I attended a conference recently. I never do that. I only ever go to a conference to speak—I fly in, speak, head to the airport again. This time, a friend had an extra ticket to a women’s leadership conference in town, on a rare day when I was free, and I thought, Sure. I’ll go. 

It was so great.

I got to listen. I got to meet people. I got to be inspired. I got to think. 

One of the things I thought about a lot was something the opening keynote speaker said. Her name is Tasha Eurich, and she’s brilliant. She said, “Maybe this season needs a new strategy.”

This advice hits hard, here as I’m approaching my sixth year as a business owner. I recently had a work foul-up that left me feeling embarrassed and unprofessional, as well as the kind of travel disaster that ended with me crawling into bed at 3am, and sick for days afterward. Perhaps, I thought, I’m asking a little too much of myself these days. Then Tasha said, “Maybe this season needs a new strategy.” 

We have a lot of strategies that we’ve used to get us where we are. We have friends. We have tools. We have routines, and stories that we tell ourselves, and mantras and tricks we use to push ourselves through. Those strategies have served us well. They have gotten us here. 

But maybe now, to get where we’re going next, we need new ones.

Maybe it’s time to shift our patterns. Try different routines. Tell ourselves new stories. Develop new relationships and different types of support. See ourselves in a new light—what we’re capable of and who we are now.

Maybe what got us here did really well in getting us here, and it’s okay to thank it for that, and let it go. Perhaps now it’s time to welcome in a new way of being, and thinking, to find new tools for this next season and all it brings. 

I don’t know what your next season will bring. But I wish you the strength, the supports, and the strategies you need to step into it.