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No frameworks, no formulas — just two sisters getting real. In this May wrap-up episode, Jessica and Kelly close out the month by doing what they do best: being honest. They share the moments they slid back into old patterns (Jessica with achievement pressure, Kelly with people-pleasing), talk about parenting through milestones, and remind us that noticing the pattern is the work. This one might just be one of their favorites — and it might become one of yours too.
In This Episode
Jessica opens up about a surprising emotional moment with her high school senior, Gabby, and catches herself sliding back into achievement-based pressure — the exact pattern she's been unpacking all season. Kelly shares her own version: people-pleasing still shows up, even when you know better. Together, they explore what it actually looks like when two people who talk about growth for a living still have to do the messy, daily work of it.
They also leave you with three things you can actually use when you catch yourself sliding back:
Brighter Moves This Week
🌿 Kelly's Move: Write down a few words that describe who you are becoming — not who you were, not who you plan to be, but who you are moving toward right now. Keep them somewhere you'll actually see them.
🌿 Jessica's Move: Do one thing this week that is purely about curiosity. Not ambition, not productivity — just something you're genuinely interested in. One hour. One small yes to yourself.
Free Resource Mentioned
The Real Over Perfect Weekly Check-In — 5 questions, 5 minutes, once a week. Grab it free when you sign up for the newsletter at chasingbrighter.com or chasingbrighter.com/newsletter.
Looking Ahead — June
After the deep identity work of April and May, June is intentionally lighter. Think joy, romanticizing your real life, and intentional living. Kelly and Jessica are calling it a deep breath — and they can't wait to take it with you.
Connect With Us
Find us at chasingbrighter.com | Newsletter sign-up, blog, and more Follow us on all socials: @chasingbrighter
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It's officially Maycember — that stretch of late May where schedules implode, school events multiply, and someone always ends up puking on your air mattress. Jess and Kelly are back for another Superwoman Diaries check-in, and this one covers it all: Dominic's history-making baseball state championship (and the impromptu team party that followed), Gio's fifth grade promotion week chaos, Kelly's solo mom trip to Utah for Beck's soccer tournament, and a very real conversation about youth sports culture — who it's really for, when travel ball makes sense, and why 4U baseball tournaments might be the sign we've all lost the plot.
This is the honest, unfiltered version of what this season actually looks like for two moms in the thick of it.
What You'll Hear:
The Real Over Perfect Weekly Check-In — Five questions to come back to every single week. Check in with who you actually are right now, not who you think you should be or who everyone else needs you to be. Screenshot it, save it, and make it part of your Sunday routine. Free when you sign up for the newsletter.
Get it here: chasingbrighter.com/newsletter
Website: chasingbrighter.com
Instagram & TikTok: @ChasingBrighter
Newsletter: chasingbrighter.com/newsletter
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This week, Kelly and Jessica blow up the "having it all" story — where it came from, why it keeps getting a makeover, and what they actually think. From the career-and-family narratives of the 1980s to today's softer language of "intentional living" and "alignment," the pressure for women to thrive in every area of life simultaneously is still very much alive. Jessica and Kelly unpack why this framework is both a myth and a trap — and what a richer, more honest version of a full life actually looks like.
What We Cover in This Episode
This Week's Brighter Moves
Kelly's Move:
Notice a moment this week where you're measuring your life against an invisible "everything" standard. Just name it out loud to yourself: "I'm comparing my life to an everything list right now." That awareness alone is more useful than any strategy.
Jessica's Move:
Ask yourself: what season am I in right now — not the ideal life, but this season? What does this season actually call for? Give yourself permission to let that be enough. And if you find yourself waiting to be happy until things are more arranged, try choosing it today instead. Do one small thing today that's just for you — not earned, just a moment to choose happy.
Free Download This Month
Grab the Real Over Perfect Weekly Check-In — five questions, five minutes, once a week. It's free when you sign up for the newsletter at chasingbrighter.com/newsletter.
Coming Up Next Week
We're closing out May with our Still Figuring It Out segment. Kelly and Jessica both share something real about sliding back into old roles, old patterns, and old versions of themselves they thought they'd outgrown — and how they keep moving forward anyway. Don't miss it.
Connect With Us
Website: chasingbrighter.com
Newsletter: chasingbrighter.com/newsletter
Instagram & TikTok: @ChasingBrighter
YouTube: @ChasingBrighter
Blog: chasingbrighter.com/blog
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This week, Jess and Kelly are keeping it real — catching up on new studio setups, a deep dive into AI tools (Claude vs. ChatGPT, anyone?), Take Your Child to Work Day, navigating loss while hosting family, and the eternal question: what's for dinner? It's a full-life conversation about the juggle, the joy, and everything in between.
