Feeling Stuck? 3 Mindset Shifts Every Ambitious Woman Needs to Remember During Challenging Seasons

Have you ever felt like everyone else is moving forward while you're standing still?

As ambitious women, it's easy to believe that success comes from constantly doing more. We're conditioned to stay busy, chase the next milestone, and measure our worth by our productivity. But what if the very season you're trying to rush through is the one preparing you for your greatest breakthrough?

In this inspiring episode of Musings of a Geriatric Mama, host Kedna Amey, APRN, explores the power of waiting and introduces the first step of her developing Framework: Pause. Whether you're navigating burnout, motherhood, a career transition, entrepreneurship, or simply feeling uncertain about what's next, this conversation will help you reframe waiting as a season of preparation—not punishment.

Through personal stories, practical insights, and actionable strategies, Kedna shares how slowing down can lead to greater clarity, healthier habits, stronger foundations, and sustainable success.

If you've been feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, or like your timeline isn't unfolding the way you imagined, this episode will remind you that you're not falling behind—you are becoming.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

• Why ambitious women often struggle with stillness more than hard work
• How hustle culture and social media contribute to burnout and comparison
• The neuroscience behind instant gratification and why waiting feels so difficult
• Why the most meaningful growth happens during life's slower seasons
• How to redefine success on your own terms
• The importance of building a sustainable foundation before your next opportunity
• Practical ways to prepare for the future without rushing the process
• Why rest is an essential part of personal growth and long-term success

Timestamps

00:00 Navigating the Waiting Season
06:18 Understanding the Impact of Stillness
13:11 The Illusion of Overnight Success
19:00 Transformative Lessons in the Waiting Period
25:42 Preparing for Opportunities
28:36 Growth Beneath the Surface

 Three Actionable Takeaways

1. Stop Fighting the Pause

Instead of asking "When will this season end?", begin asking:

"What is this season trying to teach me?"

Waiting isn't wasted time—it's an opportunity to develop new habits, heal old beliefs, and create the capacity you'll need for what's ahead.

2. Prepare Before the Opportunity Arrives

Growth happens long before anyone else sees it.

Use this season intentionally by learning new skills, strengthening your routines, investing in your wellness, and creating systems that will support your future success.

Preparation creates confidence.

3. Trust That Growth Is Happening Underground

Just because progress isn't visible doesn't mean it isn't happening.

Your character, resilience, wisdom, and confidence are being developed beneath the surface, creating a foundation that can sustain the life you're working toward.

🎧 Resources Mentioned

• Burnout to Balance Reset Guide (Free Download)
• Join the Musings of a Geriatric Mama Community for monthly encouragement, practical wellness resources, and inspiration for ambitious women.
• How I Built This podcast with Guy Raz (recommended for aspiring entrepreneurs)

Let's Continue the Conversation

What season are you navigating right now?

Are you building something new, recovering from burnout, redefining success, or learning to embrace the pause?

Share this episode with a friend who needs encouragement and remember:

Waiting doesn't mean you're falling behind. It may be the season that's preparing you for everything you've been working toward.

Let's stay connected!  https://linktr.ee/K.AmeyInspires?utm_source=linktree_profile_share&ltsid=0eb50dac-1e79-445d-9c1e-8a5dd2e34847

