There are times in life when you know something needs to change, and it doesn’t happen conveniently at the beginning of a year or neatly at the start of a quarter. Life has a way of bringing transitions when we’re already busy living it.

That’s where I found myself recently.

After 27 years in education as a speech-language pathologist, I stepped away from that career and moved into Terrie Power Coaching full-time. I hesitate to call it retirement because that’s not really what it feels like. It feels more like a career change, a shift into a new season, and an invitation to become someone different than I’ve been before.

For years, I built my coaching business around another career. I knew how to fit everything together. I knew how to manage my time. I knew the rhythms of my weeks and the expectations of the school year. Then suddenly all of that changed. My schedule was different. The opportunities were different. The demands were different. Even the way I thought about myself was changing.

I knew I needed more than a weekend to figure it out.

So I blocked off most of a week. I still met with coaching clients, but I intentionally stepped away from many of the normal tasks that filled my days. I knew that if I stayed home, I would be tempted to fall right back into familiar routines. The laundry would need folding, emails would need answering, and projects would suddenly feel urgent. What I really needed was space to think before I started building new plans.

I’ve always been drawn to water. When I think about momentum, I think about water because water keeps moving. It curves around obstacles. It takes a different path when it needs to. It doesn’t spend much time arguing with reality. That felt like exactly what I needed to learn.

Over the next couple of days, I visited a lake, the Water Gardens in Fort Worth, rode the train between locations, sat beside fountains, and spent time near a river. At each stop, I worked through seven questions that eventually helped me find clarity for this next season.

These seven questions are the process I have used to help myself and my clients build momentum in life, especially when there is a season change.

You Don’t Need a New Year to Start Over

One of the biggest mistakes we make is believing that change should happen on a schedule. We tell ourselves we’ll start in January, revisit it next quarter, or wait until summer is over. But life rarely cooperates with our timelines.

I’ve learned that momentum doesn’t care what month it is. Sometimes you need to stop and reassess right in the middle of everything. Many people find themselves at a crossroads after a career change, an empty nest, burnout, a health challenge, or simply the realization that something feels off. When that happens, waiting for the perfect time usually delays the clarity you’re looking for.

The need for change often shows up on an ordinary Tuesday, and momentum begins when we’re willing to pay attention.

Taking time for a Reset

The first day, I simply sat by a lake. There was no agenda, no worksheet, and no planning session. I watched butterflies move between flowers, dragonflies skim across the water, ducks drift along the shoreline, and small waves roll in and out.

For a while, I didn’t try to solve anything.

I just sat, listened, prayed, and paid attention.

If I’m honest, I wasn’t sitting there feeling peaceful and enlightened. I was anxious. I had just stepped away from a 27-year career, and my business was now my full-time work. There were decisions to make, plans to create, and questions to answer. As I sat there, I kept feeling the pressure to come up with the right answer, the right plan, and the right next step.

The thought that kept running through my head was simple:

I have to figure this all out right now.

Somewhere between watching the water and listening to the sounds around me, I realized I was asking too much of myself. I didn’t need all the answers that day. I just needed to start asking the questions.  As I sat there, I realized I already had a process for moments like this. These are the same questions I walk clients through when they’re trying to find clarity, make a decision, or navigate a transition. Instead of searching for a brand-new solution, I decided it was time to use my own process.

That realization changed the entire experience.
I didn’t need all the answers. I just needed to start asking the questions.

I think sometimes we rush to figure out the next step before we’ve even slowed down long enough to understand where we are.

The 7 Questions That Helped Me Rebuild Momentum

Question 1: Who Am I Now? (Clarity)

The next day I headed to the Water Gardens in downtown Fort Worth and started at the mountain area. As I sat among the rocks, I asked myself a simple question: Who am I now?

Not who was I twenty years ago. Not who was I when I started my coaching business. Not who was I in my previous career.

Who am I now?

I reflected on my Enneagram type, my Working Genius, my strengths, and my natural tendencies. But I also thought about the roles I currently carry and the season I was stepping into.

As I sat there, I realized I was still thinking of myself as a school district speech-language pathologist who also had a coaching business. The reality was that season had ended. For the first time in nearly three decades, I wasn’t returning to a school district in the fall.

I was now a coach, speaker, business owner, and CEO of Terrie Power Coaching full-time.

That realization felt bigger than I expected because it wasn’t just a new schedule or a new role. It required a new identity. I needed to stop thinking of my business as something I fit around the edges of my life and start seeing it as the work I had chosen to build.

More than that, I needed to become someone who believed this next chapter could be successful. Someone who was excited about the possibilities instead of worried about getting everything right.

Question 2: Why Does It Matter? (Purpose)

From there, I moved to one of the quiet pools. The stillness felt like the right setting for the next question.

Why does it matter?

