08/12/2026
Sons and Daughters Day this year has me thinking about something I don't say out loud very often.
Opening Merkaba Pilates was never really a question of whether I wanted to. I did. FULLY. I had the training, I had twenty-one years of my own practice behind me, I had the vision for the kind of studio I wanted to build. But wanting something and feeling ready for it are two different things, and doubt still crept in along the way, the way it does with anything that matters.
I think we tell ourselves a story that readiness comes first. That we're supposed to feel steady and sure before we take the leap, and if we don't feel that way yet, we must not be ready. In my experience, it rarely works in that order. The readiness comes from doing the thing, not before it.
In the moments when the doubt was loudest, what kept me moving forward wasn't confidence. It was remembering my son and daughter telling me how proud they were of me for doing this.
It's usually the other way around, isn't it. Parents are supposed to be the ones cheering their kids on through hard, uncertain things. Having it flow the other direction, having my own kids be the ones steadying me while I built something new at this stage of my life, was a gift I didn't expect and won't forget.
I think there's something worth showing them in it, too. That change and growth aren't things you age out of. That you can still choose to do hard, uncertain things at any point in your life, whether you feel ready or not, and that doing them anyway is worth it.
So, if you're standing at the edge of something right now, waiting to feel ready before you start, here's what I'd tell you: the readiness might not come first. It might come from the doing. Start anyway and let the people who love you remind you why you started.
To every parent whose kids have shown up for them the way we try to show up for our kids, Happy Sons and Daughters Day.
- Tina
