What a Golf Cart Taught Me About Saying Yes
“Leave margin, actual unstructured margin, in your calendar, because margin is where the miracles and the magic tend to sneak in.” - Debbie Heiser
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In this episode of The Lit Up Life Podcast, I share what happened when I crashed a Fourth of July parade in a 1960s golf cart with no plan, no permission, and no idea it would become one of the best days of my year.
What started as a "what if" turned into a lesson I couldn't shake: the moments that change everything rarely show up looking like opportunity. They show up looking ridiculous, illogical, or completely off script. I talk about why we chase certainty when we say we want freedom, what preparation disguised as productivity actually costs us, and how to tell the difference between intuition and fear when a "what if" shows up in your own life.
This one is for anyone who has been waiting for permission to say yes to something that was never on the plan.
Key Takeaways From This Episode
Why we chase certainty instead of the freedom we say we want
How exploration gives you real, tested information that thinking alone never can
What separates preparation from actual participation in business
Why intuition whispers while fear screams, and how to tell them apart
How an overscheduled calendar can quietly become a cage
Questions This Episode Answers
Why do I want certainty more than I want freedom?
How do I know if something is intuition or just impulse?
Why does over-preparing keep me from actually starting?
What does it mean to leave margin in my calendar?
How do I stop waiting for permission to pursue an opportunity?
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What a Golf Cart Taught Me About Saying Yes
It's the Fourth of July in Idaho, and the whole town has spilled outside. Flags everywhere, kids running, parade floats lining up somewhere down the street. My friend Nicole and I are cruising around in her 1960s golf cart with no agenda, just watching the floats gather.
Then a thought lands out of nowhere. What if we joined the parade.
No committee meeting. No SWOT analysis. Just "really?" and "let's do it." We drove that golf cart straight into the parade, completely unannounced, and within ninety seconds we weren't outsiders anymore. People handed us swag. Kids waved like we were somebody. Nobody asked if we'd filled out an application. They responded to the energy we walked in with.
Certainty Has a Cost Nobody Talks About
Most of us will say we want freedom. Watch what we actually chase, though, and it's certainty. Certainty the launch will work before we launch it. Certainty before we hire, before we raise our prices, before we make the move. It feels responsible. It feels safe.
But certainty kills exploration every time. If Christopher Columbus had waited to know exactly what was on the other side of the ocean, he never would have sailed. There's no version of exploring something new where you also get to know exactly how it turns out. You have to pick one.
Preparation Is Not the Same as Participation
Here's something I see constantly with entrepreneurs, myself included. Someone has a great idea, and instead of testing it in the world, they spend eight months designing the perfect logo. Someone wants to start coaching and researches microphones instead of coaching one person.
They've mistaken preparation for participation. Preparation feels productive. It feels safe. But the next breakthrough is almost never waiting behind another certification. It's waiting behind action.
Exploration Gives You Real Data
You don't figure out your ideal client by thinking about them, you figure them out through actual conversations. You don't discover your best offer by theorizing it, you discover it by selling and adjusting as you go. Thinking predicts, and the predictions are usually wrong, because they're built on our own filters.
Which brings me to the most underrated skill in business: listening. Listening to your clients, your own gut, the conversations that weren't even supposed to happen. Someone casually says "I wish someone would just..." and that's a clue. The opportunity rarely shows up wearing a name tag. It shows up quiet.
Intuition Whispers, Fear Screams
People ask me constantly how to tell the difference between intuition and impulse. Fear is loud and dramatic. What if this doesn't work, what if they judge me, what if I fail. Intuition is quieter. It sounds more like, what if you just made that call.
That Fourth of July, I also had an intuitive hit to leave my son's lake house earlier than planned, and drove past a long line of cars coming home from fireworks right after. Small, quiet nudges tend to lead to the outcomes that matter most.
Your Calendar Can Become a Cage
As high achievers, we schedule almost everything. Efficiency starts to feel like identity. But if every minute is planned, where does surprise fit in? Where does wonder get a chance to show up?
Leave margin, actual unstructured margin, because margin is where the miracles tend to sneak in. My biggest breaks were never on the plan. The random conversation that turned into a client. The collaboration that came out of nowhere. None of it was orchestrated. It happened because I was available, energetically and otherwise.
You can be fully booked and still completely closed off, or you can have an open calendar and an open heart. One of those creates a lot more possibility than the other.
So here's your invitation. Say yes to one thing you normally wouldn't this week. Take the scenic route. Call the person you keep thinking about. Post the idea before it's perfect. Not because you know how it ends, but because the exploration itself is the point.