The Real Over Perfect Weekly Check-In — Five questions to come back to every single week. Check in with who you actually are right now, not who you think you should be or who everyone else needs you to be. Screenshot it, save it, and make it part of your Sunday routine. Free when you sign up for the newsletter.
Get it here: chasingbrighter.com/newsletter
Website: chasingbrighter.com
Instagram & TikTok: @ChasingBrighter
Newsletter: chasingbrighter.com/newsletter
Chasing Brighter podcast, Super Woman Diaries, Jessica Colarco, women podcast, real over perfect, May podcast episodes, identity and expectations, AI tools for women, Claude AI, ChatGPT, AI home design, workspace refresh, home office redesign, take your child to work day, modeling work for kids, children and career, women and identity, grief and family, loss and hosting, navigating death in the family, the four agreements, not taking things personally, meal planning for busy moms, crock pot meals, family dinner ideas, weekly meal prep, Costco meals, frozen meal shortcuts, cooking for a big family, women juggling everything, motherhood and career, birthday week off cooking, weekly check-in, real over perfect weekly check-in, free wellness download, women's lifestyle podcast, chasingbrighter.com
Where have you been looking for your worthiness? If the honest answer involves what you've achieved, who approves of you, or how well you've performed your roles — this episode is for you. Jessica and Kelly get personal about the conditional worth they each carried for years: the Pinterest mom era, outsourcing okayness to other people's moods, and the strange moment a spiritual healer told Jessica she had a worthiness problem (and she laughed it off). They dig into why high-achieving women are often the last to recognize this pattern, what it looks like to start untangling it, and how a values clarification practice can help you begin separating what you actually want from what you've been performing.
In This Episode
Your Brighter Moves This Week
Kelly's Move: Finish the Sentence
Complete this sentence without editing yourself:
“I am worthy because ___.”
Then just notice what comes after the because. Is it an achievement? A role? Someone's approval? You don't have to fix it right away. Just see it.
Jessica's Move: Values Clarification Check
Write down five things you feel are core parts of your identity. For each one, ask:
You don't have to act on the answer. Just being aware of it is the work.
Free Download This Month
The Real Over Perfect Weekly Check-In — five questions, five minutes, once a week. Designed to help you slow down and reconnect with what’s actually true for you.
→ Get it free at chasingbrighter.com/newsletter
Coming Up Next Week
We’re blowing up the “having it all” story — where it came from, why it got a wellness makeover, and why Jessica thinks it’s a myth worth dismantling entirely. Come ready to have an opinion.
Connect with Chasing Brighter
→ Website: chasingbrighter.com
→ Instagram: @ChasingBrighter
Episodes drop every Monday and Thursday.
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Grab your beverage of choice — because Jess has at least three of them. This week's Superwoman Diaries is peak real life: protein struggles and gut health deep dives, surviving food poisoning on the GLP-1, middle-of-the-night cortisol pushups, anxiety packing for a fifth grade field trip to Zion, and somehow landing on a conversation about platypuses and the birds and the bees with an eleven-year-old. Kelly and Jess also swap their current favorite mini-documentaries, and spoiler — one of them involves cults, an undercover psychologist, and the FBI. Just a normal Tuesday.
In This Episode:
Freebie Mentioned 🎉
The Real Over Perfect Weekly Check-In — five questions to help you check in with who you actually are right now. Not who you think you should be. Not who everyone else needs you to be. Just you. Free when you sign up for the newsletter at chasingbrighter.com.
Connect with Us: 🌐 chasingbrighter.com 📱 Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook: @chasingbrighter
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Have you ever been introduced to someone — by a person who loves you — and realized the version of you they described doesn't exist anymore? That's where this episode begins. Jessica and Kelly get honest about the slow, quiet drift of identity: how it shifts in small decisions, in what you stop tolerating, in what you start wanting. They talk about the gap between who people expect you to be and who you're actually becoming — and why that gap isn't a crisis. It's evidence that you're growing. This week: the roles we outgrow, the relationships that update alongside us, and the ones that don't.
What We Talk About
Being reintroduced to an old version of yourself by someone who loves you — and the tension that lives in that moment. How identity shifts happen gradually, in the margins, until one day you look up and realize you've quietly moved in a new direction. The difference between the version of you that exists in other people's minds versus the version you're actually living. Why the people who love us can have a vested interest in keeping us the same. Growing out of old roles — the planner, the fixer, the over-functioner — and what happens in friendships when you step back. Jessica and Kelly describe each other ten years ago (this one gets honest). The fawning response, the overfunctioning impulse, and what it looks like to notice it without acting on it. Kelly's shift with her 15-year-old, Wes — letting him drive his own story instead of living the one she thought she wanted for him. Why evolving doesn't mean you were wrong before. It means you were paying attention.
