Episode 57
Have you ever forced yourself to finish something… even when you knew it wasn’t right anymore?
And at the same time…
Have you ever not finished something—and questioned yourself because of it?
Because somewhere along the way, many of us were taught:
If you start something—you finish it.
If you commit—you follow through.
If you say you’re going all in… you go all in.
But here’s the thing I’ve been sitting with:
Just because you can do something… doesn’t mean you should.
And that realization has been reshaping how I understand “going all in.”
I’m back at the beach, if you’re ready to join me, pull up a comfy chair, invite in your Soul and be open to receive what you need to live, be and thrive as the embodied soul you are.
————
I want to share a conversation that really brought this home for me.
Every week, I get to connect with one of my best friends. And recently, we were talking about this idea of going all in.
She had just completed a 7-day challenge—and she felt amazing. Empowered. Proud. She followed through. She did what she said she would do. And you could feel how much that built trust within herself.
And as she was sharing that… I noticed something in me.
There was contraction in my body.
Because at the same time, I had recently started a 30-day challenge around eating and exercise… and I had just paused it going into week 4.
So here we are—same theme, two very different experiences.
And what was really beautiful about this conversation is that there was no sense of one being right and the other being wrong.
Her completion? That was a win.
My pause? That was also a win.
They were just… different expressions of self-trust.
And as we kept talking, I shared why I had paused.
I had been getting really clear signals from my body that the exercise routine wasn’t supporting me at the moment—especially because I had also been doing a lot of heavy manual labor on our property.
So on those days… I chose not to do the HIIT workouts.
And she asked me, very matter of factly:
“Why not do both?”
And the moment she said it, my whole body responded.
A full-body no.
Like—absolutely not.
And I didn’t say that right away—but later in the conversation, I shared how strong that response was.
And what came out of me was this:
Just because I can do something… doesn’t mean I should.
⸻
And that’s where I started to see this more clearly.
Because “going all in”… isn’t actually one thing.
It’s layered.
And I found myself reflecting on three different ways we use that phrase.
⸻
Layer number 1 — Going all in builds self-trust
There is a version of going all in that is incredibly powerful.
You choose something.
You commit.
You follow through.
You complete it.
And in doing that—you build trust within yourself.
You build momentum.
You build confidence.
And that matters.
And that was what my friend experienced.
And it was real. And it was valid. And it was hers.
⸻
Layer 2 — is Knowing when NOT to go all in
And this is another layer that, for me, has been the deeper learning:
Knowing when to stop.
Knowing when something is no longer serving you.
Because for most of my life, I’ve been the one who finishes everything.
I complete things.
I push through.
I follow through… even long after I’ve determined I don’t actually need to anymore.
Not because it’s aligned—
but because I had a belief that said:
“You finish what you start.”
[chuckling] You might be hearing the cicadas are really loud in the trees around me.
Whether it was the food on my plate… or a project… or a commitment… I didn’t stop.
So for me, the growth edge was never discipline.
It was discernment.
It was asking:
When is continuing actually out of alignment?
And being willing to stop… even when a part of me says I shouldn’t.
⸻
And then there’s Layer 3 — What are you actually going all in on?
Because “going all in” depends on what you’re going all in on.
Is it a 30-day challenge?
Or is it your life?
⸻
For me, the deeper truth is this:
I’m not here to go all in on every short-term structure.
I’m here to go all in on becoming the fullest expression of my soul in body… in this lifetime.
And that means being aware of my patterns, my beliefs, the ways I’ve been taught to push, to perform, to override.
And sometimes…
Going all in on my life…
means not going all in on the thing in front of me.
It means slowing down.
Pausing.
Adjusting.
Not completing something.
Because the bigger commitment is to alignment—not performance.
⸻
We live in a world that constantly tells us:
Do more
Push harder
Stay consistent
Finish what you start
And yes—sometimes that guidance is supportive.
And sometimes… it isn’t.
Because we are not cookie cutters.
What works for one person… won’t work for another.
And what worked for you before… may not be what serves you now.
⸻
So discernment becomes everything.
⸻
And this is something I would offer you to explore in your own life.
You might even pause this for a moment and ask yourself:
What am I currently pushing to complete… that might not actually be aligned anymore?
⸻
4 Anchors for Discernment
Here are four anchors of discernment that I keep coming back to:
1. Your inner guidance
What is your intuition, your gut actually saying—beneath the noise?
2. Your body
Is your body open… or contracted?
Because your body often knows before your mind catches up.
3. Your patterns
Are you doing this from alignment…
or from a belief that “I have to” or “I should”?
And…
4. The long game check
If I follow through on this…
does it support the person I’m becoming long-term?
Or am I doing it to satisfy a short-term rule?
⸻
Because if I hadn’t questioned my own pattern…
I would have added the HIIT workout on top of everything else.
I would have pushed.
I would have overridden my body.
And I’ve done that before.
⸻
Heck, there was even a moment during this challenge where it was 10pm… and I hadn’t got the workout done.
And a part of me said:
“You need to do it. Right now.”
And I was so grateful for the part of me that paused and asked:
“Why?”
And then answered:
“We’re not doing that.”
⸻
That moment?
That was self-trust too.
⸻
So the question isn’t simply:
Are you going all in?
The question is:
What are you going all in on… and is it actually aligned with you?
Because going all in isn’t about doing more.
It’s about being fully aligned with what actually matters.
And sometimes…
That means stopping.
And sometimes…
Self-trust isn’t built in the moments you finish something.
It’s built in the moments you choose yourself…
Even when that means not finishing what you started.
—
If you’ve loved this episode of Embodied Soul, please like, comment, and subscribe. It really does support getting this message out to those who’ll benefit.
And I look forward to being with you again next week.