When Life Calls You To Pivot

When Life Calls You To Pivot

It’s 9:47 p.m. on a Tuesday.

You’ve been going since before the sun came up.

Work was busy. There were emails to answer, calls to return, people who needed something from you. Then there was dinner, laundry, that text you forgot to respond to, and one more thing that somehow ended up on your list before the day was over.

Now you’re sitting on the couch, exhausted.

And yet, somehow, you just agreed to do something else.

Nobody pressured you.

Nobody begged you.

Nobody even asked twice.

You simply said yes.

Because you could.

I read something this week that put an actual number on this women take on close to a month’s worth of extra invisible work a year compared to men.

Nobody’s keeping score.

We just keep saying yes.

As I thought about it, I realized how many women live this way. We take the notes because nobody else will. We organize the thing. We make the call. We handle the family situation. We remember the birthday. We solve the problem. We carry the emotional load. We step in before anyone has a chance to figure it out themselves.

And after a while, it becomes so automatic that we stop noticing we’re doing it.

Many of us learned early that being a good woman meant being available. Available to help. Available to fix. Available to carry. Available to make sure everyone else was okay.

So we became the dependable one.

The strong one.

The one who can always be counted on.

The problem is that we rarely stop to ask ourselves a simple question:

Is this actually mine?

Not, can I do it?

Not, am I capable?

Not, would it get done faster if I handled it?

But is it mine to carry?

Because those are very different questions.

Just because you know how to fix something doesn’t mean your name has to be on it. Just because you’re capable doesn’t mean you’re called. And just because something lands near you doesn’t automatically make it your responsibility.

I think this is where intentional living begins.

Not with another planner, another routine, or another goal.

It begins with awareness.

It begins with paying attention to the things we automatically volunteer for, automatically take ownership of, and automatically carry without ever asking ourselves whether they belong to us in the first place.

The truth is, many women are exhausted not because they’re doing the wrong things, but because they’re carrying too many things.

Other people’s expectations.

Other people’s responsibilities.

Other people’s urgency.

And sometimes, if we’re honest, our own need to be the one who always comes through.

This week, before you automatically say yes, pause.

Before you take something on, pause.

Before your hand goes up, pause.

And ask yourself:

Is this mine to carry?

Because not everything that lands in front of you belongs to you.

And not every need requires your sacrifice.

You were not put here to hold everything.

You were put here to be whole.

With you in this,

💜 Isabel