Here are a couple truths I want to offer you gently, :

You can’t eliminate uncertainty.
And trying to control it is the thing that’s wearing you out.

Especially if you—like me 👋🏻—are one of those mid-career, values-driven helper types who’s spent a lifetime being the steady one. The competent one. The one who figures things out, for yourself and everyone around you.

The world isn’t about to settle down.

So the only things you can actually control are yourself, your expectations, your pace, how you meet a moment of challenge.

Turns out your therapist was right about that all along.

The tools you’ve been using aren’t matched to the era we’re living in. And I didn’t fully understand that until mid-May this year.

I remember opening my meticulous income & expenses spreadsheet. The one that always reassures me that I’m “doing business right.”

That afternoon in May, it was the opposite.

I had a major revenue gap.

My 2025 year-to-date income trailed well behind 2024.

After my current clients, I had no new institutional contracts on the horizon.

My mind went blank. My collarbones went hot (the sign that my body knows Something Is Wrong before my brain catches up).

The business plan I was relying on wasn’t going to work.

My first instinct was the one so many of us learned early: “I can figure out how to fix this myself.”

But just the thought of trying to fix it alone was like staring into a spiral of overwhelm and shame and “Why can’t I make this work the way it used to?”

So I did the thing that felt scariest as a self-sufficient type-A eldest daughter:

I reached out for help.

Not another online course or productivity tweak.

Actual help from an actual coach that cost actual money.

And brought with it actual clarity.

On the other side of our work together, here’s my hardest-won insight:

Clarity didn’t come from tightening my grip to control the unknown.
It came from loosening it.
From letting myself admit to being messy and unsure.
From asking, sometimes through gritted teeth and watery eyes,

Where do I stand firm, and where can I let someone else guide me?

Flexibility, not fixity, is what shifted things.

And here’s the part I’m getting ready to share with you.

That clarity was the seed of a new offering.

A different way of meeting uncertainty.

A different way to navigate times when the old tools stop working.

It’s something I’ve been building quietly and carefully, and I’ll share more soon.

For now, I’m sending you this.

• If you’re feeling that hot flush of “I can’t keep doing it this way,”

• If your old coping strategies feel mismatched to the world you’re living in,

• If you’re exhausted from holding everything together with white knuckles and off-brand sticky tape,

You’re not alone. And you’re not doing anything wrong.

You’re living a messy, full, real human life in a moment that calls for a new kind of steadiness.

More soon.

Warmly,
Rachel

P.S. Has there been a moment recently when you realized the old way isn’t working anymore (even if you can’t yet see the new path)? I’d love to hear it if you feel like sharing. What made you look like that kitten gif?