Do You Remember the Biggest Pivot of Your Life?
For anyone who feels like a chapter of their life is coming to an end.
Do You Remember the Biggest Pivot of Your Life?
Not the moment everything changed, but the period before that.
The period where life felt uncertain. The period where a chapter was quietly coming to an end, even though you weren’t ready for it to. The period where you felt lost, scared, confused, or perhaps even like a failure. The period where the plans you worked towards for years slowly fell apart.
For me, one of the biggest pivots of my life happened while I was living in Australia.
After graduating from university, I dreamed of building a life there. I wanted to work in advertising. I wanted to become one of the best strategists in the industry. In my mind, that was the path. That was the future I had imagined for myself.
What I didn’t anticipate was how difficult it would become once my visa started running out.
Month after month, I applied for jobs, hoping to find a company willing to sponsor me. Every application felt like another chance to save the future I had planned. Every rejection felt like evidence that the dream I had worked so hard for was slipping further away.
I was terrified of the idea of having to move back home. It felt as though the dream I had worked so hard for was slipping away. The future I had imagined for myself no longer seemed possible.
The difficult thing about pivots is that they rarely feel like opportunities while you’re living through them. More often, they feel like disappointment, failure, and a door closing before another one has appeared.
What I didn’t know at the time was that once I stopped trying to force what wasn’t working and shifted my attention elsewhere, it would finally create space for something new to emerge. That something was a blog… which eventually became the source of inspiration for The Happiness Planner.
Of course, life only makes sense in hindsight.
When we’re living through a transition, we don’t get to see the future version of the story. We don’t get to see the opportunities that haven’t appeared yet. We don’t get to see how one ending might eventually lead us somewhere we never could have imagined. All we see is the door that’s closing.
And that’s why pivots can feel so painful.
We often think growth will be exciting, but life has taught me that many of the most important turning points in our lives begin with disappointment. A serious relationship ends. A dream doesn’t work out. We lose a job. We have to move cities. We realize that something we desperately wanted no longer works out.
Before a new chapter begins, there is often a period where we’re simply trying to make sense of what is happening. In those moments, we rarely see a turning point. We only see the setback standing right in front of us.
Learning to trust the process before we can see the outcome isn’t easy. It’s uncomfortable, confusing, and often filled with doubt. Yet perhaps that is the nature of every pivot. We are asked to let go before we know what comes next, and to leave behind the familiar before the new path reveals itself.
Looking back now, I can see that leaving Australia was not a loss, but the end of a path I had become deeply attached to. At the time, it felt like everything was falling apart. What I couldn’t see was that life was creating space for something I never would have discovered otherwise.
And perhaps that’s the thing about pivots.
While we’re living through them, they often feel like endings. But sometimes, they’re simply the beginning of a chapter we couldn’t yet see.
So I’m curious…
When you look back on your own life, what was the biggest pivot you’ve ever experienced? And where did it eventually lead you to?
I’d love to hear your story in the comments.
P.S. This reflection inspired me to create The Pivot Journal, a guided journal for anyone navigating a major life transition. If you’re currently in the space between what was and what’s next, you can learn more here.
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