How Do We Change Without Losing Ourselves?

For the last few months, I’ve been quieter than usual. Not because I had nothing to say, but because I needed more space to listen. I’ve realized that some of the most important seasons of our lives aren’t the ones where we’re producing the most. They’re the ones where we’re learning, questioning, and allowing ourselves to change before we’re ready to explain exactly where it’s all leading.

Since the spring, much of that learning has happened in unexpected places. Some of it happened in doctors’ offices, reading, asking questions, and trying to better understand what was happening in my body through the hormonal changes of perimenopause and menopause. Some of it happened while spending long hours exploring AI, a subject I’ve been fascinated by for several years, but finally had more space to study in depth. And some of it happened while traveling with my family through Singapore and Borneo.

For a while, those felt like completely separate experiences. The more I’ve reflected on them, the more I realize they were all asking me the same question: How do we adapt in new environments and change without losing ourselves?

I’ve often talked about having the courage to step into something new. It can feel much harder when life is the one initiating it instead of us. We don’t always get to choose when our bodies change, when technology changes, or when the way we see ourselves and the world begins to change. Sometimes all we get to choose is whether we stay curious, whether we resist what is happening, or whether we soften enough to learn from it.

My curiosity around AI didn’t begin this summer. It has been growing steadily for several years. What changed these past few months was that I finally had the gift of time, time to explore, experiment, read, ask better questions, and begin connecting ideas I hadn’t fully seen before. The more I learned, the more I realized this wasn’t simply about technology. It was about how we think, learn, create, work, and relate to one another.

If you’ve been listening to the podcast, you already know AI has become one of my favorite subjects to explore, not because I’m interested in technology for technology’s sake, but because I’m fascinated by how it is affecting our everyday lives and what it may ask of us as human beings. If you’re curious about the topic, I’ve spoken about it in several episodes of The Courage to Be podcast and you can listen to one of them here.

At the same time, I was learning a very different lesson through my own body. Over the last few months, I’ve made a deeper commitment to my body, mind, and spirit. That has included doctor visits and learning more about hormonal changes, but it has also meant more tailored exercise, paying closer attention to how I nourish myself, and thinking differently about what my body needs in this stage of my life.

The older I get, the more I realize that investing in my health isn’t taking time away from my work. It is making all of my future work possible.

Then came our trip. After living in Bali for almost a year, arriving in Singapore felt like stepping into the future. It was vibrant, innovative, beautifully designed, efficient, and constantly moving. After ten months in Bali, the contrast was striking. Then, just a few days later, we found ourselves in the jungles of Borneo, surrounded by one of the oldest rainforests on earth, watching orangutans and all types of monkeys and animals move through the trees.

One place seemed to reflect where humanity is heading. The other reminded me where we have come from. What struck me wasn’t that one was better than the other, but how deeply I appreciated both. Singapore reminded me how quickly our world is changing. Borneo reminded me that nature has always adapted, evolved, and regenerated. Somewhere between those two very different places, I found myself wondering how we embrace the future without losing our humanity, how we continue learning without forgetting to slow down, and how we welcome what’s next while remaining connected to what matters most.

I don’t think this is something we ever master. Every new season asks something different of us. Sometimes it asks us to be brave enough to leap. Other times it asks us to surrender, to trust, and to become beginners again.

In a couple of weeks, my daughter heads back to school, and I feel that same sense of beginning in my own life. Not because everything is figured out, but because I feel curious again, energized again, and ready to create again.

Over the coming months, I’ll be sharing much more of what I’m learning, from AI and the future of work, to navigating life with greater intention, to the lessons I’m discovering about health, reinvention, connection, and what it means to keep growing through every stage of life.

I don’t know exactly where this next chapter will lead, and honestly, that’s part of what makes it exciting. What I do know is that the conversations I want to have are becoming deeper, more human, and more connected than ever before.

If you’ve found yourself in a season of transition, whether it’s in your work, your health, your relationships, or simply in the way you’re seeing the world, I hope you’ll come along. I have a feeling we’re going to learn a lot together.

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