Maybe you’re standing at a crossroads. A new chapter is opening, or you’re in the middle of a major transition, and you catch yourself thinking, “I don’t recognize myself in my own life anymore. There has to be something more.”
I know that feeling. I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting on my own next chapter, and I’ve been doubting myself too. What I discovered surprised me, and I want to share it with you, because it may be the place you start as well.
Watch the video below, then keep reading for the one question I want you to sit with this week.
What If the Answers Are Already Within You?
After I retired, I felt a pull to step back into work I have loved for decades: helping women find their way through transition and change so they can live fully. The pull kept getting stronger. It was exciting, and it also stirred up doubt. Could I really do this again? Would women even care? Where would I even start?
Maybe something is pulling at you too. Something you used to love. Something you haven’t done in years. Or maybe you don’t know what it is yet. You just know there is something more, and the doubt comes right along with it. Can I really do this? Is it too late? What will people think?
Sometimes You Find the Way Forward by Looking Back
Instead of looking ahead for answers, I started looking back. I was out walking one day and found myself thinking about a time when I felt truly fulfilled, doing work that mattered and felt on purpose.
That memory led me back to my first book, How Ordinary Women Create Extraordinary Change, which I wrote 23 years ago and hadn’t opened in forever. As I read through it, I was stunned. It was all there. The work I feel pulled toward today, reconnecting, rekindling and reimagining, I was doing with women more than twenty years ago. I just didn’t call it that.
When I connected the dots, I could see a thread running through decades of my life. It wasn’t about recreating what I had back then. It was about recognizing what made me feel so alive while I was living it.
When Did You Last Feel Most Alive?
So let me bring this back to you. Think of a time in your life when you felt most alive, happy, fulfilled and on purpose. What were you doing?
Maybe you were painting, travelling or learning something new. Maybe you were leading a group, helping in your community, or sitting around a table laughing with your girlfriends. Maybe you were there for a friend who was sick or grieving.
Then go one step further and ask how you felt. Creative? Connected? Curious? Useful? Peaceful? Like you were growing and contributing? Like yourself? Those feelings are the dots I want you to start paying attention to.
Reconnect, Rekindle, Reimagine
You don’t have to recreate that chapter of your life. I don’t need to go back to what I was doing 23 years ago. But I can reconnect to the parts of that experience that made me feel alive, and so can you.
- Reconnect with that part of yourself. The woman who loved to paint, to travel, to learn, to lead, or simply to have time to herself. Your life may look different now, but she is still there.
- Rekindle one small thing. Pick up a paintbrush. Call the girlfriend you haven’t seen in far too long. Look into that dance or language class. Give yourself an afternoon with a cup of tea and a good book. Keep it small.
- Reimagine what it could look like now. Not the life you had ten or twenty years ago. What could creativity, adventure, connection or play look like at this stage of your life?
Going back and connecting those dots gave me reassurance. It helped me trust my own voice and my own heart again. I still don’t know exactly what this next chapter will look like, but I am curious. That curiosity is giving me the courage to take the next step, compassion for myself as I figure it out, and the freedom to choose. You get to choose too.
Your Invitation This Week
Take ten minutes. Go for a walk or a drive, or sit outside with your coffee, somewhere you can be alone with your thoughts. Ask yourself: when did I last feel most alive, happy, fulfilled and on purpose?
Don’t force the answer. Just listen. And when something comes up, don’t dismiss it. Get curious. That piece of yourself you’ve been missing may not be gone at all. She may have been there all along, waiting for you to reconnect with her.
If you’re finding your way through your own next chapter, subscribe to At the Heart of It All with Pierrette on YouTube and stay with me. We’ll reconnect, rekindle and reimagine what’s possible, together.