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Can I ask you a few questions? And bear with me, these may not be always comfortable to hear, but I have to ask because I know several of us are going through this as we speak. Have you ever felt like everyone else is moving forward? Have you ever wondered why some seasons of life seem to flow effortlessly while others feel like one long period of waiting? Have you ever questioned whether you're failing or falling behind because your timeline doesn't look like everyone else's? If you ever ask yourself any of these questions, you're not alone. The truth is most of us ambitious women don't struggle with hard work. We struggle with stillness. We're constantly told if we're not producing, achieving, growing, building, or checking something off our to-do list, we're somehow losing momentum. So we keep moving. We mistake busyness for productivity. We chase the next goal. We try to force clarity instead of creating space for it. But what if the pause isn't an obstacle? What if it's truly part of the process? Welcome to Musings of a Geriatric Mama, where we discuss all things millennial and motherhood. This is not your average show where we romanticize in the mom, but rather a place where we keep it real while guiding you through restorative living and wealth. Here you'll find impactful insights from high-achieving moments and motherfuckers. Navigating life is exhausting. It's simultaneously important. You may laugh or cry and even possibly pee yourself. So do a kegle or two and hold on to your seat. It's going to be a bumpy ride, but it doesn't have to be a bumpy one. I'm your host, Kedna Ame, and thank you for meeting. Welcome back to Musings of a Geriatric Mama, where we talk about real women doing real things. And I'm so glad you're here. I'm your host, Kedna Ame, and today we're going to talk about three actionable steps you can take to optimize your waiting season. It's not always comfortable. The waiting season has a lot of unanswered questions. The waiting season is almost like torture if you think about it. Because you can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but it's the in-between hard process building, growing pains that make this part of the journey challenging. Ambitious women, literally, we know we've planned our lives out since we were maybe what, 10, 12 years old? I know I did. I had everything planned out from what I was going to be when I grew up, when I was gonna get married, and when I was going to have my first child. And ha, listen, the plot thickened so many different times. A lot of those things did not go how I planned them as a 12-year-old. But as a 40-year-old, I understand the wisdom in understanding that you can plan for everything, every detail, specifically down to the T. Dot your I's and cross your T's. But the way life is, it doesn't always pan out that way. But what if we could optimize this time in the journey? The ebb, right? The part where things don't seem fluent, where the current seems to be just not flowing, where things are still, where things are unknown. So whether you're waiting for clarity in your career, you're waiting to grow your family, waiting for your business to gain traction, or waiting to feel like yourself again after motherhood, or simply waiting for life to make a little bit more sense. This episode is for you. So lock in. We're going to talk about some actionable things that can help you navigate this time because I know it's not easy. And even as we speak, I'm navigating that season currently. And what I realize is that you can do so much in a season from going a million miles an hour to a season where your foot is totally on the break. And then maybe you are transitioning into a moment in a season that feels slow where you can actually start to accelerate a little bit, but you realize that you can't go at the speed that you were going before. And that's where the wisdom in learning from these times in our life helps us to unlock the next versions of ourselves that lean into rest versus busyness and hustle culture. So I've been working on something for the past couple of months, and I can't wait to talk about it like outright. But I'm introducing a little bit of those aspects of this framework that I had in mind, especially for busy, ambitious women, not only mothers, mother figures, but women that are just building something outside of the norm or building something outside of what society expects us to do as women. Maybe you're first generation to go to college and you're on your second or third degree. Maybe you're the first in your family to build a business. You have no entrepreneurial background. Maybe you pivoted from healthcare or from law, and now you're in this space where you want to create generational impact outside of the traditional route that you initially took. I mean, that is not always easy. Maybe you're caring for aging parents at this time of your life. You were thriving and making six figures, and you had to pivot in order to care for your parents that may be battling dementia and other chronic illnesses. Maybe you're taking care from children that you prayed for, but it didn't mean that you understood the impact motherhood would have on your identity. So let's take time to lean into a season where pausing and waiting is not actually a negative thing, but the essential catalyst for that next version of yourself that you've been dreaming about and praying. So the thing about it is that when you pause, this is not necessarily because you've lost your way or you stop growing, but because sometimes the most productive thing you can do is slow down long enough to recognize what this season is trying to teach you. By the end of today's episode, I hope you'll stop seeing waiting as wasted time and start seeing it as one of the most important parts of your journey. So let's really talk about why we hate waiting. Listen, in today's society, we celebrate hustle, speed, productivity, instant gratification. We see these overnight success stories, and please understand that there's air quotes. And what it does is almost try to change our brain chemistry into believing that that is the norm. But in truth, your brain chemistry does start to be affected by the things that you consume. And you know, you always hear people talk about the next dopamine hit. Should we talk a little bit about dopamine and it being an integral part of how the brain responds to pleasure and success? So, dopamine is a key brain chemical and messenger that controls pleasure, motivation, and movement. And we know we've hear this all the time about social media being this instant dopamine hit. Our senses are enlightened by the pictures that we see, the five-second videos that appeal to our short attention spans. It basically sends