A Gentler Way Forward When Life Feels Heavy with Carol Clegg

Why Short Segments Are Back

Stuck Doesn’t Mean Start Over

Consistency Through Real Life Seasons

Grief And Rebuilding In Your 60s

The Question To Carry This Week

Welcome to Connect, Inspire, Create, where we slow down the conversation just enough to explore what it means to be human and how we can follow through on what matters. And this is Mindset Matters, a short moment to pause, reflect, and take one small step forward. This episode is a little different, and I hope to show up with a handful more of the Mindset Matters in between my regular long interviews with guests. So this is just me and a gentle starting point. When I launched this podcast over six years ago, and we were a team, and then we became Connect Inspire Create, and I became the solo producer of this show. We used to do something called bits and bites. And I think it's now time for me to bring those back. So these will be moments, five minutes, ten minutes in between my longer episodes with guests. So I'll be sharing over the next few episodes after this one. I will be sharing conversations with guests who each bring slightly different perspective on something many of us are navigating. How to keep moving forward when life feels full or unclear or just a little heavy. But before we go there, I want to pause with you just for a moment because often we feel stuck and our instinct is to say, we need to start over. We tell ourselves I need a new plan. I just need to be more disciplined, and this is often where accountability comes into this, or I just need to get it right. You put the pressure on yourself that you just have to make this right. But what if you stopped for a moment, get, hang on a minute, I don't need to start over. I just want to stay with this idea and explore it just for a little longer. Stay when the motivation dips, give yourself grace and just stay in the process, even if it's not perfect. And I certainly have noticed this with my podcast, and that's part of the reason I am pleased that I have managed to still be here as we move into the 200ths of my episodes. Never thought I'd still be here after all these years. And so there have. There have been seasons where I've shown up every week, and then there've been seasons where I have had to take a step back. But instead of letting go, I just gave myself permission, and sometimes it breaks for long. If I think some of them might have even been as long as three months that I just gave myself permission to step back. And then coming back now in 2026, I decided to add some different elements to the show and switch it up, the focus a little bit. Perhaps I'm appealing to a wider range of listeners now that this is not all business focused or marketing focused or coaching focused. But we're having a look. I'm looking at things being a little different now. And just I'm allowing myself to be responsive to what I where I am as a new widow. You might have heard me saying that in a few of my most recent episodes, and learning to navigate this season of life where absolutely grief is going to be part of it, and not being new to grief, as I lost my 22-year-old son to a distracted driver. Although that was over a decade ago, I had to learn to navigate that journey and impact that it made on my life. And now here I in this new season of life, in my 60s, and starting to try and discover what it is to start all over again and at the same time celebrate an incredible life that my husband and myself shared, 38 years together and packed with adventure. So we certainly had a beautiful life. So what I wanted to just encourage you as you listen to the next few episodes in this series, you'll hear different conversations around consistently feeling sustainable, letting go of perfection, and just rebuilding your energy in a way that supports your life now. So for today, I just want to leave you with something simple, a small pause, and perhaps it's a question that you can carry into this week. Where might I be trying to start over when what I really need is just a gentler way to keep going. And just notice what comes up. Because no pressure to change anything right away, just a little awareness and maybe a small step. So I look forward to releasing these next three episodes that are coming up, and I know that you will enjoy them. And I'm looking forward to returning with my mini-series and mindset matters. So until the next time, ease and flow for your week, and you are doing a great job. So be proud of yourself. Remember to celebrate you.