Taking the First Step: Lessons on Ambition

How my kid’s fearlessness can teach me to own my dreams (and stop overthinking).

“Why do I even need to finish school? I already know what I want to do when I grow up.”
My daughter Bonnie huffed, increasingly apathetic about the prospect of 5th grade.

“Oh? What’s that?” I asked, knowing this particular kid wouldn’t take well to lectures about GPAs and the march to graduation.

“I want to own my own business. Something for dogs and inventions and writing and science,” she said confidently, never one to doubt her own vision.

“That’s awesome! Sometimes life is about checking off the boxes until you can do what you really want. And maybe you’ll learn something or meet someone that’s helpful in getting your business off the ground.”

I tucked my half-smile away, not wanting to communicate my amusement on such a serious matter. For a moment, I flashed from her 10 year-old freckled face to her as a toddler—always a big thinker and feeler, content to swim around the interior of her mind, entertained by her imagination.

I offered a silent prayer to the goddess of little girls’ ambition: keep going.

Dog inventor writer business owner pictured above.

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I wonder, with a bit of delight and hubris, if perhaps I’ve shown her that making your own way in the business world is possible.

I’ve managed rental and investment properties, been christened Chief Marketing Officer of my husband’s mobile sauna company (mostly posting steamy puns on social media), launched my own private psychology practice, and started a wellness consulting business.

Yet I still hesitate to call myself an entrepreneur.

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Imposter syndrome is always just beneath the surface—for me, and for many women I know—making us hesitant to declare to the world, I think I’ve got something to offer.

It’s hard to put yourself out there. And it’s easy to get overwhelmed when thinking about the end game.

Balancing parenting the kids we brought into this world with the pull of my own ambitions sometimes feels like a circus act, my many plates spinning above me.

But now, in my forties, I’m not willing to trade one for the other.

So it’s small steps, one step at a time—that’s been my survival strategy.

One step at a time.

Ambition doesn’t have to mean overcomplicating or overthinking. It can mean showing up today for the thing you care about, even if it’s just a baby step. You own your experience by doing it—messy, imperfect, in-progress—and letting the moniker find you along the way.

I’ve heard the nagging refrain of self-doubt—“Who do you think you are?”—my brain’s misguided attempt to keep me safe from risk.

And all I can say is: I’ve had practice, and help, and mentorship. And I get a good night’s sleep, and then I keep putting one foot in front of the other.

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I think my next phase will be to embrace the title of entrepreneur, even when it makes me blush a little bit.

But I’m no longer waiting for some external stamp of approval or mythical “enough” to crown me.

The name on the business card doesn’t make the work real—living it does.

Bonnie already understands something I’m still learning: you don’t have to see the whole staircase to take the first step.

She’s not agonizing over whether she’s “ready” to combine dogs, inventions, writing, and science—she’s just claiming it, one handwritten neighborhood flyer at a time.

That’s a kind of fearlessness I want to keep close.

And maybe, like Bonnie, a little more confidence that the path will make itself while we’re walking it.

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Psychology Spotlight 🧠

There’s a reason taking action matters more than waiting until you feel ready: our brains build confidence through evidence of doing, not through thinking about doing.

Every small step rewires the belief of what’s possible, creating momentum where hesitation once lived.

Confidence is not a prerequisite for action—it’s a byproduct of it.

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Call to Action 🚀

What’s one small step you can take today toward something you care about?

Is there a way you might lean into doing—even if you don’t feel totally ready yet?

How might your path start to reveal itself if you simply keep moving forward, one step at a time?

Less thinking. More living. Let’s take that next step together.