One foot on the gas, one on the brake
Bring your fear, keep your faith; build the container and make the move.
Hello from central Portugal, here blessed with fresh September air, clear head.
Lately I’ve been seeing the same thing with the smartest people I work with: a real pull to move forward, and an equally real habit of circling in doubt. If you’ve ever found yourself deactivating your socials, promising you’ll decide “after summer,” and then opening one more research tab to calm the noise - you’re not alone.
I see this often.
One foot on the gas, one on the brake.
Because most people I work with don’t have a strategy problem.
They have a safety-versus-change problem.
Two systems run at once: the part that wants the shift (gas) and the part built to keep you safe (brake).
When there’s no solid container to hold doubt, emotion and follow-through, the brake quietly wins (disguised as overwork, indecision, research loops, “after the holidays,” and a kind of numbness) But clarity cannot arrive by repeating the same patterns that keep you stuck in the same life you want to break free from; it’s earned inside a container that can carry the ‘wobble’ while you move.
my back-stage observation (what I see across almost everyone)
Big hearts, big vision, yet, overloaded system.
The nervous system is already at capacity, so the mind writes careful stories to justify staying where it is… even when “where it is” hurts.
“Let me filter all my doubts before I start.” It sounds responsible. It’s also a super clever way to self-procrastinate.
Overwork dressed up as safety.
Twelve-hour days buy a feeling of control, and then there’s no energy left for the thing that would actually change the season.
Momentum whiplash.
Excitement → doubt → withdrawal. Gas, brake, gas, brake.
Isolation drains courage. Lone-wolf weeks create small moves. Connection isn’t a luxury; it’s fuel.
Analysis as anaesthesia.
“If I research a little more (days, weeks, months, years) I won’t have to FEEL the fear.”
Backlogs that bite.
The list stops being a list and becomes a judgment. So it’s avoided. And it grows teeth.
False-belief leaks.
“What if I fail? What if I’m selfish? What if I’m too late?” Each one asks you to shrink and stay where you are.
And the biggest kicker?
Trying to think your way into a felt sense of safety.
The body needs to be met first; the head can’t carry what the body is holding.
NONE of this makes you wrong. It just means your protection system has been steering you up until now.
Two switches, one container
There are two switches running within each one of us:
Gas (Creation System): desire, vision, intuition, experiments.
Brake (Protection System): doubt, perfectionism, over-planning, people-pleasing.
We don’t remove the brake (it’s there for a reason). What we do build is a container that does three simple things:
Returns you to facts over fear-stories.
What is objectively true today (numbers, time, commitments, energy).
It’s important here that decisions sit on facts, not forecasts.Gives emotion somewhere to go before we make a plan.
We give permission for your anger, sadness and fear to move through the voice, breath and body so we’re not asking the mind to solve what belongs in the nervous system.Sets a cadence that’s too small to fail and big enough to count.
We create, simple, real actions that touch your world on repeat, along with human accountability.
When those three live together, the gas has room, and the brake doesn’t have to grab the wheel.
The mechanism (what actually changes things)
1) Facts before stories.
I often encourage my clients to write what’s true today: this could look like at work, current revenue, runway, available hours, non-negotiables and current capacity.
If it isn’t on a calendar or a bank statement, it’s not a fact.
Facts help to reduce the storytelling bandwidth of fear. They calm the system and make space for cleaner choices to happen.
2) Emotional work first.
Anger → sadness → fear = The sequence I most often see with clients.
We give each emotion permission to move (with sound, breath, shaking, tears) so you’re not asking your cortex to solve what your body is still carrying. Five minutes spent on focused body work can return hours of focus. You just need a place for the feeling to land instead of suppressing the feelings you have.
3) One aligned move (not a list).
This is crucial. No one needs yet another productivity plan...(our world is FULL of them!) What you do need is to focus on that one next step that feels clean and true. Something that touches the real world…. like sending that message, make the ask, publish the post, book the room. Nothing heroic. Just ONE honest move at a time.
The point is embodied clarity, not more homework.
4) Cadence over sprints.
