In this episode of Surfing Your Edge, Kristine explores what it really means to step into your agency; not by pretending you have unlimited control, but by getting curious about the possibilities available to you.

Whether you’re navigating a career change, approaching retirement, adjusting to a new season of life, or feeling constrained by circumstances beyond your control, Kristine challenges you to question what you’ve accepted as inevitable. She shares how small, meaningful actions can strengthen your sense of agency, open doors to new opportunities, and move you toward a bigger, bolder, badassier life.

Because agency isn’t just about creating the life you want, it’s also about choosing how you show up, the impact you have on others, and the legacy you want to leave behind.

The Shift Beneath the Words:

• Agency is about recognizing your choices, not having unlimited control.
• Curiosity helps you uncover possibilities.
• Agency means choosing your next move.
• Small actions strengthen your sense of agency.
• Using your agency can create an impact beyond your own life.

As you make courageous choices and become a fuller expression of yourself, you can inspire others, contribute to the world around you, and begin building the legacy you want to leave.

About the Host:

Kristine Goad is endlessly curious about the moment when “I could never” becomes “What if I tried?” As the Surfing Your Edge Coach, her work centers on transforming our relationship with fear, trusting ourselves more deeply, and creating lives that feel bigger, bolder, and more fully our own. Her approach blends coaching, mental fitness, adventure, experimentation, and wonder—shaped by a life that has included bicycling across America, writing a memoir, building a business, and taking surf lessons to overcome her fear of open water in her late 40s. She is less interested in fearless living than in what becomes possible when we get curious about the things that scare us.

Connect with Kristine:

Substack: kristine.substack.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/kristinegoad

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kristinegoad

Instagram: www.instagram.com/kristine.goad

YouTube: www.youtube.com/@KristineGoad

Website: kristinegoad.com

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Your travels have brought you to the Surfing

Your Edge podcast, where we explore what it

takes to create the bigger, bolder, badass life

you know you were born for.

Not a life that simply looks good on

paper, and not another spin on the self

-help hamster wheel.

If you're ready for more joy, more peace,

and more contribution, you're in the right place.

I'm Kristine Goad, the Surfing Your Edge coach.

Let's get surfing!

Agency isn't pretending you have unlimited choices.

It's recognizing that you probably have more options

than you can see right now, and getting

curious about what they might be.

I'm Kristine, and I am the Surfing Your

Edge coach, and I am all about agency.

The reason I'm here is to help people

live the bigger, bolder, badass lives they know

they were born for, and in order to

do that, we have to learn to step

into our agency, which probably also means we

have to learn to find opportunities that may

not come to the surface immediately, right?

And then, here's the sneaky part, I don't

know if I've said this already in the

podcast or not, it might be a big

reveal, the sneaky part of agency for me

is that once you start living that bigger,

bolder, badass life you know you were born

for, I'm hoping you will also use your

agency to leave a legacy and to start

stepping into the world in a bigger way

and really thinking about how you can make

the world a better place.

You may not have any clue how you're

going to do it now, and that's totally

fine, but I think it's completely possible.

So this episode is for you if you

are looking at the current economic and political

climate and thinking, now is not a great

time to stick your head up and start

going for that big dream.

If you're thinking that now is a better

time to wait it out and see what

happens, I hear you, but this episode is

going to hopefully shake you loose from that

a little bit.

It's also for you if you're thinking about

changing careers, if you're a new empty nester

and trying to figure out what life looks

like from this vantage point, if you're considering

retirement or if retirement is looming and you

know you're not ready for the rocking chair

and the remote and you know there's more

for you to experience and enjoy and contribute

to the world, then this is a conversation

I want to have with you.

So let's get started.

We're going to talk today about how to

find your agency, step into your agency, use

your agency, and I can't wait.

Okay, so if you're feeling constrained and you

don't know what options are available to you

or you're feeling there are no options available

to you, right?

I would love it if you would start

by noticing where you're treating things as if

they're inevitable.

Where are you hearing yourself say, this is

just how my job is, this is just

how life is.

I'm too old to start over, my partner

would never go for that, I can't afford

it, I don't have enough time, the world

is such a mess, what difference could I

possibly make, right?

If you're hearing yourself say any of those

things, chances are you're giving away your agency.

Some of those constraints are absolutely real, but

the constraint and the conclusion we draw from

it are not always the same thing.

