The Courageous Middle Podcast

Changing the way you've lived for four or five decades doesn't happen overnight. If it hasn't happened yet, that's not proof you're doing it wrong.

In this episode, I talk about why real change takes more repetitions than we expect, and why the unsettled feeling that you should have figured it out by now is not a sign you're failing. I talk about what happens when we compare our day one to somebody else's day 500, what my own coach gave me instead of the shortcuts I kept asking for, and why the being side of change needs as much time as the doing side. I also share the belief that quietly slows down so many capable women, the belief that we should be able to figure it out alone, and the friend who reminded me of something I had walked right past. Self-trust is built through evidence, and it's so much easier to see when someone is there to reflect it back to you.

❤️ Join us in The Courageous Middle Community - come alongside other Gen X women navigating some of the same things you are. I’ll share my experience and support you on the beautiful journey of getting to know yourself and what you want now.

https://www.thecourageousmiddle.com/the-courageous-middle-community

To learn more about The Courageous Middle, visit www.thecourageousmiddle.com or follow Lisa on Instagram @lisablanchet_

You've spent years being the dependable one. So when it's time to say no, the words don't come easy, and honestly, it doesn't feel like a communication problem. It feels unsafe. In this episode, Lisa breaks down why people-pleasing at work isn't a personality flaw, it's a pattern built on autopilot, and walks through the exact incremental step she uses with clients to shift it. No dramatic confrontation required. Just one small, deliberate response, practiced until it becomes real. You'll hear why "no is a complete sentence" is true and still not the whole story, how a single Post-it note can interrupt years of automatic yes, and why knowing your reason matters more than the words you choose. To learn more about The Courageous Middle Community, visit www.thecourageousmiddle.com or follow Lisa on Instagram @lisablanchet_.

A woman told Lisa she needed six months to decide what needed to change in her life. Her doctor had already offered help. She said no, because taking it felt like admitting she wasn't as strong as she believed herself to be.

This episode is about the quiet belief underneath that no: that needing help means you can't keep going with it all. Lisa unpacks why the nervous system treats asking for help as unsafe long after it stopped being dangerous, what six months of waiting actually costs a body, a marriage, and a family, and why doing this alone was never the strength we thought it was.

Lisa Blanchet is a certified coach and the host of The Courageous Middle, helping Gen X women navigate midlife and the space between who they've been and who they're becoming. 

Connect with Lisa

Website: https://www.thecourageousmiddle.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lisablanchet_/

Take the midlife assessment: https://assessment.thecourageousmiddle.com/

“You can have it all” was supposed to be a gift. Somewhere along the way, for Lisa, it quietly became you should be able to do it all.

In this episode, Lisa unpacks the should warrior, the invisible weight of being the one everyone counts on, and why just saying no rarely works as a fix on its own. She shares what happened when a post about Gen X women reconsidering their next decade reached thousands of people, and what the honesty underneath the responses revealed. Most of all, she offers a simple, undramatic way to start distinguishing between what you can do and what you actually want to keep doing.

If you want to understand more about what you are experiencing, I created a short assessment for you at https://assessment.thecourageousmiddle.com/

To learn more about The Courageous Middle, visit www.thecourageousmiddle.com or follow Lisa on Instagram @lisablanchet_

Two women, one gym, 6:30 in the morning, and neither one sounded unhappy about how much they were carrying. That's exactly what caught Lisa's attention.

In this episode, Lisa unpacks the real difference between an hour you choose and an hour that simply defaults to whatever is loudest. Two hours that look identical on a calendar but feel completely different in your body. She shares her own years-long resentment of 6:30 am, and how the exact same hour became something she chooses on purpose.

This episode isn't about doing less or deciding work is the problem. It's about noticing where your hours are actually going, and giving yourself permission to be honest about it.

If you want to understand more about what you are experiencing, I created a short assessment for you at https://assessment.thecourageousmiddle.com/

To learn more about The Courageous Middle, visit www.thecourageousmiddle.com or follow Lisa on Instagram @lisablanchet_

A LinkedIn post about being let go after twenty five years turned into hundreds of messages that all said some version of the same thing: I thought I was the only one. This episode is about why that silence exists, and what actually breaks it. Lisa unpacks why women in midlife are so practiced at carrying on quietly, why being called strong or low maintenance can quietly reinforce that silence, and why permission to be honest so often has to be offered by someone else before we'll take it ourselves. She also shares her own resistance to community, and what she's building next for women in exactly this season. If you want to understand more about what you are experiencing in midlife, I created a short assessment for you at https://assessment.thecourageousmiddle.com To learn more about The Courageous Middle visit www.thecourageousmiddle.com or follow Lisa on Instagram @lisablanchet_

You didn't eat until four in the afternoon yesterday. The day before wasn't much different. Somewhere in the first weeks of a new leadership role, without deciding to, you start running on empty. This episode isn't about the role itself. It's about what you give up trying to prove you deserve it: the lunch you skip, the messages you answer at ten at night, the conversation you haven't had at home about what's about to change. Lisa walks through why your team is watching what you do more than they're listening to what you say, why boundaries are easier to set on day one than to introduce later, and why you're allowed to still be learning. If you want to go deeper, the full blog post is on the site, and the Midlife Clarity Guide is a quiet place to start sorting out what this season actually needs from you. If you want to understand more about what you are experiencing I created a short assessment for you at https://assessment.thecourageousmiddle.com/ To learn more about The Courageous Middle visit www.thecourageousmiddle.com or follow Lisa on Instagram @lisablanchet_

For twenty-five years, Lisa was known as the girl who worked for the telecom company. Then the company was gone, and so was the version of her that everyone recognized.

In this episode, Lisa unpacks what happens when your sense of self gets built around a job title, a company, a role you're known for.

She talks about why she wouldn't leave her corporate career without a severance package, the three years it took her to claim the words business owner, and what identity actually looks like once the scaffolding of a career is gone. She also widens the conversation to parenting, and the grief that shows up quietly as her son moves toward adulthood.

If you want to understand more about what you are experiencing, I created a short assessment for you at https://assessment.thecourageousmiddle.com/

To learn more about The Courageous Middle, visit www.thecourageousmiddle.com or follow Lisa on Instagram @lisablanchet_

I used to believe that being tired meant I was valuable. It took years before I had a word for what was actually happening underneath.

In this episode, Lisa shares her burnout experience and what was really happening underneath the facts. She walks through the quiet, physical signs of burnout that rarely look dramatic, why a two-week vacation only touches the surface, and the small, unglamorous practices that helped her reconnect with herself.

If you want to understand more about what you are experiencing, I created a short assessment for you at https://assessment.thecourageousmiddle.com/.

To learn more about The Courageous Middle, visit www.thecourageousmiddle.com or follow Lisa on Instagram @lisablanchet

You've rescheduled your whole day to avoid it. You've told yourself it just isn't the right time. This week, we're not talking about the conversation itself; we're talking about everything you do instead.

Coach Lisa unpacks why conflict is almost never about the surface thing; the dishes, the deadline, the tone of a message and almost always about a value quietly being stepped on. She walks through why avoidance feels easier in the moment even though it never actually is, why the same friction shows up inside you even when no one else is in the room, and what changes once you can name the value you're actually protecting.

If this sounds familiar, the midlife assessment at assessment.thecourageousmiddle.com is a quiet way to notice where you are right now. And for the longer read, this week's blog post goes deeper.