What Are You Still Waiting for Permission to Do?

I have been sitting with this question about permission a bit (a lot) lately, and wondering what it brings up for you.

My guess is something comes up immediately. A thing you've been circling. A way of working, leading, or just being, that you keep pushing back down because the timing isn't right or it's not how things are done.

Here's what I've noticed: almost everyone is waiting for permission to do or be something. And the thing they're waiting on is almost never as complicated as they've made it. The barrier isn't resources or timing. It's a line in the grass that nobody put a fence around — but where you'll get a little shock if you cross it. Like a dog near an invisible fence.

On the other side is an enormous expansion of world.

The problem is we analyze instead of act. We think through all the reasons it won't work before we ever try it. That thinking — not the thing itself — is usually what stops us.

I know because I did this for years with joy.

I kept waiting for someone to tell me it was okay to lead with joy. That it was serious enough. That it wouldn't undermine my credibility or make people think I wasn't taking the work — the climate work, the leadership work — seriously enough. So I kept it tamped down. Trying against all odds to be "professional" and measured. (argh)

And then I noticed what happened when I stopped waiting. I expanded my circles. I had much richer conversations. I watched something light up in other people when I stopped editing myself. There was no downside. There literally was no downside.

That's what I want to offer you: there is no downside to looking at the thing you're waiting to do or be. None. Even if you decide it's not the right moment, you've gotten closer to knowing yourself. And if you go through it — if you cross that little line — the expansion tends to be immediate.

This matters beyond the personal, for sure - and I'll tell you why I keep coming back to it through a climate lens. The people I've watched have the most quiet, durable influence on how cities move, eat, and build — the mayors, the advocates, the everyday leaders — almost all of them got there by giving themselves permission to do something that looked a little off to the people around them. Ride an e-cargo bike to a city council meeting? Serve only plant-based food at a community event without making it a whole announcement? Say out loud in a room full of serious people that they were actually enjoying this work? None of it was a campaign. It was just one person crossing their own invisible line — and then watching others quietly follow. (I interviewed people like this in my Living Change: A Quest for Climate Leadership podcast, in fact.)

That's how social norms actually start to shift. Not from the top down, not from a big campaign — but from one person giving themselves permission, which turns out to give everyone around them a little permission too.

So I'll ask it one more time, more directly:

What's the one thing that keeps surfacing — in your work, your leadership, your daily life — that you keep deciding isn't quite possible yet?

You don't have to announce it. (How freeing is THAT?)

Just cross the line and see what's on the other side.

I have a feeling it's something that brings you joy. And I know that's exactly what's needed right now.

Exploring the joy strategy, and learning from the people who have also been tapping their own joy while softly having a big impact on the world is what my new show, Name & Fame, with Andrea Learned , is all about.