Weekly rhythm beats heroic bursts every time. A small, reliable, consistent pulse your body can trust. And add human accountability that’s kind yet firm (someone who knows what you chose and will check in with presence rather than pressure.)
5) Head + gut check.
We use the thinking tools, option stacks, effort/ROI maps, and then we ask the body if the “top score” still feels alive. Head chooses the route; gut confirms there’s fuel. Without the gut, you’ll sabotage. Without the head, you’ll wander.
What embodied clarity changes in practice
When your system settles, your calendar and cashflow notice.
You stop stalling on key asks, you give clean “yes/no” answers faster, and you follow through because the action feels safe in your body - not forced by your mind.
A quiet vignette from the room (anonymised)
Recently, in a four-day container I held recently, a leader arrived exhausted by his own stop-start pattern.
Day one, we found the exact moment on the timeline that kept him playing small as well as the exact words his mind used to keep him “safe.”
That evening he wrote the story out on a piece of paper and burned it in the fire. Simple ritual. Clear signal to the body: we’re done with this one.
Day two, we didn’t rush to plans. We met his emotional armour first.
Anger surfaced; beneath it, sadness; beneath that, a clean fear about stepping out with a new offer.
He gave each feeling time and a way through (voice, breath, movement) until his body softened.
Then we returned to facts: hours available each week, current commitments, energy by time-of-day, money in/money out.
On day three, we explored two ideas with a light decision matrix (effort, excitement, speed to cash, potential return) and then asked his body which one felt alive.
The numbers pointed one way.
His body agreed.
That afternoon he sent three messages he’d avoided for months.
He was finally able to make a grounded ‘YES’ that moved his business forward in peace.
Not because he became a different person overnight, but because his nervous system finally had a container that could hold the ‘wobble’ while he moved.
The cost of waiting (without shaming)
After years of coaching and observing my clients, what I have learnt is this; waiting for perfect clarity teaches your nervous system that doubt is the driver.
Overwhelm doesn’t sit still; it compounds.
Numbness grows and you feel less in your body, which means you feel less with the people you love.
The room can be full and still feel far away.
And every month you delay, the opportunities that belong to your bolder self move to someone else’s calendar.
This is not a moral failure. It’s simply what happens when the brake gets to steer without a container to hold you.
No aligned moves, no momentum. No container, same loop.
If this is you, come back to yourself
What I can tell you for sure is… you don’t need to do more research, neither do need to “fix” yourself first…
What you need is forty-five minutes in a held space where your system can exhale and your next step becomes obvious in your body, not just persuasive in your head.
We’ll work in a way that honours your values (and, if you wish, your faith) without dogma attached.
If charts aren’t your thing, we can keep it purely conversational and somatic (body based) and land the same depth of clarity.
Soul Purpose Blueprint — 45 minutes back to yourself
Feeling stuck between who you’ve been and who you’re becoming?
This is a gentle, focused deep-dive to reconnect you with your soul’s unique blueprint and leave you with clarity you can feel.
How we work in the session
We blend intuitive coaching, chart-based insight (Gene Keys & Human Design) and somatic awareness (or keep it chart-free if you prefer - same depth, same clarity).
Together we’ll name what’s truly driving the misalignment, surface your natural gifts, values and direction, and spot the unconscious patterns that keep hitting the brake.
We’ll land one next aligned step (simple, doable, alive) and you’ll leave with a personalised blueprint document as a keepsake, not as another thing ‘to do’.
What to expect
45 minutes.
No prep, no pressure.
A calm, human space to hear yourself fully.
Embodied clarity that feels like relief - and translates into one practical move you can take this week.
Who this particularly serves
Leaders in big orgs: clarity that protects your reputation while you pivot.
Founders & freelancers: from research loops to revenue-moving decisions.
Parent at a crossroads: a step that respects your real-world capacity.
Note: This session isn’t therapy. If you’re navigating acute distress, we’ll point you toward appropriate clinical support first-and meet you here when it’s right.
If that’s the container you’ve been missing, book your time here:
https://cal.com/daniel-philips-coaching/soul-purpose-blueprint
See you there, Dan