The Quiet Signs You’re About to Change Your Life

Sometimes life still looks completely normal on the outside… but internally something has shifted.

In this solo episode, I’m talking about the quieter signs that often appear before a change in career, pace, identity, or priorities — the things many women feel before they fully understand what is happening.

This isn’t about dramatic reinvention.
 It’s about recognising what keeps returning, what feels heavier than it used to, and why uncertainty often shows up before clarity does.

If you’ve been questioning things quietly, this episode may feel very familiar.

In this episode:

•  The subtle signs life may be asking you to change 
•  Why certainty rarely comes first 
•  How heaviness can be useful information 
•  Why small moves often matter more than big plans 
•  The truth about identity wobble during growth 
•  Why pace change can matter more than career change 
•  How to trust what keeps returning

00:00 Why change often starts quietly
00:24 The subtle signs many women overlook
01:10 Why questioning your life matters
01:36 Sign one: don’t wait for certainty
02:34 When heaviness is information
03:55 Starting before confidence arrives
04:48 Why quiet building matters
05:41 Let values lead before titles
07:42 Identity wobble is normal
08:32 Small experiments create movement
09:29 Sometimes it’s pace, not career
10:37 Most people feel less certain than they look
11:49 Trust what keeps returning
13:10 Why your next chapter may already be beginning

