Choose What You Actually Want
What if the thing keeping you stuck isn't a lack of discipline, motivation, or productivity—but simply that you haven't decided what you actually want yet?
In this episode of Congruent, Jaden Hummel explores the idea of priority motivation: the understanding that whatever matters most to you will ultimately shape the choices you make.
We can have competing desires at the same time. One part of us wants to grow, expand, make more money, build a bigger business, or put ourselves out there. Another part wants safety, comfort, stability, or simply to keep things exactly as they are.
The problem isn't necessarily having both desires. It's staying caught between them.
Jaden shares how she experienced this tension in her own business—first choosing to focus on strengthening the foundation and allowing the business to grow gradually while she prioritized personal growth, and later intentionally choosing bigger collaborations and expansion. The difference was not that one season was more ambitious than the other. It was that she was choosing what she actually wanted in each season.
She also explores why getting honest about your priorities can eliminate so much of the guilt and frustration we experience when our actions don't match our desires.
Because you don't have to want to 10X your income. You don't have to want to be on a bigger stage. You don't have to constantly be expanding.
You just have to be honest about what you want—and then let that choice guide your actions.
In this episode, Jaden talks about:
- What ambivalence is and why competing desires can keep us stuck
- How your primary motivation shapes what you actually do
- The tension between safety and expansion
- Why we sometimes want a bigger life while simultaneously wanting to stay comfortable
- How to stop feeling guilty about not pursuing something you aren't actually choosing right now
- Jaden's own experience of intentionally prioritizing personal growth over rapid business expansion
- Why your priorities can change from one season of life to another
- The importance of choosing rather than constantly questioning your choices
- Using your deeper vision as a North Star for decision-making
- Why congruence isn't always about doing more—it can also mean choosing rest, saying no, or staying exactly where you are
- How to recognize whether your current choices actually reflect what you want
The question to take with you this week:
What is the most important thing you're working toward right now?
Do you want safety and stability? Do you want rest and enjoyment? Do you want growth and expansion?
There isn't a right answer. The invitation is simply to choose honestly—and then stand behind that choice.
Work with Jaden Hummel
Join Open Field, the ongoing coaching advisory for soul-led founders
https://www.jadenhummel.com/open-field-coaching
Follow Jaden on IG
https://www.instagram.com/jadenbhummel/