this wave of chemicals to the brain that signals satisfaction when you're doing fun or rewarding things or when you're seeing things that are pleasurable. And because of that, our brain becomes addicted to those short spurts of what we see in a highlight reel. And that isn't real. It isn't real life. Social media is just a glimpse of a curated aspect of people's lives. But what has happened over time is that as a society, we've become addicted to the instant gratification, to seeing those pleasurable things. And that innately could be related to just a desire for contentment, a desire to enjoy life, especially if we've gone through things throughout our life that have uh left us with traumatic experiences. So we navigate challenging times by decompressing, and social media is one of the easiest ways to do that. It's passive and we're ingesting so much that we don't realize how it actually is affecting our psyche, our chemistry, and our wellness overall. As a society, we're just hooked upon the next quick and best thing. But if you really dive into the success stories that look like they're overnight, what you hear is that this amazing woman in business took like 10 years to develop the formula that we now see and use on our hair, or you know, the makeup products that we use daily. It looks like it's overnight, but the truth is there's been years and years of overwhelm, of sleepless nights, and of obstacles to overcome in order for them to be where we see them today. It's this illusion of an overnight success. But with wisdom, you'll understand that anything worth having takes time. And I've been listening to this podcast for years since I started my entrepreneurship journey, and I'll recommend it to you. It's called How I Built This. And it's hosted by Guy Ross, and it's an amazing podcast for entrepreneurs and anyone that is aspiring to build something from the ground up. My favorite founder stories were the ones where you hear about the founder really overcoming adversity, and in their lowest moments, they decided not to give up and they got through. But what I loved to hear was how long some of these founder stories took. We're talking about anywhere from five to seven years before one person looked at their pitch. I remember this one founder, I believe it was the founder of Tatcha, that lived in her parents' garage for seven years with all her products and all the beginning formulations, you know, all her trips to Japan trying to like get her formula right before she even was able to land a partnership deal with a major retailer. I will never forget that story because what it did for me is kind of combat my mind's thought that things happen overnight. Sharing these stories about what it really takes to be successful is important and I just love it. And hearing these stories about the founders because it helps me to realize that hey, I don't have to be this overnight success. I can optimize time while I have it to build something that is worthwhile, long-lasting, and sustainable. That's the thing about it. Some of these things that are acquired quickly sometimes are not sustainable. It takes building something, a foundation that is firm on systems, optimization, ethics that really helps a business propel further or that allows someone to go further, whether that's in their career, their marriage, their health. The foundation is important. And if you build your foundation on sand, it's not the same as building on like concrete, right? Or rock. So we really have to rewire our brains when it comes to this instant gratification society and really rewrite the narrative into what is important when it comes to obtaining success. And maybe what we need to do is redefine what success looks like for us. It's not always what we see online, what we read in a blog, or that we read in a New York Times bestseller. Success, I'm starting to realize, is what makes sense for yourself, for your family, and for the legacy that you're wanting to build. At the end of the day, growth rarely happens instantly. It takes time. And I always heard this adage that anything worth having takes time. I will continue to spread that notion around. Because truthfully, a seed doesn't become a tree overnight. Healing takes time, right? Building your character takes time. Being healthy, renewing your wellness takes time. Not only does it take time, but it takes intention. What I've learned is that some of the greatest transformations in my own life definitely didn't happen when I was going a million miles per hour. My real clarity came when I slowed down. And I'll tell you exactly what did that. It's something that we don't always like to talk about, but the impact of the global pandemic will be heard and seen and felt for decades to centuries to come. I was a part of what they call the great resignation. During that time, many people left their corporate America jobs because they were burnt out and didn't realize that they were burnt out until they were still enough to slow down because that's what quarantine did. We weren't in those constant social environments. We weren't interacting with people like we used to. We were isolated. And in isolation, breakthrough can happen. So that is what I want to continue to encourage you. That sometimes in the most challenging times of your life, a rose can grow from a rock or water can pour out of a rock. So you have to just change your mindset about what stillness means. And I know a lot of us are a little neurospicy, you know? We can't sit still. Our brains are constantly in motion. Whether there is an element of some type of neurodiversity occurring, and of course, refer to a therapist or any other specialist that can actually give you a diagnosis, but a lot of us know that we're that we're definitely navigating a lot of things mentally. Even as women, we carry what they call the invisible mental load. That is basically the laundry list of things that we have to do every single day and have to bear in mind and have to make plans for. Whether that's doctor's appointments, whether that's sending out client proposals, whether that's preparing for court or studying for the next certificate or doctorate that you're in pursuit of. We carry so many things in our brains daily, and shutting down or pausing or making room for rest just seems lazy. But the truth is, rest is actually a part of the recipe for recovery. Rest is a part of the recipe for this next version of yourself that you're already evolving to be. I know that you wanted to be there yesterday, but the beauty in this journey is that now you have time to really think about the next steps. When you're so used to going a million miles per hour, you really are not intentionally thinking through everything. You're actually in fight or flight. And I can't wait to talk