🌿 Permission to Be a Beginner

Why Growth Feels Awkward — and Why It’s Still Worth It

When I first started creating the Home Compass system, I didn’t have a team or fancy tools. I had a pen. I had some paper. And I had a retreat coming up — the first time I’d ever present this work out loud.

I tried to learn InDesign, but I didn’t have the time. I didn’t even know Canva existed yet. I had this idea in my heart, and it needed to be born — whether it looked polished or not.

So I wrote the entire workbook by hand. Ten pages. One slow, careful line at a time. If I made a mistake, I started the page over. My hand cramped. My inner critic screamed. But I kept going.

I had ten copies made. I remember thinking, If no one signs up, that’s okay. I’ll just move on. At least I tried.

But something happened at that retreat.

I sold all ten.

That moment — quiet and small and life-altering — is where Home Compass was born. February 2019.

Not with branding. Not with a website. Not with a strategy.
With a pen. A paper. And a choice to try.

🌱 Beginner Energy Is Growth Energy

We love to talk about growth like it’s graceful — like it’s a sunrise moment full of clarity and confidence. But that’s not how it actually feels. Growth usually looks like fumbling around, second-guessing yourself, wondering if you’re doing any of it right.

But being a beginner doesn’t mean you’re behind.
It means you’re becoming.

Michael Jordan missed more than 9,000 shots in his career. He lost nearly 300 games.
He once said:

“I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

IDEO, the design firm behind so many everyday products, encourages its team to fail fast. To try things, break things, and learn through doing — because every “not quite” moment brings you closer to clarity.

And Bob Ross? He practically built a cult following around his calm reassurance that

“There are no mistakes, just happy little accidents.”

We don’t need to be perfect. We need permission to begin.

🍳 The First Pancake Is Always Weird

The first pancake is always a little too pale or too dark. That doesn’t mean you throw away the pan. You just pour another one.

Beginnings are supposed to be messy. Remember:

• Babies fall before they walk.

• Writers delete more than they keep.

• The first version is never the final one.

You’re not doing it wrong. You’re just doing it for the first time.

🪴 The Wood Section: A Home for Beginners

In the Home Compass system, April is our Wood Section month. This section — located in the middle left of your home — holds the energy of growth, curiosity, learning, and the emotional tension that comes with not being where you want to be yet.

If you want to support this energy in your space, try this:

• Place something in your Wood Section that represents a skill you’re learning or want to grow — a book, a tool, a notebook.

• Add something green, earthy, or plant-like to represent life in motion.

• Most importantly, honor your beginnings. I keep my original handwritten guides right there. They remind me how powerful it is to start — even when it feels small.

💚 If You're In the Messy Middle

If you’re just starting something — a project, a new version of yourself, a dream you’re finally brave enough to say out loud — and it’s messy and weird and not quite what you pictured...

Keep going.

You don’t have to get it right.
You just have to stay in motion.
Because every expert you’ve ever admired was once a beginner who didn’t give up.

And somewhere, your future self is holding a stack of beautiful things you haven’t made yet — and saying,

“Thank you for trying.”