I'm staying with friends whose older dog resource guards. We kept the food and toys put away, and he was still growling at my dog over nothing.

So I read about it late into the night and learned there's a third thing dogs guard: closeness. The person they love. And I recognized it, because I've felt that same quiet math start up at a dinner table when an old friend of mine pulled up a chair for a newer one.

This is an episode about why we keep score with the people we love, and what the fear is actually telling us.

Question to carry into your day:
Where are you keeping score, as if there isn't enough love to go around?

Want to work together? Me too! Book a discovery call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall

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An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

I spent five days with my godkids, which I love. And I came home steady, present, and not crashed. That had never happened before.

The difference? I included myself in the circle of care before I left.

This episode is about the line between caretaking and overgiving, why what we call love is sometimes just fear, and why your steadiness is actually your greatest act of generosity.

Question to carry into your day:
Where in your life are you overgiving in the name of love, and what would it look like to include yourself in that same circle of care?

Ready to do this work with real support? Book a strategy call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall-organic

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An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

I hadn't been on a date in seven months, and those were good months. I wasn't hiding, I just wasn't called to it. Then, packing for a few weeks in the mountains, a quiet thought arrived: maybe I could date a little there.

See what I'm even like dating as this person, because I've done a lot of work and I'm not who I once was. So I did some love cardio.

Three hours, a wonderful man who lives a few states away, no expectations at all. And I called my friend from the car and said, this guy is an omen. The good things are coming for me, I can feel it. It wasn't the whole meal. It was a foretaste.

Today's reading is from The Game of Life and How to Play It by Florence Scovel Shinn, on the "signs of land" that always arrive before the thing you're waiting for.

This is an episode about why we refuse to practice the things we most want to be good at, and how to recognize a taste of what's coming when it shows up.

Question to carry into your day:
What have you been calling nothing that might actually be a taste of what's coming?

Want to work together? Me too! Book a discovery call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall

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An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

For years I've told the same story about the three years I lived in Charlotte. Beautiful chapter, met my spiritual advisor, never really made friends, easy to leave. Then last weekend I went back and walked into the women's group I'd attended every Saturday for three years, and the whole room lit up.

Hugs, my face in people's hands, tell us everything. And I realized the story wasn't true. It was a leaving story, the shrunken version we write so a goodbye won't take us down with it.

Today's reading is from The Game of Life and How to Play It by Florence Scovel Shinn, about a woman who talked herself into a trunk.

This is an episode about the stories we tell to make leaving easier, and what happens when you go back and let the evidence get a vote.

Question to carry into your day:
What are you remembering as smaller than it really was, so it would be easier to leave behind?

Want to work together? Me too!!! Book a discovery call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall

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An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

This one is personal. I've struggled with eating disorders my whole life, and for a long time, my body and I were not friends.

A hip injury, a treadmill class, and a moment of choosing to stop instead of push through taught me something I didn't expect: sometimes growth looks like slowing down.

This episode is about what it really means to honor your body, not the fantasy of what you want it to be, but what it actually is right now.

Question to carry into your day:
Where in your life could you choose to honor your body instead of trying to prove something?

Ready to do this work with real support? Book a strategy call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall-organic

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An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

My teacher said something at the end of the retreat that knocked me sideways. What I wasn't expecting was what came out of me when it did. This episode is about the last day in Lourdes, a hard conversation, and the moment I realized my healing had gotten strong enough to hold its ground in the hardest room.

There's a passage in Consolations about disappointment that I keep returning to. It says that to be disappointed is to be called to a foundational reality that lies beyond any false self we had only projected onto the outer world. And that what we call disappointment may be just the first stage in our emancipation into the next greater pattern of existence.

This is an episode about what it means to finally see someone you love as fully human, and what becomes available when you do.

Question to carry into your day:
What are you afraid you would lose if the person you've put on a pedestal turned out to be human?

Ready to do this work with real support? Book a discovery call: https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall

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An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

I was watching Shrinking when Harrison Ford's character stopped me cold. One line. I paused the show and said out loud: that's the episode.

If you're spinning on a decision right now, going back and forth until you've exhausted yourself and still don't have an answer, this one is for you.

We're talking about why worry is not a form of preparation, and what it actually takes to get out of the spin cycle and into motion.

Question to carry into your day:
What decision are you spinning on that you actually already know the answer to?

Ready to do this work with real support? Book a strategy call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall-organic

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An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

My social media coach kept saying she couldn't guarantee results. After the third time, I stopped her and said she never had to say that to me again. What I told her next surprised even me — and it's what today's episode is about.

The Awakened Heart says it like this: "Love should come first; it should be the beginning of and the reason for everything. Efficiency should be how love expresses its why. For love to reign over all service."

This is an episode about the difference between doing something to get results and doing something because you genuinely want to give something — and what changes when you finally know which one you're doing.

Question to carry into your day:
What are you doing from love right now, and where has the pursuit of results quietly replaced the reason you started?

Ready to do this work with real support? Book a discovery call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall-organic

Let's Stay Connected:

• Subscribe on YouTube
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• Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront

An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast