I’m going to be one of the speakers this year at The Agents of Change Conference to help any struggling podcasters or would-be podcasters to overcome obstacles and set themselves up for success. As you guys know I love talking about stress, fear, taking risks, overcoming self-doubt. It sounds so dark but these are juicy topics and the other side of these things is heaven. But you can’t go around these things you have to go through. Which segues nicely into my topic today ... The Cycle of Change Each part of your life is likely in different parts of the cycle. This is why we commonly have the experience of feeling like there are always some areas of our life in which we are winning and other areas that feel like we are struggling. Using the card game analogy for The Cycle of Change there are several phases. Before you play a card game you have to decide what game you’re going to play. This usually happens as you’ve started to shuffle the cards so this phase is called The Shuffle Phase. The game is chosen and cards are dealt. During The Deal Phase your mind is considering your resources, the other players, a strategy is chosen and you are formulating a plan. Then you move into the phase called Play the Game. Obviously, this is the phase of movement and action. Then the game comes to a close and you are now in The Toss in Phase. During this phase you are absorbing what just happened and either celebrating a victory or considering how you feel about defeat. Phase 4: Toss In All things come to an end and typically people are rarely ready for the cycle to end because when you’re in the Playing the Game phase there’s a lot of energy and excitement. At the end, the Toss In, there is loss, grief, confusion or a lack of clarity for what’s next. Whether it is the end of a job role or a relationship, people in this part of the cycle are usually unhappy and cannot see how they will be able to go through it all again. In this part of The Cycle of Change you will take little action on your own and resist change because of fear and uncertainty, and depending on how the last phase ended, there may be a lack of hope. You may also feel victimized and like you don’t have control over your circumstances. You may find yourself being grumpier, ill at ease, and even experiencing pain more. At the end of the Toss In, there can be an intense state of “hibernation” or “cocooning,” which if you’ve read my book you’ll be very familiar with. This state will eventually passes, and if you let yourself just be during this phase you will naturally find yourself getting renewed and re-energized, ready for the next phase. Okay, for me, over the summer I noticed myself starting to feel stretched. I was happy with the way the 100% Jodi episodes were going but I was not looking forward to starting up my interviews again. I also was feeling a lack of vibrancy overall in my business. Now, some of this can be attributed to the lower engagement that typically comes with the summer but it felt like something more. I knew then, and know now, somethings needed to change for me to get back to being in alignment. I don’t want there to be any judgment in this. I love the women I’ve interviewed on Women Taking the Lead and I love this community. I could get emotional because you all don’t know the impact you’ve had on me. I am fulfilling my life’s purpose because of you and I don’t for a moment lose sight of that. How do I describe it? It was like my skin was drying up and getting tight. I didn’t fit in my skin anymore. I haven’t been sleeping well over the summer, I noticed I wasn’t setting good boundaries with others and that only caused me to feel more depleted. I definitely feel myself turning a corner, though I’m still in the Toss In phase. It’s like I’ve started to shed that old skin but the new skin underneath is so new it’s still sensitive to the environment. I feel an unravelling of an old identity but my new identity is not fully formed yet. This past weekend I was