What do you do, when you don't know what to do? Look Up!
This article was first written in August 2021. I dusted it off ahead of the upcoming Street Wisdom on 18th September 2026 at 2pm in Poole, and believe it is all still fully relevant.
What do you do when you are stuck?
An old manager once described resilient people as those who “know what to do when they don’t know what to do”. It took me years to make sense of that.
It is not about having a secret answer tucked away somewhere. It is recognising the moment when your usual thinking has run out of road. Staying with the discomfort. Finding a way to find out.
For me, that often means talking to someone. Coaches need coaches too.
It also means moving.
Not necessarily towards a solution. Just physically moving from the chair, the screen, the same four walls where the problem has become so familiar it has started to feel permanent. A different route. A windy seafront. A pavement you have never bothered with before. The body changes pace; the mind gets the message.
Street Wisdom offers one structured way to do this. You take a question for a walk. Not a question with a neat factual answer, but something alive: What needs my attention? What am I avoiding? What is ready to grow?
Street Wisdom 'Walkshops' use wandering, noticing, slowing down and reflection to help people find fresh perspective.
An example on 'perspectives' from my MOT4U would be; sitting in a vehicle, and observing the view from every single vantage point. The windscreen, wing mirrors, rear view mirror, perhaps the sunroof? As well as the windows; front and back. Maybe even getting out and walking a 360. What more do you see?
The last time I did a Street Wisdom, I found myself pulled towards building work — scaffolding, fences, things under construction — while also wanting quiet and open space. It was enough. I did not need a grand revelation. Those things showed me that I needed permission to let the things I am building have room, and to stop measuring them against everyone else’s finished-looking lives.
Later, I noticed patterns everywhere. Pairs. Lines. Matching objects. My mind began trying too hard to make them mean something. So I stopped hunting. The answer arrived in the stopping: not everything needs to fit into a system before it can be allowed to exist.
Then came the slow walk. Properly slow. Tiny steps. The world suddenly looked frantic. People hurrying past, even the ones who appeared to be wandering. And yet there were others simply moving along, not lost, not certain, just in motion.
A flower growing through a crack in the pavement caught my eye. Small. Unremarkable until it had my full attention. That was another answer.
Not every valuable thing announces itself. Some things need space before they can be seen.
At the end of the walk, I sat on a bench and spoke with a stranger who asked me what I was doing that day. During the conversation, he said ‘there is no manual for life’. I use this phrase regularly, and until re-writing this article, had forgotten where it came from. We build our own manual as we go, borrowing a page from someone else now and then, tearing out the bits that no longer fit. A reminder of just how powerful these unusual Walkshops' can be.
If you can't make an event, when you feel stuck, try one of these:
- Walk somewhere unfamiliar without listening to anything.
- Write down the precise question you are carrying.
- Ask: If this feeling were a landscape, what would it look like?
- Give yourself permission to generate ridiculous options before choosing a workable one.
- Call someone who will help you think, rather than tell you what to do.
Though I hope I have convinced you to join a Street Wisdom Walkshop, in person or online, and see what happens when you let the ordinary world interrupt your usual thinking. BOOK HERE! And if you are not local to Poole, Friday 18th September 2026 is part of this years World Wide Wander - you are sure to find an event near you!
The answer may not be waiting in your inbox.
It may be stuck to a lamppost, growing through a crack, or sitting quietly at the other end of a bench.
What is the one question you would take outside with you this September?
Sheela Hobden
www.bluegreencoaching.com
September 2026
Image appreciation to:
Sheela Hobden, taken on a Street Wisdom in Ringwood, Hampshire, UK.
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Contact Sheela Hobden at www.bluegreencoaching.com.