Build the future you want to live in.
I know these times aren't the easiest for all of us, but I am an optimist - I see the glass as refillable instead of half-full or half-empty. To brighten up your days, I publish the Regenerate Your World newsletter coming to your inbox on a bi-weekly basis. |
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Sometimes the seasons are unclear, just like the mist around Gooseberry Falls. |
Dear Empowered Reader, I was in my early thirties when I walked away from a career I'd spent years building at the College of St. Scholastica. I was burned out and needed a change. I knew where I wanted to go, which was toward the work that would eventually become Empower Possible. What I remember most clearly isn't the fear of leaving. It's the quiet, growing certainty that the role I was in no longer matched the person doing it. The values that had once fit the work had shifted, and I was still working anyway, and day by day I felt less like myself, waiting for it to change back to the work I knew. However, it never did. It couldn't, because I was the one who had changed. I keep thinking about that moment. Because most of us aren't actually confused about whether change is coming. We're confused about what season we're already standing in.
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Enjoying Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Soaking in summer. |
I'm writing this at the end of August, which always feels like the edge of something bigger. Right now my husband, Chuck, and I are up in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, near Marquette, Lake Superior on one side, the woods on the other. Late summer does something specific up there. It's still warm, but it's already leaning; there is a chill in the air. The light hits the water differently than it did in June. Nothing has technically ended. And yet you can feel the hinge. That's the trouble with seasons, the actual ones and the inner ones. They rarely announce themselves. They just start leaning, and you either notice the tilt or you get caught flat-footed by the frost. Psychologist Daniel Levinson spent years studying exactly this kind of tilt in adult life. His research, built from in-depth interviews and later expanded to include women as well as men, found that adulthood isn't the flat, static stretch we assume it is once childhood ends. It moves through distinct seasons, each with its own structure, and each punctuated by transition periods where a person questions the life they've built and starts reorganizing it. Levinson called the relatively stable periods times for building a life around key choices, and the transitional periods the space where those choices get reexamined. Neither one lines up neatly with a birthday.
Here's what the research adds that Levinson couldn't have measured in the 1970s: your felt age and your actual age are often two different numbers entirely, and the gap matters. Across a wide body of research, most adults report feeling meaningfully younger or older than their chronological age, and that gap shows up in measurable ways, in stress levels, in life satisfaction, in how much control people feel they have over their health and their choices. Feeling out of step with your own age isn't a character flaw. It's data. I think that's the piece we skip.
We ask "am I too old for this" or "am I too young for that," as if the calendar were the authority. But the more honest question is: what terrain am I actually standing on right now? Am I in a stable season, building something and wanting to protect it? Or am I in a transition, quietly outgrowing a structure I haven't admitted I've outgrown yet?
Those are different seasons. They call for different things. A stable season wants commitment and depth. A transition wants space and honesty. Treating a transition like it should behave like a stable season, gritting your teeth, waiting for the restlessness to pass, is like trying to force August to stay June. It won't, and pretending it will just delays the harvest.
This is the exact terrain the Mountain 10 experience is built for: the four stages of change: awareness, letting go, vision, and realization. Most people I work with, whether it's a leadership team navigating a merger or someone quietly renegotiating their own career the way I once did, get stuck in the same place: they're already in a transition season, but they're still trying to operate by the rules of the stable one they just left. Naming the season you're actually in is often the whole unlock. Not fixing it. Just naming it accurately.
That's also exactly why the Wisdom of Winter Retreat exists, February 25–28, 2027, at True North Resort in Nisswa, Minnesota, with Rachel Gilbertson of Art of Presence and Taylor Tix and Cris Bickman Otte of Taylor & Co. You can't always do this kind of season-naming inside a Tuesday. It takes three lakeside nights, some distance from your usual roles, and people around you who are asking the same quiet question instead of performing certainty. Spots are limited; if you've been circling the idea, this is your nudge to stop circling and check it out.
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Enjoying the last of the summer blooms. |
Affirmation "I am allowed to be in a different season than my age suggests. My inner calendar and my birth certificate don't owe each other an explanation."
Practice Name your actual season, not your expected one. Set aside the "I should be at X stage by now" story. Ask instead: does my life right now feel like building, or like outgrowing? Check for the leaning light. What's one place in your life that technically hasn't ended, but you can feel tilting? A role, a routine, a relationship, an identity. You don't have to act on it yet. Just admit you can feel the hinge. Separate the season from the schedule. A transition doesn't run on a calendar-year timeline. Give it permission to take as long as it actually takes, instead of the length you think it should take. Ask what this season is actually for. Stable seasons are for building. Transition seasons are for reorienting. Naming which one you're in tells you what to stop forcing.
