Transcription
That's not laziness. That's not even fear. That's confusion, and it's silently killing your dreams. Confusion isn't about not knowing enough; it's about knowing too much of something that doesn't have any meaning.
I've been so busy listening to everyone else that I couldn't hear his voice or my own. First, you need to silence all the noise, all the outside voices, all of them—even mine. Yeah, even mine. The answers you're seeking out there, they're within you, waiting to be uncovered.
Let me tell you something that will set you free: Confusion is often just fear wearing a clever disguise. And here's something really important: Confusion often shows up right before a breakthrough. It's not a sign that you're doing something wrong; it's actually a doorway—a doorway to something deeper and truer in your life. Your clarity isn't hiding in someone else's advice.
All right, how many times have you said, "What am I supposed to do with my life?" or "I just can't decide what to do next. I feel stuck." That feeling you're describing, that weight crushing your chest while everyone else is crushing their goals—that's not laziness. That's not even fear. That's confusion, and it's silently killing your dreams.
Listen. First Corinthians 14:33 says, "God is not a god of confusion but of peace." But here's the truth: Clarity isn't something you stumble across like a $20 bill that you find on the sidewalk. Clarity is something you're given through action. And can I be so bold and say the world is lying to you? They're telling you that you need more information, more courses, more planning. Wrong. Wrong. You actually need less information and more action.
And today, I'm not just going to give you motivation; I'm giving you the exact path I discovered that took me from being stuck to building something that I believe is going to be about transforming hundreds of lives. And I'm going to tell you right now, it's not what you think it is.
Hey, I'm Michelle Stabia, and I'm a speaker, writer, and business owner, and I help people turn their own life pivots into powerful opportunities. Listen, just recently, God had me rest, start, if you will, my talks and keynotes. I was speaking all over the country, but I also knew God had something greater for me to do. I was exactly where you might be right now.
Listen, I had notebooks full of ideas and laptops open to courses I'd paid for but never finished, trying to find the thing—the thing that I was to do next. I'm even embarrassed to say I'd spent over $10,000 on strategists and coaches to help me find that one thing—$10,000 and six months of my life waiting for clarity to just magically happen.
You know what I did? Sure, I wept. I even asked my husband for forgiveness, not just because of the money or the time, but because I felt like a fraud, a failure, like I was never going to figure this thing out. But right then, God dropped a question in my spirit, and this is what changed everything. He said, "What if clarity isn't something you find? What if it's something that you and I create?" Create with me, Michelle. Like, wow.
I'd been looking for clarity like it was some hidden treasure I needed to discover, some magical moment when all doubt would just disappear. Right? That's just a lie. That's not how it actually works. And at that moment, I did something that felt almost rebellious to me. I put away all my notebooks and I asked myself, "What's one thing I can do tomorrow that feels right in my spirit?" Not what's logical or makes sense, not what the gurus were telling me, or just what felt right in my gut, deep in my spirit.
You know what came to me? Start a podcast. Just simple: start a podcast. Now, you don't have to go that big, but God knows I love a challenge, and that's what he did. That move has led me to being on other people's podcasts and radio shows, using my voice. In less than 30 days of taking that first step, less than 30 days, I saw momentum. Real clarity started flowing, not from more thinking, but just from taking action, taking that first step.
And let me tell you something that's powerful about confusion that nobody's talking about: This confusion isn't about not knowing enough; it's about knowing too much of something that doesn't have any meaning. It's about knowing too much of the wrong things. Every single day, our brains are bombarded with thousands and thousands of messages telling you what to want, who to be, how to live. It's no wonder we're feeling lost.
I remember a few years ago, I was working with this big-name business coach, pushing me to scale and automate and create a course and do the signature program, everyone saying, "Oh, this will give you six figures," when all I wanted was to just find my one thing. You know, I needed my Jack Palance to my Billy Crystal to find my one thing, if you know—if you're old enough to know *City Slickers*, you know what I mean. But every time I tried to follow their advice, I felt—felt physically sick to my stomach. You know that feeling? That feeling when your body is trying to tell you what your mind doesn't want to really accept.