As I sat there, I realized that Terrie Power Coaching has never really been about planners, goals, productivity tools, or personality assessments. Those things matter, but they’re tools.

The real reason this work matters is because I care deeply about people.

I want people to feel seen and heard. I want them to understand how God uniquely created them. I want them to stop feeling like they have to become someone else in order to be successful. I want them to discover a way of pursuing goals that fits who they are.

I love organization, but I also love spontaneity. I love helping people find a rhythm that allows them to make progress while still enjoying their lives.

Most of all, I want people to keep moving when life gets hard. When they’re lonely. When they’re discouraged. When they’re not sure what’s next.

I want them to find the momentum to keep going.

As I sat beside that quiet pool, I realized that’s why this next chapter matters so much to me.

Question 3: What Do I Want? (Desire)

This may have been the hardest question of all.

Not because I didn’t have an answer, but because I had spent so much time helping other people answer it that I hadn’t stopped to answer it for myself.

What do I want?

Not what should I want.

Not what someone else thinks I should want.

Not what worked ten years ago.

What do I want in this season?

I know I’m not the only woman who has spent years focused on everyone else’s needs. We care for children, spouses, parents, clients, coworkers, churches, and communities. We get very good at helping other people figure out what they want and need. Sometimes we become so focused on serving others that we lose touch with our own answer.

As I reflected, I realized I had spent a lot of time thinking about what I should do next. What I hadn’t spent enough time doing was asking what I actually wanted.

The answer surprised me because it wasn’t a revenue goal or a business milestone.

What I wanted was freedom.

I wanted the freedom to help people in a way that felt authentic to me. I wanted the freedom to be creative, to build programs, write, coach, speak, and create resources that truly make a difference in people’s lives.

I also realized I wanted a life outside of my work.

I wanted time to travel with Jason. Time to explore new places. Time to sit by lakes, ride trains, visit small towns, and enjoy the adventure of this season of life. I wanted to build a business that supported a joyful life, not a business that consumed it.

For years I had helped other people think about what they wanted. Sitting there, I realized I needed to answer that question for myself.

“Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is pause long enough to ask better questions.”

That question became a reminder that intentional living isn’t about squeezing more into your schedule. It’s about making sure you’re building a life that reflects what matters most.

If these questions are making you think differently about your own season, I’d love to invite you to join the Summer Refresh Series. Each week you’ll receive reflection prompts and practical tools designed to help you reconnect with what matters most.

Question 4: Where Am I Going? (Vision)

Next, I moved to the aerating pool where water sprayed in every direction. The energy of the space felt different than the quiet pools. It felt active. Moving. Forward.

As I sat there, I realized something important.

I didn’t need a bigger dream.

I needed a destination.

Up until that point, I had spent a lot of time reflecting on who I was, why this mattered, and what I wanted. But eventually reflection has to turn into direction. At some point, you have to decide where you’re actually going.

So I pulled out my planner and started revisiting my goals.

I reviewed the annual goals I had set earlier in the year. I looked at what still mattered and what needed to change. I created specific goals for this quarter and revisited some personal goals, especially around my health.

What struck me was how easy it is to set goals and then never look at them again. Life changes. Seasons change. Priorities shift. Sometimes goals need to be adjusted, refined, or completely rewritten.

I wasn’t abandoning my goals.

I was making sure they still fit the life I was trying to build.

What I needed wasn’t more ideas.

I needed to remind myself of my destination.

Question 5: How Will I Get There? (Structure)

Later, I boarded a train and headed to another location. As the scenery rolled by, my thoughts naturally shifted from vision to planning.

How will I get there?

For years, my schedule had largely been shaped by the school calendar. There were built-in rhythms, expectations, deadlines, and routines. Whether I realized it or not, a lot of my structure came from the environment around me.

Suddenly, that structure was gone.

I had freedom.

But what I realized is that freedom without some structure can quickly become overwhelming.

My biggest insight during this part of the process was that I couldn’t simply live by instinct. Every day I could wake up and ask myself what I should work on, but that would require hundreds of decisions every week. Eventually, all those decisions become exhausting.

What I needed wasn’t more motivation or more willpower.

I needed rhythms.

I needed a schedule.

I needed routines that supported both the business I wanted to build and the life I wanted to live.

The more I reflected, the more I realized that planning wasn’t restricting my freedom.

It was protecting it.

A good plan would allow me to spend less time deciding what to do next and more time doing the work that mattered.

Question 6: Which Barriers Are in the Way? (Flexibility)

Later that afternoon, I sat beside a large fountain and asked myself another important question.

Which barriers are in the way?

Several came to mind immediately.

Fear of failure.

Trying to do too much.

Becoming overwhelmed.

Avoiding things that feel uncomfortable.

As I looked at the list, I realized many of those barriers were connected.

