Ted Lasso Season 4, Episode 8 got me talking to the TV—and then to Travis during our entire evening walk.
Because this episode was about COURAGE. Not the big, cinematic kind. The quiet, terrifying kind where you choose the scary thing over the easy thing.
Roy knows he wants Keeley back. He tells everyone except Keeley. When he asks Ted about the right moment, Ted offers one of his gloriously weird dad-isms ("where's the bathroom?"), which basically means: wherever you are, THAT is the moment. Stop waiting. Go.
Then there's Gemma. She hurts her knee, waits for an MRI, and suddenly the law internship seems much safer than football. Alice storms out at first, but she's been the injured player before. She knows how it feels to watch the team move on without you. So she returns and tells Gemma the truth: you light up on that pitch.
On the other side of fear is freedom.
Have you noticed how often we just follow the path we're already on?
It reminded me of the movie Labyrinth, when Sarah falls into the Helping Hands, and they ask which way she wants to go. She's already facing down, so she chooses down. That's most of us, most of the time. Inertia disguised as a decision.
This one hit home. I spent years in finance. I was good at it. I was never super passionate about it. This year I pivoted into an HRBP role, which looks like a step back on paper. But I chose "courageous authenticity" as my theme for 2026, and that phrase became the drumbeat that got me here. Some days of this transition make me second-guess everything. But I'd still rather second-guess a choice I made on purpose than coast down a path I never deliberately chose.
The other thread in this episode? People need to know they matter. Alice tells Rebecca that Gemma needs to feel that she matters from the bottom up.
We're living this at work right now. Next week is Employee Appreciation Week, and we changed how we celebrate service anniversaries. We used to host a luncheon where honorees walked across a stage, and their teams were never invited. Folks told us that's not what they wanted. They wanted to be celebrated by the people they work beside every day. So next Tuesday, every team celebrates their own people, together. We have SIX people celebrating 40 years with the company, and so many more at 30, 25, and 20. They deserve to be celebrated by the teammates who helped them get there.
Courage to choose. Courage to tell people they matter. Maybe they're the same courage.
So I'm curious: what's the "easy direction" you've been pointed in, and what would it take to pivot?