I remember one time feeling frustrated after a coaching call, basically feeling like I am letting them down because I didn't want to scale. So I went for a walk—no phone, no AirPods, no inputs, nothing—just me and God. And you know what happened? God revealed something to me that was so simple yet so profound: I've been so busy listening to everyone else that I couldn't hear his voice or my own. The confusion wasn't from not knowing what to do; it was from ignoring what I already knew deep down because it didn't match what I was supposed to want.
Let me tell you about a friend. She shared with me how she—um—spent $25,000—$25,000—on programs that promised to help her build her health and wellness coaching business, and everyone telling her something different. You know, "Build a website first," "Create a course," "No, no, no, get another certification." She was drowning in advice, drowning in information. So I asked her, "Okay, what matters? What matters most to you about the work you're doing?" Not what would make the most money or grow her the fastest, but what made her come alive, what made her get excited to get up in the morning every day. And you know what she said? She said, "I just want to sit with women who are where I was five years ago and help them not feel so alone like I did." Like that's clarity. That's clarity. That's the heart-centered why as to what we do. We cut through all the noise. And within two weeks, she'd started a simple community that eventually became the foundation of her thriving business. See, all that noise was drowning out the one voice that mattered—her own and the Holy Spirit inside of her. And I guarantee that's happening for you, too. Your clarity isn't hiding in someone else's advice or in another course or in more research; it's waiting for you in moments of quiet and moments of stillness, and it reveals itself through action.
I love what James chapter 1, verse 5 says: "If any of you lacks wisdom, ask God, who gives it generously. He gives it generously." But here's what most people miss: God often speaks through our actions, not just through our thoughts. He talks to us through our actions. The faith that was required in each step of the unknown. Think about Esther in the Bible. She didn't have a five-year plan with quarterly goals and KPIs. She didn't have a plan in place; she just had faith for her next step. And that one step of faith, it literally saved the nation. Your next step has that kind of power, too, but you've got to take it.
So what does this mean for you right now when you are feeling stuck? First, you need to silence all the noise, all the outside voices, all of them—even mine. Yeah, even mine. The answers you're seeking out there, they're within you, waiting to be uncovered. And I have this thing that I do. Whenever I'm feeling confused about a decision, I kind of call it the "input fast," and it's for 24 hours. I consume zero content related to this exact topic, the exact decision that I'm trying to make—no podcasts, no books, no asking friends for advice, right? Nothing—just me, Jesus, and a journal. It's amazing how much clarity comes when we create space for wisdom to emerge. It's amazing. And when I finally gave myself that permission, I stopped trying to build a movement all at once. I just stopped, and instead, I simply named my one thing by starting a podcast and calling it *Fearless Forward*. That's it. That one decision from my heart created momentum for everything else.
Second, you need to listen to yourself with fierce compassion. What gets you up? Gets you excited? Those limiting stories you tell yourself, they're just echoes of old fears. That's it. They're echoes of old fears. If the enemy can keep you in a place of stagnation, he wins, and God loses. And I think we get into this mindset of replaying in our head past failures, past decisions that may not have had the best outcomes. Yes, and the devil loves to remind us of those things, doesn't he? But if we dig deep and fiercely remind that pesky little voice that greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world, that no weapon formed against me shall prosper, then when he reminds us of our past, we can remind him of his future.
Let me tell you something that will set you free: Confusion is often just fear wearing a clever disguise. When we're afraid to move forward, our brains create confusion as a way to keep us safe. See, back when I told you that I had spent $10,000 on coaching, it wasn't really that I didn't know what to do next; I was—I was just afraid—afraid of failing again and again and again, and afraid of looking like a fool, afraid of making the wrong decision, the wrong choice. Confusion was just the socially acceptable way for me to be okay with where I was, to stay comfortable. Be honest. Once I recognized that, I could then tell myself—I could say, "It's unknown, and it's scary, but I can take one small step anyway"—because I understood God has not given me a spirit of fear but of power, love, and a sound mind.