This could be your opportunity to really begin

to understand that agency is not having unlimited

choices.

It's about getting curious about the choices you

actually do have, right?

That is the very first thing we said

at the top of this podcast and I

want to say it again.

Curiosity is the skill that helps you unlock

your agency.

So a useful question to ask yourself now

might be, what have I decided is fixed

that might actually not be fixed, right?

What could change and what is not really

as it seems?

The second thing I'd like you to consider

is that agency is not control, it's choosing

your move.

A lot of times we think because we

don't get to decide all of the factors

of a situation that that means we have

no ability to move and usually that is

not the case, right?

Agency lives in the space of given what

is true right now, what do I want

to do next?

And the point I should make here is

that you don't have to know all of

the steps.

You just have to see one little opening,

right?

There probably are several, but if you notice

one and you act on that one opening,

once you get through that door, chances are

another opportunity will open to you as well.

So you don't have to see the whole

path from here to there in order to

take that first move.

You can just step into it now and

trust that the next step will appear.

So the true skill here is to learn

to read what's happening, to make choices, to

adjust based on what happens when you make

that first move and respond, right?

To respond to what comes up.

So it may feel like you're in a

box, but I would imagine there's probably a

way out and maybe you haven't seen it

yet.

The third thing I'd like you to consider

is that agency grows when you use it.

We don't usually reclaim agency by making one

enormous life-changing decision.

We reclaim it through small acts that remind

us we can affect what happens next, right?

You can send the email, you can ask

the question, you can say no, you can

apply for the job or the opportunity, you

can try the class, you can make an

appointment, you can write the first page or

the first paragraph, right?

You can tell someone what you want.

You can take one meaningful step towards something

you care about.

So again, we come back to the fact

that it takes just one step.

And when you get used to taking that

one step and looking around and seeing what

else is available, it's easier to take the

next step.

Every time you take an action that says,

I have some say in what happens next,

you strengthen your sense of agency.

And this is where the sneaky part comes

in, because agency isn't only about creating the

life you want, it's also about how you

participate in creating the world you want to

live in.

We don't have to solve everything.

We can choose something we care about and

make our move.

So you may have heard me say this

already, but I really believe that we are

on this planet to become the fullest expression

of ourselves, right?

And that means learning to find your agency,

learning to see opportunities, learning to have the

courage to step into them and getting closer

and closer to living that life you know

you were born for.

And as you get better at making the

right choices in your life, you're going to

impact the people around you.

They're going to benefit from the choices you're

making.

They're also going to be inspired by the

choices you're making.

And you'll also feel inspired, I hope, to

start making choices that make the world a

better place, that leave the legacy you might

really want to leave.

And you may, again, have no clue what

that looks like, what that might feel like,

but it's out there for you.

And if you're curious and you're courageous and

you're willing to take one step at a

time, you really can lean into leaving the

legacy that you are meant to leave.

I know it can be a challenge to

know where to look to find opportunities and

find the courage to step into your own

agency, especially if you've had voices in your

head or in the world or both telling

you for a very long time that this

is the box you belong in, this is

the lane you belong in, don't rock the

boat, right?

The rest of us all agree that this

is how the world works.

You need to get on board.

If those are the kinds of voices you're

hearing, it can be a real challenge to

find your own agency on your own.

And sometimes you need someone else to step

in, right?

There's the saying you can't read the label

on your own bottle.

So in that case, you might need a

friend or a coach or me.

I host regular possibility parties, and I will

leave information about how to get in touch

with me about that in the show notes.

So what we've talked about so far today

is that step number one is notice where

you have surrendered your choice, right?

Where might there be opportunities that you're not

looking for because you assume something is true?

Two, distinguish control from agency.

You can't always control all of the situation,

but you can make choices about where and

how you move.

And third, practice agency through small, regular, meaningful

action.

The more agency you step into, the more

agency becomes available for you.

And the better your life gets, the better

the life of everyone around you gets, and

the more you're able to contribute to making

the world the kind of world you want

to live in.

So final questions for you.

What have I been treating as inevitable?

Where might there be an option I haven't

seen yet?

And what could happen if I got curious

enough to look for it?

What I really want you to remember about

today's conversation is that you probably have more

agency, more possibility than you're aware of.

And I hope you take a few moments

today, tomorrow, next week, to keep considering where

those options are and where they might take

you.