How to move through resistance when you feel stuck

The quiet truth about why we delay the things we care about most.

Day 04 of the Optimism course invites you to do something that sounds simple but often feels impossible. Do the thing you said you were going to do. Not to impress anyone. Not to cross it off a list. But because something inside you is ready to shift. When you’re caught in fear, when stillness feels safer than movement, even the smallest step can feel like a mountain. To others, it may look insignificant. But to you, it’s everything. It’s the decision to move through the fog instead of waiting for it to clear. Fear becomes avoidance. Avoidance becomes guilt. Guilt, over time, becomes regret. That’s not where you’re meant to live.

Real transformation doesn’t happen in a single moment. It happens in the small, quiet ways you begin to show up for yourself. When you do the thing you promised you’d do—just for you—you begin to rebuild trust. And that trust is the foundation for every dream you’ve been holding. You don’t need a perfect plan. You don’t need to have it all figured out. You just need to take the next step, the one right in front of you. The rest will unfold. I know, because I’m reminding myself of the same thing too.

Here’s what I wrote for Day 04 –

Prompt: Today, what would it look like to move in alignment with what I truly want?

I’m sitting with how much energy I’ve been giving to the idea of beginning instead of just beginning. The desire is here. Clear. It wants to move. It doesn’t need a perfect plan. It doesn’t need to be explained. It just needs me to respond. I can feel how much I’ve been delaying, not because I don’t care, but because I care so deeply. There’s a voice in me that wants to be heard, and I’ve been hesitating. Not because I don’t know what to say, but because I’ve been waiting for it to arrive fully formed. But it doesn’t have to be fully formed to be true.

The truth is, I want to be more present online. I want to share what’s real for me, the moments that have shaped me, the thoughts I keep returning to, the lessons I’m still learning. And I don’t want to wait until it’s perfect. I don’t need to prove anything. I just want to be in motion again.

What I’m learning is that the longer I stay still, the louder the resistance becomes. But presence doesn’t require a big return. It asks for one honest beginning. One story. One post. One moment that feels real. That’s enough. I don’t need to explain where I’ve been. I just need to meet myself here, because here is what’s alive.

Scenes from Day 04

Notes:

• On a personal note, we moved into our new place in San Diego this weekend. Between the early mornings, the exhaustion of unpacking, and the process of finding a new rhythm, my journaling practice naturally got reprioritized. If your own flow has been interrupted, you’re not alone. These courses are structured as a 7-day journey, but that doesn’t mean they need to be done perfectly. The pauses, the breaks, the coming back—that’s all part of it. Giving yourself permission to be human is part of the practice. What matters most is that you return.

• I love this list of realizations that we linked today as further reading. Specifically #4 + #16. Also an honorable mention for #5.

• This beautiful essay reads like soul-level truth woven with quiet poetry. The kind that lingers and stirs something deep within. I especially love the metaphor of standing naked within life. It captures the rawness and courage it takes to be fully seen.

To live naked, and truthfully, is not an effortless act. You must step out of the comfort of your clothes. Let your bare feet run across the cold pavement. It is an act that takes commitment, effort and willingness. You must climb, crumble and break through. Again and again. It's a vow to move gently and sensitively through this world. Only naked can you feel the ocean move across your skin.

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How are you moving in alignment with what you truly want? Not what you’ve been told you should want—but what keeps quietly calling you back. The kind of truth that lives beneath the noise and guilt. The one you’re already making quiet moves toward, whether you’ve said it out loud yet or not.