a little bit more about going from survival to thriving with one of our expected guests, Dr. Lauren DeSico. She talks about this fight or flight state that we're constantly in that we may not even realize. And when we're going so hard so much, the signs and symptoms may creep up on us without us knowing and then manifest into physical and health-related illnesses. So stay tuned for that. Slowing down can also be preventative so that you don't get to burnout. And a lot of us may already be in burnout and we don't realize that. So, what can we do to optimize the time when we do have the time to slow down and see what life is really handing us? So, burnout is something that many women face and navigate and don't even realize it. There are signs and symptoms that might be screaming at you right now and you may not even know it. Or maybe you do realize it and you're just so overwhelmed that you don't have the time to figure out what you need to do to heal and recover. Well, I want to invite you to get your free copy of Burnout to Balance Reset Guide. It is something that I created for ambitious women that are navigating or trying to figure out what does work-life balance really look like? And what are the steps that you can take to transform your life in a way where you realize that rest is a part of the recipe for your success, that we don't have to be striving so hard day to day that we're surviving, where instead we can make the intentional steps to purposefully pivot so that we can thrive. Once you download your copy, you will be a part of a thriving community of women that are rewriting the narrative about what success looks like for them. We're talking about real women doing real things, going real places. Join a community where you'll get a monthly newsletter from me where we can just grow in community because this journey can be a bumpy one, but it doesn't have to be a lonely one. Waiting, it's not punishment. And you may be wondering, like, what exactly am I supposed to do during the pause? Well, we're going to talk about those three things to do while you're waiting. Here's the first actual step you can take while you're in a season of waiting. Stop fighting the pause. Most of us spend the waiting season asking, when will this end? Instead, why don't you ask, what is this season trying to teach me? We have to find a way to ask the right questions and trust the process. It is a process. And I think for the longest time that we're so obsessed with just the before and afters that we see like online, right? Especially those weight loss transitions. We love them. We love to see the person at what? Weighing their highest weight, and we love to see them just completely looking like a different person. But what about the in-between? What about the during? The during is just as important as seeing that final result. I actually would like to challenge you that the during might actually be the most important part because transformation happens during. Transformation happens during. So as you're in this season, what lessons keep showing up when you slow down? Take the time to think about that. Because now what you're doing when you decide to slow down or when you're in a slower season is you're giving yourself capacity, mental capacity, spiritual capacity, emotional capacity to handle the things that before may have seen out of touch because you just didn't have the bandwidth or the time to think about it. Capacity is essential when you're building something in the waiting season. What habits are in need of changing during this season? What beliefs need healing? Sometimes we're so ready to get to the next version of ourselves because we know we believe this. Someone said this when we were a child. We believe this within ourselves. We did the inner work. God told us in a dream. Like we know we are going to do this purposeful work. Or maybe someone told you the opposite of that. Someone told you that you weren't able to do that. So you found yourself striving all of your life fighting against the notion someone told you when you were 12. You need time to heal through that before you are that rock star that you were always destined to be. And this is the time to do it. I just remember how painful it was when I transitioned from working 9 to 5 every day, literally 7 a.m. to 5 30 p.m. in someone's office. Like I was just busy. There was a moment of time I was a hospitalist. I was in and out of the hospital, rounding on patients and seeing a certain amount of patients and writing reports. And like I felt so productive. And yes, because I was helping people during their time of need and healing, but it just felt good to be always doing something. And then I became a mom. I became a mom. Later to find out I became a mom of a child that needed some developmental support. So I had to really transition from being busy to being available for my child and for my family. And as beautiful as that story is, the sacrifices that were made during that time, I felt completely out of sorts. I felt just unaligned because I was so used to pushing and striving and thriving for the next goal. That's why I talked about rewriting the narrative of what successful looks like for you. I remember the version of me and the version of success that I was looking for in my early 30s. But now in this new decade of life, I realize that success will look a little bit differently and has been looking a little bit differently for me. Because I had to reprioritize what was important to me. And it took me slowing down to see that, to find the clarity. So the pause isn't empty. Sometimes it's exactly what you need to rewrite the things that were actually hindering you from seeing who you really are. Action step number two, prepare before the opportunity arrives. Successful people prepare before it comes. Remember, I told you about all these founders that talk about years and years and years and years of. Of formulations and revisions and all the different iterations of their product before you see the successful brand. There was so much preparation that was needed. And this is not to discourage you. This is not to say that you won't reach your success sooner than the other person that you may be looking at or referencing to. You may. What I'm reminding you to do, if you are in a season of waiting and building, is to just enjoy it there and optimize your time there and have a mindset shift that's even though you're not where you want to be yet, what you're doing in the meantime is so imperative for that journey and for arriving to that destination. And as ambitious women, once we get there, we're already riding the next goal, we're already planning out the next vision board. That's why waiting can be so hard because we're just so full of ideas, we're so full of vision, we're so