Read time: 4 minutes • A quiet moment for you

Hi Reader,

Welcome to my weekly newsletter, designed to help you Rise on Purpose.

Last week, I wrote about slowing down as a strategy. If you missed it, you can read that, and all previous articles, here.

And because a few good words can change the direction of your whole day, I wrote a FREE PDF guide: 7 Things to Tell Yourself Every Day. If you'd like to receive it, hit reply and I'll send it straight to your inbox.

Hit Send

This week I finished tying up the loose ends on my book proposal and started sending it to literary agents. Totally terrifying and thrilling in equal measure.

I'd done enough editing. It's time to let someone else have an opinion on it.

(Friends who know the publishing industry have already warned me it moves at a glacial pace, so it could be a long summer ahead).

You probably have your own version of this.

An email that's been sitting in drafts for two weeks, an application you keep meaning to finish, or maybe a message to someone you've rehearsed a dozen times but never actually sent.

We treat "ready" like a feeling we're supposed to arrive at first. Like the fear has to go completely before we're allowed to act. But readiness rarely works that way. It's not something that appears and gives you permission. It's something you decide, usually while the fear is still there.

That's what turns a draft into something real.

This week’s tool: Ready Enough, Not Perfect

Perfectionism moves stealthily. One more read-through, one more small edit, one more reason to wait until tomorrow, and suddenly weeks have passed and the thing is still sitting there, untouched by anyone but you.

So this week, when you catch yourself circling something instead of sending it, pause and ask:

"Am I improving this, or am I just avoiding how it feels to let it go?"

That one question can tell you almost everything you need to know.

Sometimes it looks like:

→ sending the email you've rewritten four times, exactly as it is
→ submitting the application before you reread it one more time
→ posting the thing without asking someone else to check it first
→ telling one person your deadline, so it's no longer just yours to move

Hitting send isn't about being careless with your work.

It's about trusting that you've already done enough, and letting the rest happen outside your head.

Why this works

Waiting for certainty keeps you in planning mode, where nothing can go wrong because nothing has actually happened yet. It feels productive, but it's often just a comfortable way to delay the part that actually requires courage.

Action changes that. The moment you send something, you trade an imagined outcome for a real one, and real outcomes are almost always easier to work with than the ones you've been rehearsing in your head. Feedback, even the disappointing kind, gives you something to respond to. Silence and waiting only give you more room to imagine.

Whatever it is you hit send on this week, I'll be thinking of you.

Keep rising,
Lauren

P.S. What's something you've been "finishing" that's actually ready to go? Hit reply, I read every response.

A Note from a Reader

After last week’s email, Yves from Canada got in touch to share that in Caye Caulker island in Belize, they have a motto: Go Slow. It's an island without cars, without deadlines, without rush. Where the motto is painted on walls and posted on signs.

How incredible to know there's actually a place that encapsulates slow-as-a-strategy as a way of life.

Worth a Google.

Before you go:
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→ If you’d like to explore panels, events or partnerships, work with me​

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