My website : https://www.christina-byrne.com/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Good morning and welcome back to the Mothering Project. Um, this is my first solo episode of season two, and um, like I said, it's gonna be a little bit different in terms of I'm gonna try and share the knowledge that I've learned across the four or five years that I've been doing this for myself and share it with all of you, and especially from the guest top tips as well. I think it would be really good for you to hear them in just one session. This solo episode is all around quiet signs that your life might be starting to change. Um, and when I say that, it's like these subtle things that happen, but they're actually not that subtle, but you're probably just too busy to realize. There's something I suppose I've noticed in every conversation that I've had, whether it's, you know, speaking to women, building businesses, navigating motherhood, changing direction, returning back to Ireland, or returning back to their home, um, leading teams, or just quietly questioning what life really looks like for them now. Change actually never really happens in the moment that you think it does. It usually begins way before. It's before there's a decision that you have to make, before there's a big announcement that you have to do, or before there's even language, I suppose, for what you're actually experiencing. And I think men, many women actually know this feeling. I know I do. I know that what it can look like is, you know, you're still functioning, you're still showing up for everyone, you're doing what needs to be done, but then privately there's all this questioning that's starting to happen for you. So it's like, is this still right for me? Um, do I still want to do this now? Is this something that aligns with my actual values now that X, Y, and Z has changed? I want to keep coming back to 10 things and I want to just go through them on this podcast. Ten things that matter when change is beginning. The first one that I have written down here is don't wait until everything feels certain. Because when I did like Beautiful You Trading, I remember Julie Parker saying on many a call, going, don't keep doing the courses. Like, actually take the steps and do the thing. We've got this thing, I suppose, as people where we're like, it needs to be perfect perfect before we release it. But actually, the part that's going to make it perfect is making all the mistakes along the way. Well, that's what I found. And I'm sure everyone I've spoken to have. I do think many women delay change because they believe certainty does come first, but it doesn't. And when I look back, it rarely actually came first for me. So a real example, I suppose, is when I was starting this podcast, I didn't begin with a full strategy, a perfect plan, or like a complete sense of where it would actually go. I just knew that there were conversations that I wanted to have. And in my head, I had an idea of what I wanted it to look like. But you know, like the conversations around motherhood, identity, women actually navigating life beneath polished versions of themselves. I just had to trust that before really fully understanding what it would look like, that I actually had to take that first step. And that was the fear part that was kicking in. And that came from lots of conversations, I suppose, where I've been talking to people, especially especially in the coaching circles, around confidence uh obviously happens after movement. So it's after you take that first step, it's after you talk to someone to say that you're actually going to start a podcast. Um yeah, so clarity often arrives before you've number two, pay attention to what feels heavy. So sometimes change doesn't begin when something is obviously wrong, right? It's when something begins to feel a little bit off or heavier than usual. For me, I've had seasons where externally I looked productive and full, but like internally I felt like a bit of a pull where my values weren't aligned or and it was costing me more like health-wise than what it should have. It's not because anything is dramatic is happening, but it's because like life changes you. We all know motherhood changes you, um, responsibility changes you, and your new responsibilities change you. So you have to pivot and try and match them in life as well. Sometimes heaviness, it's not like it's a big deal, but it's information for you. So it's not failure, but it's a kind of a nudge to start listening to yourself. Tip number three, start before confidence arise. This came through so strongly with the guests this season, I think on the podcast. So many women, while still doubting themselves, started to do the thing. Surca talked about building and moving while still fill figuring things out, right? In an industry that she, you know, obviously grew up in and um learned over here in Australia, but she didn't have it all figured out before she started. I think many women then that like you think that like you can imagine confidence, but you can't. You actually just need to do the thing. It usually just comes after like you send that email or you have that first conversation around, I'm now working for myself for me, for example, I am doing psychosocial, my company is called the Human Project, and that's when the confidence comes when you start talking out loud. All the things that have been bubbling up over the couple of months beforehand in your head or maybe years, it's when you you you say it out loud. And then you often realize, my god, I survived that. Maybe I can do another step. I know for me that's rings through with like even workshops. Um, you know, there's always that scary, scary time before a workshop. But you know what? If you do the step and then you survive and you get some feedback and then you better it, it's just all feedback, right? It's really good at building steps. Step number four, build quietly if you need to. I really do feel like if you're not ready to actually say it out loud, what you can do is actually quietly build in the background first. So just have a plan, look at, you know, writing everything down, look at what like your actual version of really good and success looks like, and build on that in the background. So the human project was that for me. I sat in the background, I thought about what I really wanted to master at, and I didn't say it out loud for a long time, I suppose. I just kept it, and I didn't such gradual steps. So I then engaged a brand person to help me with like bringing my vision up to scratch. And then I had a conversation with people saying, This is what I think I really want to do. And then ideas just started to flow through then, and I build on them, but I built on them quietly until I was able to talk to someone around like what it is that I wanted to do. Sometimes I think we underestimate the quiet seasons, but because they don't look dramatic, right? So we're used to dramatics, and you know, especially in our world, especially in HR and leadership, like there's lots of dramatics, but like it doesn't need to look dramatic to know that it's it's working. Number five, let your values lead before your title does. I have fallen victim to titles over the years as well, but I think the one thing that I've realized is titles matter less to me now than how I feel like I do in work. And so what I mean by that is I always question myself in terms of like what matters, and I ask myself, does this feel meaningful? Has it got depth? Um, does it allow some honesty? And will this fit in the life that I want now, especially in the season of motherhood and to young kids? It also