Brighter Moves This Week
Kelly's move: Ask yourself this question once this week — Who am I actually, quietly becoming? Not who you should be. Not who everyone needs you to be. Who are you moving toward right now? Write it down. Sit with it. Let it surprise you.
Jessica's move: Notice once this week where you're playing an old role that doesn't quite fit anymore. You don't have to do anything about it. Just notice it. Name it to yourself. That awareness is the beginning of something.
Free Download
Grab the Real Over Perfect Weekly Check-In — five questions, five minutes, once a week. It's designed to help you check in with who you actually are right now, not who you think you should be. Free when you sign up for our newsletter at chasingbrighter.com.
Connect With Us
Follow us on Instagram and find show notes, the blog, and the newsletter at chasingbrighter.com | @chasingbrighter
Next Week
We're going somewhere that's going to feel personal. We're talking about worthiness — and specifically the sneaky way so many of us link our worth to what we achieve, what we produce, what we perform.
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Jessica and Kelly are in their glow-up era — and they're taking you with them. This week's Superwoman Diaries is a full-on deep dive into what's actually working for their skin (hint: Retin-A, Paula's Choice, and asking AI for a skincare routine), why they're both rethinking their wardrobes from the ground up, and the surprisingly freeing idea of wearing the same four outfits you love instead of a closet full of "meh." Plus — would you get subtle lip filler if your partner of 27 years finally told you your lips were beautiful? Yeah, Jessica has thoughts.
In This Episode:
Freebie Mentioned 🎉
The Real Over Perfect Weekly Check-In — five questions to check in with who you actually are right now. Not who you think you should be. Just you. Free when you sign up for the newsletter at chasingbrighter.com.
Connect with Us: 🌐 chasingbrighter.com 📱 Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook: @chasingbrighter
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In this bonus episode, Jessica and Kelly tackle a topic that perfectly closes out April's theme of energy and capacity — values alignment. With five Thursdays in the month, the sisters decided to make good use of the extra week by walking through their free April download together: the two-part values questionnaire, Are You Living Your Values or Someone Else's?
Jessica and Kelly fill out the questionnaire in real time, getting honest about which parts of their identities feel genuinely theirs versus which ones feel like performance. From Jessica sitting alone on the bleachers at Dominic's baseball game (AirPod in, Audible playing) to Kelly's ongoing work to stop managing her kids and just be with them, this episode is a refreshing reminder that alignment isn't about perfection — it's about honesty.
They walk through all five reflection questions and five practical tips for living more in line with what actually matters to you, including why the difference between guilt and misalignment is one of the most important distinctions you can make.
What You'll Hear:
Part One — The Values Questionnaire
Part Two — Five Tips for Living More Aligned
Links & Resources:
📩 Get the free April download — Are You Living Your Values or Someone Else's? — by signing up for the newsletter at chasingbrighter.com/newsletter
📲 Missed April? DM us on Instagram @ChasingBrighter and we'll send it right to you!
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Jess and Kelly discuss what it would actually mean to start over with a baby at their stage of life — and why they're both firmly in the "no thank you" camp. They explore new research on postpartum hormones and the five-year timeline for hormonal homeostasis, and reflect on how that science reframes some of the harder seasons of early motherhood. Dr. Gabor Maté's work in The Myth of Normal comes up, particularly around how a mother's emotional state during pregnancy and early childhood shapes a child's long-term wellbeing. The conversation also touches on the unexpected gifts of older parenthood, the instinct to protect and over-worry, and the beautiful shift that comes when you finally start trusting your kids to figure things out.
And yes — there is a full dramatic reading of their kids' text messages. You will not be disappointed.
Resources & References Mentioned
Connect With Us
Subscribe to the Chasing Brighter newsletter at chasingbrighter.com/newsletter and follow us on Instagram @chasingbrighter for behind-the-scenes glimpses into our lives and upcoming episodes.
Keywords & Search Terms
parenting in midlife, having a baby in your 40s, postpartum hormones, hormonal homeostasis after pregnancy, five years postpartum, Dr. Gabor Maté, Myth of Normal, Untamed Glennon Doyle, motherhood and marriage, real talk parenting, chasing brighter podcast, Jessica Colarco, Kelly, midlife women, parenting older kids, teen texts, kids and sports injuries, baseball injuries, letting go as a parent, parenting anxiety, postpartum science, women's hormones, midlife motherhood, parenting humor, sister podcast, authentic conversations, kids growing up, nostalgic parenting, family life podcast, women over 40, emotional health motherhood
From the publisher's feed
**2024 PODCAST OF THE YEAR WINNER: BEST FEMALE HOSTED PODCAST**
Welcome to the Chasing Brighter podcast; created as a guide to living brighter, more connected and real. Because real…

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