You Are Not Behind – You Are Becoming

I work in this space for a living.
I have more tools than most.

And still – I fall off sometimes.

I get reactive.
I get tired.
I get human.

There are moments when I catch myself thinking:
How can this still be happening?
Shouldn’t I be past this by now?

And then I remember something that lives at the core of how I understand this work – and myself.

Growth isn’t about becoming a better version of yourself.
It’s about becoming a clearer one –
not because you aren’t already worthy,
but because less is in the way.
Clearer. Less tangled in old patterns.

When I look back over the last ten years of my life and leadership, what’s most striking isn’t how much “better” I am.

It’s how much has fallen away.

The layers of impostor energy.
The reflexive self-doubt.
The stories that once drove reactivity instead of discernment.

And when I do fall off now – because I still do – it doesn’t take days or weeks to find my footing again.

I notice it.
I reset.
I begin again.

That’s not because I’m immune to stress or struggle.
It’s because I no longer confuse a moment of misalignment with failure.

There’s something else I know to be true:
At any given moment, there are infinite possibilities for what comes next.
But when we’re caught in self-judgment or all-or-nothing thinking, we only see one or two narrow paths forward.

We tell ourselves:
I blew it.
This didn’t work.
I’m off track.

And in doing so, we miss the most important skill of all – the ability to course-correct with compassion.

I see this with clients all the time.

Someone starts a new venture and gets consumed by whether it will work – instead of noticing who they’re becoming as they build it.

Someone hits a rough patch and turns it into a referendum on their worth –  instead of a moment to strengthen resilience and clarity.

But when we stay present, something else becomes possible.

We realize we don’t need to be perfect to move forward.
We need to be honest.
Attentive.
Willing to begin again from right where we are.

So if your New Year hasn’t unfolded the way you imagined – if resolutions already feel heavy, shaky, or behind – this isn’t a sign that you’ve failed.

It’s an invitation.

An invitation to stop asking how to fix yourself
and start asking how to meet yourself.

To remember that growth doesn’t happen in a straight line.
It happens through noticing.
Resetting.
Choosing again.

You are not behind.
You are not broken.

You are becoming.
And you can begin again – from here.