Finally, you need to just trust—trust that clarity deepens as you move. Faith and action work together. It's like driving at night—you're in your headlights, right? The headlights only show 200—200 feet in front of you, but you can make the entire journey that way; it just requires obedience. I love what James chapter 2, verse 26 says in the Amplified: "For just as the human body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works of obedience is also dead." Obedience. So my question to you is, what's your next 200 feet? What small action feels right in your head—not just your head, but right in your spirit?
Stanford University did a study that found momentum actually creates motivation, not the other way around. We think we need to feel motivated to act, but actually taking action is what creates the motivation to keep going. And so when you're feeling stuck or you're unsure, the absolute best thing you can do is take one small step at a time, one small action at a time—not to achieve some big goal, but just to create movement, just to create momentum, because clarity comes in the movement. And we live in a culture today where we are obsessed with certainty. We have to be matter-of-fact. We have to have it perfect before we go out and take the first step, with knowing exactly—with having it all figured out. But what if—what if the most beautiful thing—what if the most beautiful parts of life come from embracing the uncertainty?
You know, I was hiking in Colorado a few years ago—a few summers ago—with my husband, and we had gone to this—gotten to this—PL fork in the trail, if you will, and we had to make a decision on where to go because there was no sign indicating which way to go. So we stood there debating, looking at the map the park gave us, and finally we just picked a direction. And half a mile later, we emerged through the trees to the most breathtaking view of the mountains I've ever seen. And I remember thinking, "What if we stayed at that fork because we couldn't make a decision? We would have missed this." That moment has become a spiritual download for me about clarity because it says this: Sometimes you just have to pick a path and start walking. Sometimes you just have to pick a path and start walking. The view will reveal itself along the way.
I think about Abraham, I think about Moses. They didn't even have a GPS map of their final destination, with how long it was going to take to get there. All they had was the next step. All they were given was the next step. I've come to believe that clarity isn't a destination; it's obedience. It's something we cultivate through small choices, through listening to—not just ourselves—but listening for his voice, through taking action, even when we're not even 100% sure. And here's something really important: Confusion often shows up right before a breakthrough. Oh, let me say that again: Confusion often shows up right before a breakthrough. It's actually a sign that you're on the edge of growth, that you're pushing beyond your comfort zone into new territory. When confusion shows up for me now, I don't see it as a problem; I see it as an invitation—an invitation to get busy, an invitation to go deeper with God, an invitation to listen more carefully, to trust more fully. Your moments of greatest confusion are often invitations to greater knowledge of how God made you. There are opportunities to discover what truly, truly matters.
I want you to hear me clearly: This confusion you're feeling, it's not a sign that you're doing something wrong; it's actually a doorway—a doorway to something deeper and truer in your life. Clarity doesn't come from praying harder or gathering more information; it comes from quieting down enough to hear what you already know, to hear what God has already given you, and then having the courage to take one small step forward.
So right now—not tomorrow, not next week, but right now—I'm challenging you to try something different. Instead of looking for more answers outside yourself, I want you to commit to sitting quietly for five minutes. Ask yourself, "What feels right?" Not what makes sense, but what—what you should do, what feels aligned with who you truly are. Then I want you to do one thing that moves you in that direction, whether it's one email, having one conversation, one small decision. That's all it takes to begin creating clarity.
Listen, I believe in you so much. You already have everything you need to create clarity in your life because God already put it in you. He already put it in you. You just got to find it. You got to pull it out. And the wisdom you're seeking is already within you. And I'm here—I'm here cheering you on with every small, brave step you take. Listen, I just want you to say this: If something in this conversation sparks something in you today, hey, drop me a comment below. Tell me about the one small action you're going to take. Listen, I want to read every comment, and I do, and I'd love to celebrate your first step toward clarity. Next week, I want to show you how to turn these small actions into unstoppable momentum because you're not overthinking—that's the word—because you're not overthinking; you're just ready for your next right move. Thank you for spending time with me today. Remember, clarity isn't found; it's created, one brave step at a time. I'll see you next week. [Music] [Applause] [Music]