I recently came across a line that stopped me in my tracks “It’s a year where growth comes from motion, not mastery.” And for reasons both cosmic and deeply personal, it landed.

As a Rat entering a Horse year apparently I’m astrologically predisposed to this lesson. Rats are planners. We observe. We gather data. We like a blueprint, a contingency plan, and ideally a backup plan for the backup plan. Horses, on the other hand, are about movement. Momentum. Go. Now. Figure it out later. This is not my default setting.

And yet.

If I’m honest, the biggest shifts in my life have never come from mastery. They came from motion. From trusting my gut before I could fully explain myself. From taking the step even when the spreadsheet was incomplete and the outcome undefined. From saying yes and then building the parachute on the way down.

My gut, by the way, is usually spot on. I don’t always listen to it immediately. I like to interrogate it, question it, ask for references but it has an excellent track record. When I’ve ignored it, I’ve paid in time, energy, and unnecessary detours. When I’ve trusted it, things have aligned in ways that felt almost inevitable.

This year feels like an invitation to stop polishing and start moving. Not recklessly. Not impulsively. But smart forward motion. The kind that honors intuition as data. The kind that understands that clarity often comes after action, not before. The kind that accepts that you don’t need to master the terrain to begin the journey.

There’s something freeing about that. About loosening the grip on perfection. About allowing momentum to teach you what overthinking never could. About recognizing that wisdom doesn’t always look like stillness. It sometimes looks like walking, adjusting, recalibrating mid-stride.

So as a Rat in a Horse year, I’m choosing motion. Trusting my instincts. Letting curiosity outrun caution just enough. Moving forward with intention, not fear. I don’t need to have it all figured out. I just need to keep going.

After all, mastery is overrated if it keeps you standing still. And I’ve learned enough to know when it’s time to move.