Fear of failure makes me hesitate. Hesitation leads to overthinking. Overthinking creates overwhelm. Before long, it’s tempting to pull back instead of moving forward.

One of the things I’ve learned about myself is that I don’t particularly enjoy feeling uncomfortable. I’d much rather stay with what feels familiar, what feels safe, and what feels predictable.

The problem is that growth rarely happens inside familiar territory.

If I want this next season to be different, I’m going to have to be willing to do things that feel awkward, uncertain, and sometimes risky. Not recklessly, but courageously.

The things I say I want will eventually require me to become someone willing to do things I haven’t done before.

That was an important realization.

Question 7: When Do I Need to Refresh and Reset? (Sustainability)

My final stop was beside a small indoor river where small waterfalls flowed over the rocks. This became my favorite part of the entire process.

As I listened to the water moving over the rocks, I asked myself one final question.

When do I need to refresh and reset?

At first, I started thinking about activities. Prayer. Worship. Exercise. Fun adventures. Time away.

But the more I reflected, the more I realized the real answer wasn’t about what I needed to do.

It was about what I needed to notice.

I need to pay attention when I start feeling disconnected. When I feel rushed. When I’m moving from task to task but no longer feeling present. When I’m checking things off a list but forgetting why they matter.

Those are usually the signs that it’s time for a reset.

As I thought about what restores me, a few things became clear. I need regular time to pray, worship, and listen for God’s direction. I need movement. I need time outside. I need fun.

Not someday when life slows down.

As a regular part of my life.

I realized I need to intentionally create space for adventure, whether that’s taking a half day to explore somewhere new, riding a train to a nearby town, sitting by the water, or simply breaking out of my normal routine.

For years I thought of rest as stopping.

What I realized beside that river is that rest is also reconnecting.

Reconnecting with God.

Reconnecting with joy.

Reconnecting with the things that make me feel fully alive.

Why These Questions Help You Rebuild Momentum

Looking back, I realized I wasn’t actually trying to create momentum.

I was trying to create clarity.

Momentum was simply what started happening once the fog began to lift.

Many people try to solve a momentum problem by working harder. They buy another planner, set bigger goals, or search for a new productivity system. But often the real issue isn’t productivity.

It’s clarity.

When you understand who you are, why something matters, what you want, and where you’re going, decisions become easier. You stop spending so much energy wondering what to do next because you’ve taken the time to determine what actually matters.

That’s why my coaching process moves through:

Clarity → Purpose → Desire → Vision → Structure → Flexibility → Sustainability = Momentum

“Momentum isn’t the starting point. It’s the outcome.”

Momentum wasn’t something I chased during those two days.

It was something that naturally started to return once I took the time to step back, reflect, and ask the right questions.

What I Learned Beside the Water

Looking back, what I learned beside the water wasn’t a new productivity strategy or some groundbreaking business insight.

What I learned was that I needed to slow down long enough to think.

I needed time to pray, time to listen, and time to make decisions instead of avoiding them. I needed time to figure out what I wanted and what I believed God was calling me to do in this season.

For a while, I was hoping clarity would simply appear.

What I discovered is that clarity often grows when we’re willing to sit with the questions.

Once I had spent time reflecting, I could start making decisions. Once I made decisions, I could create a plan. Once I had a plan, momentum started returning.

I realized that I couldn’t simply live by instinct anymore.

There are seasons when instinct works.

This wasn’t one of them.

This season required intention. It required deciding who I wanted to become, where I wanted to go, and how I was going to get there.

That’s what those two days gave me.

Not all the answers.

But enough clarity to take the next step.

And sometimes that’s all we really need.

Ready for Your Own Summer Refresh?

If you’ve been feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or uncertain about what’s next, I’d love to invite you to join my Summer Refresh Series.

Throughout the summer, I’ll be sharing simple reflections, practical tools, and gentle prompts to help you reconnect with what matters most and create more peace, purpose, and progress in your life.

If you’re in a season where things feel uncertain, maybe your next step isn’t another goal.

Maybe it’s a question.

Maybe it’s an afternoon by a lake.

Maybe it’s finally giving yourself permission to slow down long enough to figure out what you really want.

That’s where this journey started for me.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you rebuild momentum when you feel stuck?

Momentum often starts with clarity. Before creating a new plan, take time to reflect on who you are, what matters most, what you want, and where you’re going.

Do I need to wait until January to reset my goals?

No. Some of the most important life changes happen in the middle of a year. When your season changes, it’s okay to pause, reassess, and create a new plan.

What should I do when my goals no longer fit my life?

Revisit them. Goals should support the season you’re in now, not the season you were in six months ago.

Can these questions help with career changes, health goals, or life transitions?

Absolutely. While I used them during a career transition, these questions can be applied to almost any area of life where you need more clarity and direction.