The Space Between Knowing and Doing: A Love Letter to Your Intuition

There's a sacred space between knowing something in your bones and bringing that knowing to life. A tender pause where truth hovers, waiting to be acknowledged before it transforms into action.

I've been thinking about this space a lot lately – this intimate gap between decision and execution that so many of us struggle to navigate.

The Wisdom of Separation

What if the most powerful shift in decision-making isn't about making better decisions, but about separating the what from the when and how?

This isn't just theory for me. It's the beating heart of the work I do with founders and business leaders every day. At our best, we help them tune into their inner knowing first – that quiet voice that already has the answer – before drowning in the logistics of implementation.

Mel Robbins captures this perfectly when she says: "What if instead of fearing that you're going to make the wrong decision, you accepted the science of how intuition and how your internal GPS is helping you navigate, and you started to tune into what you know to be true and you just separated the truth from how and when you plan and you execute those decisions?"

It sounds so simple, doesn't it? Almost a blinding flash of the obvious. Yet in this separation lives a profound liberation.

When Empathy Becomes Avoidance

Recently, I witnessed this principle unfold in real time with a founder client I've been working with.

This founder had hired a COO about 18 months ago – someone who had left a comfortable corporate job, taken a significant pay cut, and rearranged their entire life to join the founder's mission. The first year was what you'd expect: firefighting, establishing systems, weathering chaos.

But as month 15 rolled into month 18, something wasn't clicking. The metrics weren't moving. The promised relief wasn't materializing. The founder's frustration was growing quietly beneath a veneer of patience and understanding.

When I gently asked, "Is this relationship working for you?" the founder's first answer revealed everything:

"No, but..."

No, but we haven't gotten the traction we need yet.

No, but he's still having to work on the minutia.

No, but he believes in what we're doing here and took a huge leap.

The "but" was doing heavy lifting – carrying all the empathy, all the hope, and yes, all the avoidance too.

As the founder's coach, I recognized this moment not as the time to push, but as the first flicker of intuition breaking through. This knowing needed space to breathe, to grow stronger, to become undeniable.

The Courage to Know

Months passed. The metrics didn't improve, but something else did – the founder's relationship with their own inner knowing.

When I asked again, "Is this relationship working for you?" the answer had transformed:

"No."

Simple. Clear. Unadorned by justifications or hopes or fears.

The founder had finally allowed themselves to hear their own truth, to trust what they already knew. The liberation in that moment was palpable.

But what came next showed even deeper wisdom.

When I asked, "Is this something you want to plan on changing now?" the founder replied, "No, I don't have the capacity to make a change of this magnitude right now."

I felt a surge of pride witnessing this moment. This wasn't avoidance anymore. This was self-awareness in its purest form – acknowledging the truth while also honoring their current capacity. It wasn't empathy getting in the way; it was self-knowledge and self-worth guiding the timing.

The Gift of Separation

This is the magic that happens when we separate decision from execution:

1. We allow ourselves to know what we know

2. We release the pressure to act immediately

3. We create space for strategic timing rather than reactive impulse

When we tangle these elements together – when knowing something must also mean doing something about it right now – we often choose not to know at all. We keep the truth at bay because the implications feel too heavy, too immediate.

But what if you gave yourself permission to know without the immediate burden of doing? What if you trusted yourself enough to hold that knowing until the timing and circumstances align for action?

A Practice of Trust

I believe this separation is ultimately about trust – trusting yourself to know, and trusting yourself to act when the time is right. Trusting that you can handle whatever comes from your decisions, whenever you choose to implement them.

Your internal navigation system is always working. Always guiding. Always knowing. The question isn't whether you have intuition – it's whether you're creating the conditions for it to be heard.

Today, I invite you to practice this separation. Allow yourself to know something true without immediately yoking that knowledge to action. Feel the freedom in that space. Trust that when the time comes to move, you'll know that too.

The path to decisive leadership – and a decisive life – might not be about making decisions faster. It might be about letting yourself know sooner, and trusting that the how and when will reveal themselves in perfect time.

What truth are you keeping at bay because you're not ready for its implications? What might change if you allowed yourself to know now and act later?

The space between knowing and doing isn't empty. It's where wisdom grows.