Hold That Thought

“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek” — Joseph Campbell​

This week I've been thinking about sitting with moving forward with uncertainty. Here are three things on that theme to turn mental energy into meaningful action:

1. “When the stars disappeared behind clouds, they didn’t panic. They didn’t wait for a full celestial PowerPoint presentation. They tuned inward.” — Clarity Isn’t Certainty; It’s Movement Without Inner Conflict by Beckett Johnson​
   ​
2. “The more you can anchor yourself in questions, letting them fuel your curiosity and deepen your understanding of who you are and what you want, the less anxious you’ll be.” — from In Uncertain Times, Get Curious by Elizabeth Weingarten
   ​
3. “If we approach uncertainty knowing it’s a space of possibilities, or as another psychologist told me, ‘an opportunity for movement’, then we can be present in the moment and start investigating and exploring.” — Maggie Jackson on what we can learn from uncertainty, from an interview with Sean Illing for Vox

This week's underthinking link is all about synchronising fireflies. Ignore the left side if you don't want to think about it; focus on the right if you want to be mesmerised. Click and drag to add mild chaos.

Extra thoughts…

I'm still working through my own struggles with uncertainty and have yet to publish some of my thoughts on this.

But I have been busy writing on related topics! Here are few things from the past week+ that could be useful for where you might be at:

• ​Why labels are useful (and when they are not) — in Lens Not Label, the Substack to support an upcoming book about navigating neurodiversity in conversation
• Last week I called a time-out in the middle of a coaching conversation. Here's why that worked​
• Do I need a coach or a consultant? The key difference to help you decide​

​In last week's newsletter, I announced my fair pricing model. It's a vulnerable and scary thing to put out there and so I'm extra grateful for the thoughts and comments many of you shared on that (and please keep them coming).

One thing I didn't say (but meant to!) was that I have availability to work with several new people now, across all tiers.

So, if you've been overthinking something and would like to turn that mental energy into meaningful action, now is the time!​

I hope this newsletter brought you a little bit of clarity. And if not, tuck it away for when you may need it later.

Warmly,
Kim

---

If you have been enjoying Hold That Thought, here are two quick ways you might support me: share a thought or send me a pebble.

As always, gems and other finds here:

• ​More new articles on Medium! I also curate many useful lists​
• Browse podcast episodes and read the latest insights on my blog​
• Visit the newsletter archive for all my worksheets and other free tools

Hope you enjoy these things as much as I do creating and sharing them!

---

Hello! My name is Kim Witten and I’ve spent nearly five decades overthinking absolutely everything. This has led me to various places and I've had (what I used to think was) a fairly messy career path. Here's how I made sense of it all​

Kim Witten Coaching and Consulting is a Limited Company with company number SC708138 and its registered office at Staney Brae, Dunrossness, Shetland ZE2 9JG

I used to hate seeing my unsubscriber count go up. Now I love it. Here's why. If what I'm doing here isn't landing, please feel free to unsubscribe. Or adjust your preferences​

​