This week in the Membership, we held our quarterly planning ritual.
And I don’t know any business that hasn’t had its annual plans impacted in some way by the political climate we find ourselves in—U.S.-based or not.
The plans we made in January? For many of us, they’ve already been set aside. Because the ground is shifting too quickly to pretend we can see clearly six or twelve months ahead.
In times like these, all we can do is keep taking steps. One at a time.
In the tarot, 2025 is a Hermit year.
In the Smith Rider Waite deck, the Hermit holds a lantern—one that only illuminates the step in front of them. Not the destination. Not the long-range plan. Just what’s next.
The Hermit, and its lantern, is a symbol of radical presence, because only when we’re rooted in this moment can we allow the next step to illuminate, unfurl, and to clarify itself.
We can only see the step we’re taking next, then the next.
Quoting my Tarot mentor Lindsay Mack,
And so The Hermit says, “Go slow, sweetheart. Stay with your body. Be here. Really be here as much as you can be here.” And by being here — by being with The Hermit, by being with this part of ourselves — it can actually, again, radically shift where we go next, where we’re guided to go next.
And that was the theme of this planning session.
Continuing to take steps forward, but with the knowledge that the path only appears as you walk it.
I’m in a liminal space myself—having stepped away from Fractional COO work, launched my first course, and now preparing to release my book.
And as a planner, it’s immensely frustrating that I can’t see more than the next steps.
Maybe the book will sell like crazy, and I’ll have opened up a whole new audience to my work.
Maybe the book won’t, and I’ll need to revisit my business model.
Maybe the economy will still be weird in six months, or maybe it won’t.
But the point is, I can’t know. None of us really know what will happen in 6 months, as the pace of change continues to accelerate:
- The speed of AI development and adoption
- Trade and tariff policy
- The next social media platform changes
- Political unrest
And that’s not a problem we can solve with better planning. It’s a reality to work with.
This is the Hermit’s invitation:
To slow down.
To listen.
To anchor into yourself instead of waiting for a perfectly laid plan.
Like, it’s a moment to be deeply within, to go actually a little deeper into our inner ocean, to actually tune our listening, our receptive skills, even finer. This card just really calls us in and forward.
We can stay open to the possibilities, trust our soul, and know that we can’t know what to expect right now.
I may not know where I’ll be six months from now. But I do know how to keep moving. I know how to return to the weekly rhythms that steady me. How to stay in motion without rushing. How to stay in tune with my values and vision, even when the path ahead is foggy.
Because the path doesn’t appear before you walk it.
It appears as you walk it.
Step by step. Root by root.
You don’t need to see all six steps right now. Just the next one.
And that’s enough.