The Version of You That Got You Here Can’t Take You Forward

"And suddenly you know: it’s time to start something new and trust the magic of beginnings.”- Meister Eckhart

There comes a point, usually around this exact time of year where you can feel the truth before you can properly explain it. The noise drops, the calendar slows down, Christmas is looming, and suddenly you’re face-to-face with a realisation that’s been waiting patiently in the wings:

The version of you that got you here can’t take you forward.

Not because she wasn’t brilliant. Not because she didn’t try hard enough. Not because anything has gone wrong.

She did what she needed to do. She got you through chapters that demanded stamina, resilience, performance, pragmatism. She got you through seasons where “keeping it together” wasn’t a personality trait — it was a survival skill.

She deserves your respect. She deserves your gratitude.

She also might be the very thing that’s starting to feel… tight.

The coping mechanisms that once protected you can quietly become the walls you live inside. The pace that once proved you were capable can become the pressure that drains you. The “I’ll just handle it” version of you can become the version who never truly receives.

That’s why this moment feels the way it does. It’s not dramatic, yet it’s undeniable. Something in you knows you’re entering a completely new chapter of your life, even if you don’t have the full blueprint yet. There’s a subtle restlessness, a deep inner nudge, a sense that the old way of being doesn’t quite match who you’re becoming.

This isn’t failure. It’s evolution.

Why this feels so unsettling (even when life looks “fine”)

Here’s the part people don’t say out loud: transitions are rarely neat. You can be grateful and still ready for more. You can have a good life and still feel called to a truer one. You can be “okay” and still know you’re not meant to stay here.

That discomfort is often your nervous system telling the truth before your mind catches up. Something is shifting beneath the surface.

When you’re entering a new chapter of your life, you don’t always get a clean ending first. Sometimes you just start feeling less available for the old story, less willing to tolerate what you used to tolerate, less interested in performing, less able to override yourself.

So if you’ve been feeling emotional, sensitive, reflective, or strangely detached from things that used to matter, you’re not losing it.

You’re outgrowing something.

The real work of moving forward

You don’t move into a new chapter by forcing more action. You move forward by becoming someone different internally and then letting your life catch up.

Here are five strategic steps that genuinely help when you know you’re on the edge of a new season.

1) Honour who you’ve been… without dragging her into the next chapter

This is important, because some people “pivot” by rejecting the past version of themselves, as if she’s embarrassing or naive. She isn’t. She was the woman who got it done when it had to be done.

Honour her. Thank her. Then tell the truth: certain strategies have expired.

You can respect her without making her your future.

2) Name what no longer works with honesty, not judgment

This is where things get real.

Not everything stops working because it’s bad. Sometimes it stops working because you’ve grown. Old patterns can become outdated. Old identities can become heavy.

Ask yourself:

• Where am I operating on autopilot?

• What am I doing out of habit, fear, or people-pleasing?

• What part of my life feels like it belongs to an older version of me?

When you’re entering a new chapter of your life, clarity doesn’t always arrive as a lightning bolt. Often it arrives as a quiet “I can’t do this anymore.”

Listen to that.

3) Decide what you’re no longer available for

This is one of the most powerful shifts you can make before the new year.

Not goals. Not resolutions. Availability.

Your life changes when your standards change. When you stop entertaining the things that drain you, distract you, diminish you, or keep you in a loop.

This might look like:

• pulling back from certain dynamics

• simplifying commitments

• being more selective with your time and energy

• letting “good enough” be enough in the areas you’ve been obsessing over

This is not you giving up. This is you protecting what’s trying to be born.

4) Update your internal standards before you update your external life

People love a shiny new plan. People love a new notebook, a new calendar, a new “this year I’m doing it differently.”

That’s cute. It’s not the transformation.

The transformation happens when your standards change internally:

• the way you speak to yourself

• the way you respond to disappointment

• the way you hold boundaries

• the way you choose relationships, work, and opportunities

When your standards change, your behaviour becomes aligned without needing constant self-discipline.

This matters deeply when entering a new chapter of your life, because otherwise you just recreate the same patterns with new aesthetics.

5) Let the new identity form quietly (you don’t owe anyone the headline)

This is the one people struggle with, because we’ve been trained to perform change.

You don’t need to announce your growth while it’s still integrating. You don’t need to justify why you’re changing. You don’t need to explain your next move before you’ve fully lived it.

Some seasons are private. Some shifts are sacred.

Give yourself permission to become, without rushing yourself into a narrative.

A truth I want you to take into the last week before Christmas

If you can feel something shifting - if you’re reflective, emotional, restless, tender - it doesn’t mean you’re off track.

It often means you’re entering a new chapter of your life.

One where you’re not doing everything the hard way anymore. One where you’re not proving yourself to people who will never be satisfied. One where you’re choosing what’s true over what’s familiar.

Let the version of you who got you here take a breath.

Let the next version take shape.

You don’t need to force the next chapter into existence.

You only need to stop pretending the old one still fits.

With Love

Jenna ✨