Reflection Questions Where do you feel closer to your calendar age and where do you feel like you're living in an entirely different decade of your own development? What structure in your life was built for a season you've already left?
If you let yourself believe you're in a transition instead of a crisis, what would you stop apologizing for?
Remember, you are already doing the work by showing up each day. Take care, dear reader,
Julie Founder, Empower Possible
Sources: Levinson, D.J., The Seasons of a Man's Life (1978) and The Seasons of a Woman's Life (1996); Aktu, Y., & İlhan, T., "Individuals' life structures in the early adulthood period based on Levinson's theory," Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice, 2017; research on subjective age and well-being outcomes, Gerontological Society of America / Innovation in Aging proceedings; Rubin, D. & Berntsen, D., on age perception and developmental transitions, Frontiers in Psychology.
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Just as we were taking in the sights of Machu Picchu, a llama wandered up the terraces! It was as if the llama was there to remind us that life still moves through this ancient place. |
Welcoming the Seasons Poet: Catherine Pulsifer |
Each season comes, then drifts away, Yet we look forward to the day, When springtime blooms or summer glows, When autumn paints or winter snows.
The changes come, a gift so true, Bringing joys both old and new. Embrace each one, for time will show, The beauty found as seasons go.https://www.stresslesscountry.com/poemsseasons.html |
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Where can you find EMPOWER Possible?
In addition to posting on my own social media, I collaborate with other entrepreneurs.
Thank you to The CEO Mindset for hosting me on your podcast.
By pressing play on this episode, you'll discover:
How to change your life with systems, goals, and design a personal blueprint.
Are you ready to change your life? I am not sure if I know anyone who isn’t in some form or fashion. In this episode of the podcast, we talk about the relationship between systems, goals, and my personal blueprint.Click here to listen.
Interested in catching up on our previous podcast episodes? I invite you to explore our library of past recordings, where we delve into a diverse range of topics related to happiness and well-being.
https://empowerpossible.com/podcasts/  |
Leading Change When Nobody is Looking - When: September 17, 2026
- Where: St. Paul, MN
- What: Panelists will share real stories about leading through uncertainty, influencing without formal authority, working with limited resources, and helping people move forward when conditions are far from perfect.
Attendees will leave with practical ideas for building momentum before buy-in exists, creating progress amid constraints, and sustaining change when the path forward is still taking shape.
Discover more by clicking here.
Luminary Conference Presentation When: September 25, 2026 Where: Rochester, MN What: I am thrilled to be taking the stage at the upcoming Luminary Conference! I will be sharing actionable frameworks on sustainable leadership, thriving through large-scale organizational transitions, and shifting workplace cultures from a state of survival and overwhelm into a space of abundance and clarity. To learn more, click here.
Wisdom of Winter Retreat When: February 25 to 28 2027 Where: True North Resort, Nisswa, MN What: In partnership with Art of Presence and Taylor and Co., Empower Possible is hosting a winter retreat. Surrounded by peaceful lake views, snow-covered forests, and the quiet beauty of winter, this retreat is designed to help you slow down, reconnect, and restore. Come as you are. Leave feeling rested, grounded, and renewed. Learn more: https://taylorandcoapothecary.com/2027-nisswa-retreat/
Mountain 10 Workshops What is Mountain 10? During this three-hour workshop, we will focus on accessing your inner wisdom to bring about the changes you deeply desire in your life. We will use the Mountain 10 process, a proven, new technology for deep reflection on human change. It is based on the conviction that every person has the most important answers about direction, purpose, and calling within them.
For a Mountain 10 experience, join the Wisdom of Winter Retreat. Can't make it to the Wisdom of Winter Retreat? Join the waitlist. Click HERE
Please reach out if you have any questions: info@empowerpossible.com
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Connect with me on social media! |
Copyright © EMPOWER Possible |
Northfield, United States
EMPOWER Possible is dedicated to empowering individuals, organizations, and communities to organize and act together to regenerate our world through Self, Social, and Systems transformation.
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Disclaimer:
This newsletter contains content that has been modified and inspired by ChatGPT, an AI language model developed by OpenAI. While we use ChatGPT to enhance our content, it should not be considered professional advice. For specific concerns or decisions, please consult with a qualified professional or trusted source. The newsletter authors are not responsible for any actions taken based on the information provided by or inspired by ChatGPT. |
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