Too much of our professional lives run on autopilot. Meetings. Obligations. The next logical step.
We keep moving forward without ever stopping to ask a simple question:
Is this actually the life I want to be building?
In the swirl of everyday responsibilities and adulting, it’s easy to lose track of the why, and even easier to to assume the path you’re on is the only one.
I’m here to tell you that it’s ok to take a break.
Hit that pause button.
Reassess, and THEN, decide how (or if) to move forward.
I had too many commitments and too many ideas in motion, so I got buried in the details.
That’s when, after launching a Black Friday offer for my leadership course, I hit my own breaking point.
Maybe it was because I somehow painted myself into a corner of consumerism that is off-brand for the type of business I wanted to run, or maybe it was just a coincidental straw that broke my own back.
But I needed a break.
So, I decided to pause external obligations.
But, I didn’t stop.
I kept stirring the same pots I had cooking.
And then New Year’s was coming, and I needed a word of the year.
I chose Adventure.
In figuring out how to live that word in 2026, I bought a conversion van.
January 10th, I decided to post a video every day. For fun. Every day.
And so began a bizarre chapter in sharing my journey of vanlife.
I started to crave being a digital nomad, working from anywhere.
My van. Starlink. My laptop. My phone.
That was all I needed.
And 2 weeks ago, I set off driving south from Philadelphia to Florida (where my daughter attends school).
And the strangest thing happened when I left.
I finally paused.
I took a break from ALL my activities for a few days while driving and learning how to solo camp in a van. (I know… crazy, right?)
Finally, I got clarity on the commitments I had been making.
I could see where I was overcommitted and where I was under-resourcing myself.
This process is making me take a hard look at how to focus.
What I want to lean into in my life.
And what I need to step away from.
I never could have gotten this clarity if I didn’t take a full pause.
Walking through a campground this week, I thought of Thoreau, and how he went out in the woods for clarity.
His famous quote from Walden is: "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately."
Maybe we all need a dose of this.
A dose of living deliberately, and simply, to discover what is truly most important in life.
If you’re interested in this side of what I’m posting, follow along on Instagram or Facebook at @ThatAndreaM.
That clarity also helped me simplify my own business.
Going forward I will focus on 3 things:
- One-on-one coaching for female leaders ready to make meaningful career progress
- Mastermind groups for product leaders who want real peer challenge and support
- Speaking on breakthrough leadership
If you’re interested in coaching or joining one of my mastermind groups,I’d love to hear from you.
I’m only going to be opening up a few spots in the upcoming months and would prefer to give them to those of you on my list. https://www.topularstrategy.com/services/leadership-coaching
If you’d like me to speak at your conference or team event, learn more here: https://www.topularstrategy.com/services/workshops-keynotes
If you’ve been running on autopilot lately, maybe the next step is pausing long enough to see clearly again.
Best,
Andrea
P.S. If this resonated and you’re feeling stuck on your own path, that’s exactly who I built my coaching around.
Reply and tell me where you’re feeling stuck. I read every response.
