PART 6: How to Move Forward When You Feel Stuck: Simplex Stepping

What is simplex stepping?

Simplex stepping is Jim Collins's answer to the hardest question in the fog: how do you move when you cannot see where you are going? His answer is almost stubbornly simple. Take the next best step you can see. Not a leap, not a five-year plan, one small sensible step. Then look again, and take the next one. That is the whole method, and its power is in how little it asks of you. This chapter is for both of you. The woman whose cliff has already arrived, standing in the fog, wondering which way is forward. And the woman, still in her role, still collecting the paycheque, has quietly started asking what comes next. The method is the same for both. Only the starting point differs.

Why you do NOT need a master plan

Most of us freeze in the fog because we think we owe ourselves a destination before we are allowed to move. We do not. Waiting until you can see the whole path is how years quietly disappear. Simplex stepping gives you permission to act before you have the answer, which is the only kind of permission available when you are genuinely lost. You are not committing to a life. You are taking a step. The next one will look clearer once you have taken this one.

Why does moving beat standing still?

Here is the part I want to emphasize. The fog does not clear because you hoped hard enough at it. Hope is not a strategy. As one of my favourite podcasters, Mel Robbins, puts it, no one is coming to save you, and while that sounds harsh, it is actually one of the most freeing sentences there is, because it hands the pen back to you. Standing still keeps you in the fog. Small, repeated movement is what carries you out of it.

How do small steps lead to clarity?

Something surprising happens when you keep stepping. Clarity shows up. Not as a lightning bolt, but as a slow lifting, until one day you can see further than you could before. Collins found that simplex stepping tends to lead to a point of breakthrough, a clearer sense of direction, of purpose, and often of your hedgehog, the work you are built for that feeds your inner fire rather than only paying the bills. You do not think your way to that clarity while sitting still. You walk into it.

Can you preclear the fog before the cliff?

This one is for the woman who can feel a cliff coming. Maybe the role is fine, but the fire is gone. Maybe the reorg rumours have started. Maybe retirement is close and unplanned. If you sense the ground shifting, you do not have to wait for it to give way. Collins calls it preclearing: taking small steps now, before the cliff, so that when it arrives, the fog is thinner and the road from cliff to clarity is shorter. It will not make the cliff painless. It will make it faster to move through. Being proactive is a quiet superpower here.

For the Swan Chapter reader, preclearing often looks like learning ahead of the curve. It is one of the most concrete small steps there is: an hour a week inside a program that stretches you in a new direction, while the current chapter is still paying the bills. A few I have curated for exactly this moment:

Becoming You, Suzy Welch's course, is built around finding the work that fits who you actually are. I did a short review of the book here: and it is my plan this year to go take the 3-Day Intensive at NYU. More to come in the Do section soon.

B School, Marie Forleo's program for women who suspect their next chapter might be something they build rather than something they apply for. I completed this stellar program last year, and I am redoing it with the intent of having a full review ready for you when doors open again in Fall 2026.

None of these requires you to know your destination first. Each one is a simplex step you can take while the ground is still under you.

The woman who never stopped being a beginner

Katharine Graham, who led The Washington Post through some of its most consequential years, is one of the lives in this book, and what I love about her is that no matter how powerful she became, she kept the posture of a learner. That learning mindset is the whole heart of The Swan Chapter, and it is the engine of simplex stepping. Her memoir, Personal History, is one of the finest accounts of finding your footing later than you planned. If you want a companion read while you take your own small steps, that one, and Atomic Habits by James Clear, which is simplex stepping in book form, are two I return to.

Your first, next small step

You probably already know what your next small step could be. You have likely known for a while. It does not have to be brave or big. It has to be next. Take that one, then let the following one show itself.

And if you want a shortlist of places to start, the Resources section of the Swan Chapter resources was built for exactly this: small, concrete steps you can take this week, whether your cliff has already arrived or you are quietly preclearing the fog.

When you are ready, meet me in Part 7, where we turn from how you move to where you are trying to go, and the thing you are quietly built for.

Quick answers

What is simplex stepping?

It is taking the next small, sensible step you can see, then reassessing and taking another, instead of waiting for a full plan. Over time, the steps carry you out of the fog.

How do I move forward when I feel stuck?

Stop trying to see the whole path. Choose one small step you can take this week, take it, then let the next step reveal itself. Movement creates clarity, not the other way around.

What does it mean to preclear the fog?

If you sense a cliff coming, such as a likely layoff, a role that no longer fits, or an approaching retirement that needs more planning, you take small steps now. It shortens the disorientation later.

Is simplex stepping just small habits?

It shares its DNA with the small-steps idea in Atomic Habits, applied to the biggest turning points of a life rather than to daily routines.