Have you been quietly telling yourself you gave up? That you're behind, you're lazy, you should be pushing harder all because you took your foot off the gas during a season that asked more of you than you had to give? I want to suggest a different word for what you've actually been doing… retreating. This episode came from a question someone recently asked me which was “when things get really hard, do you surrender and give up... or do you retreat?” Y’all, it stopped me in my tracks because for months I'd been white-knuckling through one curveball after another (revoked car registration, preschool waitlists, financial stress, hard news about my mom – to name a few) and I'd been judging myself for slowing down. But slowing down wasn't surrender... It was retreat. In this episode, I share: • The real difference between surrendering and retreating and how our all-or-nothing culture teaches us there's not a middle • Why an army that retreats isn't giving up (they're regrouping to fight smarter) and how that applies to your life • How I gave myself permission to do the bare minimum for six weeks without making it mean I quit on my dreams • Why "keep moving, decide fast, go go go" is often the exact wrong advice, especially for women • How retreat doesn't require a vacation or an empty house. It can happen right in the middle of your everyday life. Here's the heart of it: retreating is not throwing in the towel. It's stepping back, letting the waters calm, and waiting for clarity before you choose your next move. And that? That's wisdom, not weakness. Consider this your permission to retreat.
Have you been quietly telling yourself you gave up?
That you're behind, you're lazy, you should be pushing harder all because you took your foot off the gas during a season that asked more of you than you had to give?
I want to suggest a different word for what you've actually been doing… retreating.
This episode came from a question someone recently asked me which was “when things get really hard, do you surrender and give up... or do you retreat?” Y’all, it stopped me in my tracks because for months I'd been white-knuckling through one curveball after another (revoked car registration, preschool waitlists, financial stress, hard news about my mom – to name a few) and I'd been judging myself for slowing down. But slowing down wasn't surrender... It was retreat.
In this episode, I share:
Here's the heart of it: retreating is not throwing in the towel. It's stepping back, letting the waters calm, and waiting for clarity before you choose your next move. And that? That's wisdom, not weakness.
Consider this your permission to retreat.
EPISODE RESOURCES