I’m writing this from Atlanta….

If you’ve been following along, still being in Atlanta in May was not the plan.

The plan was to be somewhere on the road by now. A new city. New energies. New Experiences. The next thing I’ve spent the better part of a year building the courage to actually do.

But life, as it tends to, had other ideas… both good and bad.

My sister is getting married and I have the absolute honor of officiating. Buuuut… she had the balls to get married on a timeline that didn’t take my adventure into account. Gosh… ;)

And then… my Grandmother’s diagnosis… the reality there is that there is no where else in this world I’d rather be than by her side for this fight.

So. Atlanta it is. For a little while longer….

My first reaction wasn’t graceful. It was the particular kind of frustration that comes from having a plan you fought hard for and watching it get quietly rerouted. I felt the grip. The resistance. The urge to measure everything against what was supposed to happen. And god bless… the resentment began to bubble.

And then I got quiet. And decided to use a tool from my coaching toolbelt on myself. A classic reframe.

I asked, “Ok, Laura, what does this delay give you (vs. take away)?

• More time locally with the network of Atlanta professionals I’ve been working alongside for years to test my programs and new ideas with.

• More time for the projects that need real concentrated focus vs. between-travel progress.

• More time with the people who showed up in ways I forgot to expect when the news came in.

• Quality time with the very person who made me who I am, which, honestly, might be the whole point.

• And if you want to get a little woo woo… maybe I’m just not supposed to be going out on my own just yet… maybe there is a divine stall keeping me from leaving the safety of home for a little longer. Maybe I’m safer here for now. I believe that in my bones.

The detour had gifts in it. They were just underneath the frustration.

Certainly, you know this feeling...

You finally get your footing. The plan is in place. You’ve done the hard part which is usually convincing yourself, the clearing of the calendar, the quiet decision that this is the direction. And then life, completely unbothered by your timeline (like a bride), hands you something else entirely.

• A new tool gets rolled out and adopted. A week later, an acquisition is announced.

• You finally commit to the no-carb thing. Your in-laws send a bread basket.

• You lay out the perfect plan for tomorrow to catch up on everything. Your dog needs emergency care at 3am.

• You spend years working up the courage to spread your wings. Someone you love needs you to stay put while they fight the hardest battle of their life.

We work so hard toward something. Blood, sweat, tears, therapy, and probably a vision board. And then…. sideways.

So what do we do with that?

The answer most people reach for is “get through it”. Head down, grit it out, survive until the calendar clears and things settle back into something manageable.

I want to offer you something different.

Resilience isn’t about weathering the storm. It’s about what you find inside it.

When a plan gets derailed, the instinct is to stay locked onto what was supposed to happen. So you start to measure everything against the original route. That instinct makes sense. You built that route. You believed in it.

But that locked gaze? That’s the grip. And the grip is what makes disruption so exhausting.

Not the disruption itself. The resistance to it.

The people who recover fastest, whether it’s an individual navigating a life pivot or a leadership team absorbing yet another reorg, aren’t the ones who push hardest. They’re the ones who get curious fastest.

The ones who can hold two things at once: this is hard AND there’s something in here I need.

That’s not toxic positivity. That’s a trained behavior.

Reframing isn’t a mindset trick you either have or you don’t. It’s a skill. Built through practice. Specifically practiced through catching the moment your nervous system locks into grip mode and choosing, deliberately, to loosen it.

The teams and individuals I see make real, lasting change aren’t the ones with the most information about what’s wrong. They’re the ones who’ve built the capacity to stay open when everything in them wants to clench.

That’s the work. And it starts smaller than you think.

So I’m taking this as a gift to slow down. My stuff will stay in storage, our (me+Lou) lives will ease into nomadic living, but we now get to do it first with the safety of home all around.

And actually, that’s kind of a great baby step that maybe I needed…. I’m not always slow and steady, so maybe that’s the message…. Received universe… 🙄

This week’s practice:

The next time something doesn’t go according to plan (and it will…) try this before you go into fix-it mode:

Stop. Take a breath.

Ask: What is this giving me that my original plan couldn’t?

Write down one thing. Just one. The act of looking for it is what starts to loosen the grip.

Foundations hold when plans don’t. Your ability to reframe is one of them.

What’s Next

If the grip is a pattern you recognize in your own life or inside your team, that’s exactly what I work on, and I’m always ready to chat! Just shoot me a note, and we will make it happen.

I’m glad you’re here. See you next week.

From The Grey,

Robi

(PS. This is still Laura…for those of you confused by this name change, my friends call me Robi… and if you’re here each week, you deserve to be in that club…)