August

The Whole Woman Co.

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Hi friend,

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I’ve been thinking about something lately:

What if the thing you’re asking God to help you overcome is something you keep making easy for yourself to return to?

I was reading Atomic Habits and came across the idea that success isn’t only about making good habits easier. Sometimes it’s about making the habits that are working against you harder to access.

That made me think about how often we do the opposite.

We pray for change, but keep ourselves in the same environments.

We ask God for peace, but keep entertaining the same thoughts.

We ask for discipline, but keep making the thing we’re trying to stop incredibly convenient.

We ask God to move, while refusing to move ourselves.

And then we wonder why we feel stuck.

But here’s what I’ve been learning:

Not every battle is mine to fight.

Sometimes the victory is not in fighting harder. Sometimes it’s in surrendering sooner.

There are things God never asked me to carry.

There are situations I keep trying to control that require me to trust Him instead.

There are moments when I’m trying to figure out the entire path when God is simply asking me to stay in position.

And when I actually do that—when I stop forcing, stop striving, stop trying to make everything happen in my own strength—things begin to feel different.

Not necessarily easier.

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But clearer.

There’s a difference.

I’m learning to pay attention to what happens when I move with the Holy Spirit instead of constantly moving from anxiety, fear, or the need to control the outcome.

Because sometimes the thing standing between us and the next version of our lives isn’t a lack of opportunity.

Sometimes it’s us.

We’re in our own way.

And Paul put words to this tension thousands of years ago:

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​“For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.”

— Romans 7:15 ESV

Whew.

Because how many of us know exactly what we should do—and still find ourselves doing the thing we said we were done with?

Knowing is one thing.

Doing is another.

And sometimes getting out of our own way requires more than simply knowing what needs to change. It requires us to actually change our patterns, our environments, our boundaries, and our responses.

So this week, I want you to ask yourself:

What am I making too easy to return to?

What am I fighting that God may be asking me to surrender?

Where am I trying to control an outcome instead of staying in position?

And maybe most importantly:

What would change if I stopped trying to do everything myself?

You don’t have to fight every battle. You don’t have to force every door. You don’t have to have the entire plan figured out.

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Sometimes your assignment is simply to stay in position, make the necessary changes, and trust God with what happens next.

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That’s where I’m finding the freedom lately.

And honestly?

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I think there is something powerful on the other side of getting out of our own way.

If you’re realizing that you’re tired of getting in your own way and you’re ready to actually do something different, this is exactly the kind of work we can do together in a coaching session.

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You don’t have to keep circling the same patterns alone.

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​Book a coaching session and let’s work through what’s keeping you stuck—and what it looks like to begin operating by design.

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Until next time,

Coach Danielle

The Whole Woman Co.

Calling you to Operate by Design