Leave Room for the Miracle
Reserve strategic space for opportunities you cannot predict yet
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 98%
Leave Room for the Miracle treats unallocated time as strategic capacity rather than planning failure. Begin by mapping known launches, revenue goals, and operational commitments across the year. Instead of inventing enough projects to fill every quarter, protect a defined window for focused creation. Continue gathering customer feedback, performance data, and market signals until the right initiative becomes clearer. When an opportunity emerges, the reserved runway allows the team to research, build, and launch without competing against unnecessary commitments. The mechanism is active preparation under uncertainty: goals and resources remain explicit while the exact project stays open. This reduces diluted focus and gives a promising offer enough attention to become meaningful.
Origin
Jasmine Star adopted the idea during a 2017 mastermind led by James Wedmore. While planning 2018, she could not fill the fourth quarter. Wedmore asked whether she could leave room for magic. She later renamed it leaving room for the miracle and connected the reserved space to focusing on Social Curator, after which the business more than tripled.
Core principles
- 01Not every future initiative can be predicted in advance
- 02Blank space can be a deliberate strategic choice
- 03Focused execution produces clearer results
- 04Faith must be paired with active preparation
How to run it
- 1
Map Known Commitments
Lay out the year by quarter and add confirmed launches, revenue activities, and operational obligations.
Pro tip Use the planning interval that lets you see capacity most clearly; Jasmine preferred three months at a time.
Watch out Do not confuse an ambitious list of projects with a coherent strategy.
- 2
Identify the Unresolved Goal
State the result you want even when you cannot yet specify the project that will produce it.
Pro tip Separate the desired outcome from assumptions about how it must be achieved.
Watch out A blank project window should not mean an undefined business goal.
- 3
Protect a Creative Runway
Reserve a bounded block of time and resources instead of filling the calendar merely to remove uncertainty.
Pro tip Treat the space as a real commitment with protected team capacity.
Watch out Unprotected space will quickly be consumed by reactive work.
- 4
Watch for the Right Signal
Use customer demand, offer performance, and emerging opportunities to decide what deserves the runway.
Pro tip Favor evidence that reinforces a proven business strength.
Watch out Do not chase every new idea that appears.
- 5
Focus the Build
Once the opportunity becomes clear, concentrate messaging, creation, and execution on that priority.
Pro tip Ask what can be removed so the chosen initiative receives disproportionate attention.
Watch out Launching several competing offers recreates the diluted focus the runway was meant to prevent.
In the wild
After launching several programs in 2017, Jasmine entered 2018 with space in the fourth quarter. Rather than forcing another unrelated launch into the plan, the business concentrated on Social Curator, the membership model that best matched her strengths and customer response.
→ The company focused on one offer and more than tripled the business during the year.
Common mistakes
Treating Space as Passive Hope
The framework does not mean crossing your fingers. The open period needs a goal, resources, and an active process for recognizing what to build.
Filling Every Gap
Creating speculative projects merely to complete a calendar removes the capacity that a better opportunity may require.
Dividing the Runway
Using the reserved period for several unrelated offers weakens the concentration that makes the approach valuable.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for entrepreneurs with clear goals but incomplete information about the projects that will achieve them.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal for teams using blank space as an excuse to avoid priorities, budgets, or delivery commitments.
From the transcript
“blocking out a runway to create something.”
“diluted focus gets diluted results.”
“Can I create space for a miracle?”
From the episode
Five Mindset Shifts For Business Growth