WHEN YOU OUTGROW YOUR OLD PACE
But haven't found the new one yet.
Welcome to Issue #038 of Sojourn. Each week, I share two original essays to help you slow down, reconnect, and rebuild with intention — in a private community that uses travel as a path to reinvention.
There’s a moment in every reinvention where the old pace stops working but the new pace hasn’t ‘revealed’ itself yet.
It’s the in-between season.
I know it well.
A few years ago, I kept trying to move at the speed that had always worked for me… fast, focused, high-energy, constantly building or fixing something, for me and others.
But internally, I felt like I was being stretched too thin.
Not from tasks, but from emotional load.
I remember sitting at my kitchen counter one morning with my laptop open, staring at a to-do list I could’ve handled easily six months earlier…
and feeling absolutely nothing in me wanting to do any of it.
Completely empty.
Not out of laziness.
Out of misalignment.
That’s the moment I realized:
Outgrowing your old pace doesn’t mean something is wrong.
It means something is shifting.
And I’ll tell you, the shift happens long before the clarity does.
Here’s what helped me through that season:
1. Stop expecting your old capacity to show up.
You’re not failing, you’re evolving.
2. Let your body set the pace, not your schedule.
If your body is tired, force won’t solve it.
3. Pay attention to what feels draining vs. what feels natural.
Your new direction is usually hidden in what feels easier than you expected.
4. Accept that the in-between is not supposed to feel comfortable.
It’s supposed to feel unfamiliar, and that’s okay, because that’s how you know you’re not repeating your past… you’re making progress.
We talk a lot about breakthroughs, but we rarely talk about that ‘empty hallway’ we pass through to reach them.
This time teaches you how to hold uncertainty without abandoning yourself.
If you’re in that time right now,
not who you were, not yet who you’re becoming…
you’re not lost.
You’re transitioning.
Give yourself the grace to slow down until your new pace reveals itself.
~Ana