It’s 3:38 pm on Tuesday, May 26. About an hour ago, I wrapped my third interview for the new season of Bold Moves: How Did You Know, and it left me on an absolute high.
This was the longest break I have ever taken between seasons, and every single day of it was intentional. Yes, I needed some rest. But more than that, I spent months reflecting on why you are making bold moves right now, and what you actually need to hear and learn to support you on your path.
The headwinds facing us today, particularly in our professional lives, are incredibly strong. When I sat with the reality of it, the fact that companies are laying off multiple thousands of people at a time, a recent Wall Street Journal article called this “the era of the mega-layoffs.” Honestly, it feels like a collective betrayal.
If you’re in midlife like me, we were raised to believe that if we were high-performing enough and played by the rules, we were safe. But in this new era of contrast, a landscape defined by sudden layoffs, corporate reorgs, and swaths of people being cut from their jobs purely for a financial upside, that old security is revealed as nothing more than an illusion.
Already in 2026, over 300,000 layoffs have been announced in the US. I don’t share that statistic to scare you. My intent is to show you that the external sources we once relied on for stability and security are deeply volatile right now.
But this professional instability doesn't exist in a vacuum; the headwinds are deeply personal, too. We are constantly navigating the relentless caretaker squeeze. We are expected to seamlessly raise children, care for aging parents, and carry the invisible mental load of our households without letting a single ball drop – all while over-performing at work to exceed milestones written by someone else. All of this ends up burning us out, leaving us completely depleted rather than bold and empowered.
This is why I hear many Bold Movers I interview say, “I’ve lost myself.” This friction point eventually becomes the catalyst for their bold move.
So, what if we could view these headwinds as the grounding moment we need to reclaim our own agency? What if this is the exact opportunity we need to find our truest selves and our deepest desires?
Our inner voice is the ultimate anchor for stability. Back when playing by the rules actually delivered on its promises, the ride felt stable and predictable. Today, self-grounding is your only true anchor for the contrast that is bound to come, whether it arrives by choice or by circumstance.
Your internal compass mirrors who you are, what you want, and why you want it. When the rug is pulled from under you, that core remains unshaken. It puts you right back in the driver’s seat of what comes next, letting your curiosity take over and guide you toward entirely new possibilities for your life. Shredding old scripts doesn’t have to trigger an identity crisis. You just need to know what your voice sounds like outside of someone else’s box, whether that box is a corporate hierarchy or a domestic expectation that leaves no room for your own needs, so you can carve a new path on your own terms.
Getting laid off is terrifying. The sudden whiplash of figuring out your finances and next steps is incredibly hard. But once the dust settles, your intuition often reveals a silver lining, guiding you toward a next chapter that is even better. It protects your identity, allowing you to pivot with genuine resilience. You begin to see the setback as a brief moment in the grand scheme of your life, a shift that will eventually leave you stronger.
A close friend of mine recently encapsulated this shift perfectly, telling me:
“Getting laid off changed my worldview. You could be the highest performing person and still be let go.”
If you are feeling a deep misalignment or just the quiet exhaustion of a lifestyle where you are constantly running on empty for everyone else, your gut tells you it’s time to stop performing. Even when the golden handcuffs of a steady paycheck or the heavy guilt of setting boundaries are begging you to stay, your inner wisdom validates your path, showing you that this situation is simply a stepping stone to your fullest potential.
As one of my LinkedIn connections beautifully wrote about their own turning point:
“I left last year. By choice. Not because something blew up. Not because I got pushed out. Because I started thinking differently about what I could build and who I could build for. I wanted more control over my scope, my time, what I could earn, and the life I was actually living. If I stayed, I would continue to hand all of that to someone else.”
These are the exact behind-the-scenes thoughts fueling my early-season conversations. I am talking with Bold Movers who have jumped off the cliff, either by choice or circumstance, and confronted these exact challenges. We are tackling the big questions:
Who am I without this job?
How do I figure out what I really want?
How do I tear up the old scripts, tune into my own voice, and chart my own path?
How do I find the courage to step out of my comfort zone and reinvent myself?
Bold Movers pay close attention to their own inner guidance. It ultimately leads them to become the main character of their own story, which is exactly where they find solid grounding in spite of all the chaos and uncertainty spinning around them.
This season is dedicated to ripping up old scripts, challenging structural norms, and finding the courage to listen to our own voices.
We start the season with a woman who famously declared to the world that at 58, she was finally living her first life. After navigating a series of midlife wake-up calls, including an unexpected corporate layoff and profound personal losses, Colleen | 3rd Act Field Notes stopped performing a life she no longer wanted. Instead, she stepped boldly into her self-proclaimed “selfish era,” creating a life built entirely by her, for her, and about her.
It starts with throwing out all the predefined rules that tell us who we are and what we’re supposed to do.
I cannot wait for you to hear Colleen’s no-bullshit attitude about running as quickly as possible to your truest self. Together, we decoded the exact moment she stopped repeating the patterns that kept her small and started taking the bold micro-actions that create the life she actually wanted.
I have no doubt that Colleen will reaffirm what you already know deep down: putting your own needs first is the ultimate act of personal reclamation.
Watch now, or if you’re on the go, listen to this episode on your favorite podcast app, including Spotify, Apple, Amazon Music, Pandora, and more.
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