full of all the things that we want to do before we get to this age and this milestone. Sometimes we're scared of running out of time, but if we really release and surrender, our timeline will find so much peace there, especially in my case when I release it to God. I'm not even gonna front. So the thing about it is when you prepare before the opportunity, you're making room for growth because you're finding the time to write things down, you're finding times to find classes and certificates and other educational aspects that can prepare you for that next version of yourself. Gone are the days when we're kind of just nilly-willy jumping into things. You can take a leap of faith. I am definitely a proponent of that. But what I've learned after I've taken maybe some almost, I don't want to say careless, but definitely just less intentional leaps without really looking and planning. What I've learned in this journey is that preparation is beautiful and that I can find resources, communities, and mentors to tap into so that the waiting isn't as painful because I'm doing it on a firm foundation and it's being done intentionally. So lock in and optimize this time without guilt, without shame, within reason, where you're not pushing yourself so much that it leads to burnout, because that's the thing that we're trying to recover from. We did the burnout thing. Now we're building purposefully. So if you want to become a speaker, practice speaking now. You want to write a book, start writing today. Join a writing club. You're waiting for motherhood, prepare your body. Pray, get the resources and the medical advice that you need. You're waiting to optimize your business, develop the systems now. You're waiting for love, go to the places where you think you'll find your ideal mate. The opportunity shouldn't introduce you to discipline, it should reveal it. Get locked in now. Because when you get to where you were always destined to be, you have to be ready. Because one of the quotes that I always live by is to whom much is given, much is required. That has stuck with me forever. And because of that, it's really allowed me to pace myself. I have these big dreams and big goals that I know that I'll get to eventually, but no longer will I be doing it without intention. So preparation is key for you to be able to handle this next step more gracefully, more intentionally, and with less likelihood of burnout and more purpose. Thirdly, the last thing that you can do is trust that growth is happening underground. Trust the process. Trust the process. Trust yourself. Do the work that you need to do internally. Get healthier, sleep, eat well, go to your doctor's appointments, get your checkups, get fresh air, walk, take your kid outside, walk your dog, have a conversation with your neighbor. Do the things that you may not have been able to do because what you are doing is just preparing yourself, mind, body, and soul to take on this next iteration, to take on this next part of the journey. The waiting period can be filled with uncertainty. And uncertainty can create anxiety, and anxiety can create overwhelm, and overwhelm can lead to burnout. If we understand that process, but then we flip it on its head and take intentional steps to prevent that because we've made the time and intention to work on ourselves to prioritize our mental wellness, then the waiting season is actually the exact catalyst that is needed to get you to that golden shining star, to that platform that you've been building for years, and to be able to handle it without burnout. The deepest work often happens where nobody can see it. But don't forget to do it with grace and self-compassion. And don't forget to tap into a community of like-minded individuals that understand what you're going through. So this journey is not lonely. Waiting can sometimes feel lonely. But if you're doing so intentionally and building baby step by baby step, brick by brick, you can lock in with communities that understand what you're going through. And you don't have to do it alone. We weren't intended to do this life alone. But I get when you want to get things done, I'm all for it. But it can be done together. Sometimes in the waiting season, we're optimizing and we're character building. What is growing through this waiting season are the exact characteristics that you will need to sustain the next version of yourself that you are becoming. I'm talking about growing in patience, wisdom, grit, confidence, resilience, faith. Things that success alone could never teach. But the journey to the next goal or success point or success metrics, the characteristics that are built during that time is the foundation for this person you're always destined to become. So one day people may celebrate your overnight success, but they'll never see the invisible years of preparation. Let me remind you one more time of the three things that you can remember and do while you are waiting. One, stop fighting the pause. Two, understand that you need to prepare before the opportunity arrives. And three, trust that growth is happening underground. So two quotes that I want to leave with you. One of them that is firmly founded in the word of God. You know we are gonna talk a little bit about God and Jesus here, so don't be surprised. But there is some practical, aligned and tangible things that you can do and implement in your life to see growth and understand to operate with grace and self-compassion during the harder times of life. That's why this community exists and it is firmly founded and rooted in faith. So the first quote from Robert II says this The struggle you're in today is developing the strength you need for tomorrow. And secondly, but not least, they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up on wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint. That's Isaiah 40, 31. Listen, here is what I want you to remember. Maybe the life you're praying for or been dreaming about isn't on the other side of doing more. Maybe it's on the other side of becoming more. Don't rush through a season that's trying to prepare you because the version of you that walks into your next chapter needs exactly what this chapter is teaching you. Listen, you know how much I care about you and I'm so excited about all the things that you're overcoming. Please share this episode with another woman that needs to hear something about what it means to wait with intention and know that they're not failing, but they're actually becoming the best version of themselves that they were always intended to be. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Music of a Geriatric Mama. I can't wait to have our next impactful conversation with a physical therapist that is an expert in self regulation. Stay tuned for more. Take care.