps. It means that you’ve put in the time during Stage 2, doing your dreaming and scheming, and you are ready to move forward. Apply to the program. Register the domain name. Tell one person your dream out loud.
This is the stage of real effort, real risk, and real possibility.
You might think…
“This is going to take actual work.”
“There’s a chance I’ll fall on my face.”
“But what if it actually works?”
To draw again from Martha Beck’s change metaphor of the caterpillar melting down to soup (Stage 1) and then being created as something new (Stage 2), you are now ready to break free from the cocoon. And even if you aren’t ready to take flight, you’re starting to move toward your North Star – the truest, most aligned life you desire for yourself.
Did you know that if a butterfly gets help breaking free from its cocoon, it actually won’t survive? It’s the struggle, the fight to break out that makes its wings strong enough to fly. I just think that’s so beautiful.
If you are at Stage 3, you are willing to do the hard work and take flight because the dream matters that much.
I have to call to attention, however, that there is big risk that things won’t go as planned. This is not a sign to give up. It’s a sign you’re in it. So do you do if you take the leap, you break free, and flop? Or what if it wasn’t quite what you expected?
Return to Stage 1, you have the tools, and let yourself grieve what didn’t work. You’ll likely cycle through Stage 1 or 2 again briefly, but that doesn’t mean you’re starting over. It means refining your vision and rebuilding smarter with the clarity you’ve earned by taking action.
After losing my job, and dreaming about what would come next, my big scary action came in the form of filing for divorce and packing up my belongings to move back to San Diego. I’d come to terms with the end of my marriage (working through the initial stages of the process) and knew I wanted to be back closer to my family. In a place that felt more like home. But I wasn’t quite sure what would come next for me in my career.
In Stage 2, you heard of all the possibilities I explored, researching MAs in Poetry at various European universities. I imagined what it would be like to shift into retail. I toyed with renewing my expired teaching credential. But ultimately, what I landed on was applying to 100 jobs (or at least what felt like it) in higher education. Reflecting back now, I can see that the gigantic move (divorce) was all I could handle. Working in higher education felt safer. I kept applying, all while living in a granny flat in my grandma’s backyard. I wrote dozens of perfectly tailored resumes and cover letters. I really could’ve used ChatGPT back in 2014.
I ultimately ended up with a job at another university, though this time large and for-profit (a stark contrast from where I’d been). It may not have been the perfect fit or dream job long term, but it gave me what I needed at the time: stability. A place to land. And, it nudged me into the breath of fresh air that is Stage 4, when we get to blissfully coast for a while on the hard work we’ve put in.
The good news is that change has a rhythm, a cycle. We get many chances throughout our lives to refine and revisit where we are headed. It’s a beautiful spiral that allows us to pivot, even if gently, again and again.
If Stage 1 is the breakdown and Stage 2 is your blueprint, Stage 3 is where you bust out the bricks to build.
In Stage 3, it’s common to think things like:
“Okay… maybe I’ll just try one small thing.”
“I’m not sure this will work, but I kind of want to find out.”
“What’s the worst that could happen?”
This is the phase of gentle experimentation. You’re starting to test what fits—not with a rigid plan, but with curiosity and courage.
For today: If failure was just part of the path—not proof you’re doing it wrong—what would you try anyway?
Need support turning your dream into a plan? Or regrouping after a false start? That’s what I do. Reach out at blackwellcoaching.com, and let’s get you moving again.