came through in lots of the conversations I had in season one as well with the podcast. Titles can sound really impressive, right? But while privately they no longer fit, it just caused friction in yourself. And sometimes the better question is, what does I what do I want my week to look like? And I sit down on a Monday and I sit there and I go, right, this is what my plan is for the week, because it's really important, obviously, when you're working for yourself. But what do you want your week to look like, not what is your title in the organization? Expect identity wobbles. And I think this is one part that people rarely talk about. And I know that myself and Tara and Ewan always talk about it, like the identity wobble and the imposter syndrome, and all of that comes up, right? Because you're on a little island by yourself and you're building, and you know, you just start getting the doubt and the fear creeping in. I think the one part of it is that I always feel that like even good change can actually emotionally feel really strange. So you can be growing and you can be doing a meaningful work and moving towards something really good and still feel really unsettled because parts of your old identity still no longer fit, right? So I think many women know that feeling. You're quietly becoming something new while everyone else sees you in the older lens, and this wobble is really normal. And I had it as late as early, yeah, last week because I was going into an organization where I worked for 11 years, but I was going in as a brand new person, and I sent an SOA S chex message to a couple of people, and I got the same response back. I am not the same person anymore, and I'm going in there in a different capacity, so it's okay to have wobbles, but I think it's really important for us as women to speak to each other about them too. Number seven, small experiments matter. I think this is a really key one for me. Small beginnings are really, really powerful because it can lead to bigger pieces. You know, for me, it's LinkedIn. I'm trying to get more active on LinkedIn and get out there. But you know, there's a mix between LinkedIn is really professional and there's not all that kind of like fun and whatever on it. So what I'm trying to do is experiment a little bit with how I show up on LinkedIn, do the workshop, do the masterclass. Like just one small thing can lead to different kinds of avenues as well. That's why I suppose like huge dramatic decisions, they can just play on your nervous system a bit. So that's why I always say like the small little things. Even this podcast um began with that. Like it wasn't a huge big decision. It's something I spoke about, and I've talked about this with loads of people of late, is it was brewing for about six, seven years. And, you know, six, seven years later, and I'm actually in season two. It's not a big, huge plan, but it's just writing it down and following through. I think that's really key. Number eight, sometimes it isn't a create career change that you're after, it could be just a pace change, and I think that's really important because um I think many women assume that they need a complete reinvention because they start getting lost and feeling lost and they don't know where they can turn to. But sometimes actually what you need is just a change in pace. Because there's only so much constant going that you can do as a woman or as a person, like it's not just a woman, before you start to burn out. And like I talk about this all the time. Like, it's actually doing something that doesn't bring you immediate joy, I think sometimes can lead to that burnout. But you can still look at that and go, can I still do meaningful work? That you know, it doesn't mean that you have to drop down and do like H O or administrator, right? It could be, can I do meaningful work, but can I just do it a little bit differently on my terms? How can I use my skills in a way that fits my life now and my family? And can I work with more intention and less depletion? So, you know, this still this is not a failure. This is actually you listening to yourself and looking at the skills that you have and bringing them to the surface. Number nine is stop assuming everyone else feels certain. This one, someone said to me the other day, you come across really well on Instagram. God, you've got so much confidence. I'm like, no, I don't. Like it takes a lot for me to post on um Instagram, and it also takes a lot for me to go on lives that just scares me so much. But um, I think in the season of life, then you just have to do it, right? You have to push yourself. Every guest I think I spoke to on the episode on this the podcast already talked about this. Lots of us are navigating change as well that you don't see on Instagram. And while some of us seem really confident, we're still questioning ourselves privately. And clarity often looks far more polished from the outside than it does feel internally. That really rings through to me in terms of the business in it as a whole, because you know, you have this clarity, but something changes, and then you see a little bit like of a gap in the market and you move towards that. So I'd always keep that in mind. And number 10, and this is the final one, trust what keeps returning. So this one felt really, really kind of report important for me to raise on the podcast because I've learned that when something keeps returning to me, so an idea or a conversation or a direction, it usually means that it deserves deserves some attention, right? Um, we can go real woo-woo, but it is kind of the universe going, hey, we're just back here again. I'm just reminding you of the thing that you know we think you should do. And it's whether you grab that and you run with it and do it, or you know, you push it away and you take a different direction. But I think that deserves attention if something keeps coming back to you. And I have been guilty of this where I haven't actually gone with the the direction. And I've probably done it more than once, but you know, where I've gone and I've started to do something that probably doesn't feel so much more aligned, and then I've come back, and it's you know, especially with the human project, I've come back and I feel so happy that I'm pursuing the psychosocial side of things because now that I've been in organizations and I've been implementing things, like actually what I was being called to do was something that I know that I can actually help organizations with because I've got that experience and I've got the knowledge and I've been away into the different types of areas and companies that I can actually help people now. So it's like a thought that keeps returning or a conversation that keeps repeating and a theme that keeps showing up. So that's often what quietly keeps returning is something important trying to emerge for you. So I would just tune in, write it down. You know, I've gotten a notes app and I write it down there, and I've got several notebooks and I write things down there. But you know, it's nice to kind of look back and think, have I done anything with that? They're my top 10 tips. And um, you know, I'll share more obviously on Instagram. If you want a copy of this top 10 tips or anything, you know, obviously drop me a DM. I'm happy to send them through to you. And again, thank you so much for being here. And if it does feel like life's shifting for you, maybe you're closer to a different career or a different life or a bit of a pivot and you're closer than you think. Thank you so much for being here, and I will talk to you next week on the next solo episode. Thank you so much. See you then.