Ep. 89 - Ways to Move Forward When You're Not Sure What You Want

Many personal growth strategies assume you already know what you want.

But what if you don’t?

Not having a clear vision can feel like an obstacle to progress. It’s easy to believe you need answers before you can take action. But waiting for clarity can lead to years of hesitation, second-guessing, and inaction.

This episode explores how to move forward even when you don’t have a defined end game. It brings together insights from high-level thinkers in performance, psychology, and strategy to offer a different approach—one that prioritizes trajectory, positioning, and reducing friction so that when clarity does arrive, you’re ready.

What’s Inside This Episode?

• Why Maurice Ashley, International Grandmaster of Chess, taught his students the endgame first—and how applying this to your own life changes how you approach decisions.
  
  
• How to shift focus from achieving immediate success to making sure your trajectory is leading somewhere better (James Clear’s Atomic Habits).
  
  
• Why complexity often disguises a lack of clarity—and how to cut through it (Ben Hunt-Davis).
  
  
• How Tim Ferriss’s fear-setting exercise helps remove unseen friction, making future clarity easier to act on.
  
  
• How to develop an “end game mindset” even when you don’t yet know your final destination.

This episode is for anyone who feels like they’re standing still, not because they lack drive, but because they aren’t sure what direction to take.

Click here for a downloadable worksheet containing:

• Key takeaways and summaries
• Reflection questions to apply the episode’s insights
• A step-by-step fear-setting exercise to identify and reduce friction
• A trajectory check-in to help assess whether your current habits align with the life you want to create

Resources & Links

• Atomic Habits by James Clear 
• Will It Make the Boat Go Faster: Olympic-Winning Strategies for Everyday Success by Ben Hunt-Davis
• Ben Hunt-Davis Keynote Speech Highlights
• The Chess Journey of Grandmaster Maurice Ashley by Daaim Shabazz of The Chess Drum (2019)
• Worklife Podcast with Adam Grant: Chess Grandmaster on why mistakes are our greatest teachers (December 2023)
• Fear-Setting: The Most Valuable Exercise I Do by Tim Ferriss

Final Thoughts

Clarity isn’t a prerequisite for action. It’s often the result of it.

This episode offers a framework for taking meaningful steps forward, even in the absence of a clear goal. If that’s something you’ve been struggling with, this conversation might help shift how you approach the problem.

If this episode resonated with you, please take a moment to share it with someone who might find it helpful.

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