The Courageous Middle Podcast

You've done this before. You get excited about something, and somehow, a few days later, it quietly disappears.

This week, we're looking at why that happens, and it has nothing to do with how badly you wanted it. We get into SPF (safe, predictable, familiar) and why your comfort zone is built entirely from proof rather than truth. We look at why your subconscious mind and nervous system are constantly asking one question, is this safe, and why the doubt you feel isn't evidence against your decision. And we talk about the one question that interrupts the automatic no, and how repeating it, one small interruption at a time, is what actually rewires what feels safe.

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 just think maybe we should revisit the timeline.” Say that sentence out loud. Now say it again without the first four words - We should revisit the timeline. Same thought. Completely different weight. In this episode, Lisa breaks down the small, automatic words so many of us insert before we've finished a sentence, words like think, maybe, and sorry, and why they show up most in the exact moments we need authority or clarity. She walks through why your subconscious mind is quietly working to keep you inside a comfort zone it built a long time ago, what a phrase like “I don't want to fail” is actually doing to your brain, and why noticing your own words, before you try to fix anything, is the real first step. If you are in the process of getting to know yourself better, take the midlife assessment at https://assessment.thecourageousmiddle.com/ to help explain what you are experiencing right now. Connect with Lisa Website: https://www.thecourageousmiddle.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lisablanchet_/

In midlife, your body is changing, so is everything else, all at once. This episode is about learning to tell the difference between the change you choose and the change that chooses you.

In this episode, Lisa unpacks why menopause was never meant to be called the end, what a program on perimenopause taught her about estrogen and grace, and the real difference between chosen change and unchosen change. She also shares three questions worth asking about any change you've already survived, the ones that show you exactly what you're capable of.

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're not behind because you're doing it wrong. You're behind because everything on your list looks the same. In this episode, Lisa Blanchet gets into the thing underneath the to-do list, the cognitive spiral that happens when your brain tries to hold everything at once and can't distinguish what actually matters today. If you've ever ended a full, productive day and still felt like you didn't get enough done, this one is for you. Lisa shares a client coaching moment where a list of twelve became four, and then became one clear next step. She shares a personal story of what happened when she came home from vacation and caught herself on autopilot and the practice, she used to stop letting her list be in charge. Listen at www.thecourageousmiddle.com/podcast or Apple and Spotify. And if you want to go deeper, the full blog post is waiting for you at www.thecourageousmiddle.com. Connect with Lisa on IG - @lisablanchet_

On his 18th birthday, my son's school communication app revoked my access. No warning. No transition. Just: you no longer belong here. And while that sounds like a small, practical thing, it didn't feel small at all.

In this episode, I'm sharing what that moment stirred up, and why I think it matters, not just for me, but for anyone navigating a season where something is quietly closing before the next thing has opened. We talk a lot about the big milestone moments: graduation day, the diploma walk, the dinner afterward. But midlife is also full of smaller transitions that arrive without ceremony, without a crowd, without anyone handing you a tissue. And those can be the hardest ones to hold, especially when you're holding them alone.

If your child is finishing school, or if you're navigating any kind of in-between right now, this episode is for you. Take the quiz at www.thecourageousmiddle.com/quiz to notice where you are in your own courageous middle. Or read the full blog post at www.thecourageousmiddle.com.

What if trusting yourself didn't require a dramatic decision or a complete life overhaul? What if it started with just noticing?

In this episode, Lisa introduces the Courage Circle, a simple three-part practice grounded in awareness, curiosity, and choice. It's not a to-do list item. It's a way of being. A lens you can bring to any moment, any decision, any whisper that surfaces when life gets quiet enough to hear.

Lisa shares how one of her whispers arrived in 2016, quiet, unexpected, and impossible to ignore once she wrote it down. She walks through each step of the Courage Circle with honesty about what it actually looks like to practice it.

If you've been running on autopilot, this episode is an invitation to pause. One small moment of awareness. One curious question. One small step toward yourself.

Take the quiz at www.thecourageousmiddle.com/quiz to find where you are right now.

Connect with Lisa - www.thecourageousmiddle.com

Instagram: @lisablanchet_

We’ve been told that change happens in a moment, a leap, a lightning bolt, a breaking point that clarifies everything. And sometimes it does. But most of the time, that’s not the whole story.

In this episode, Lisa gets honest about what choosing yourself actually looks like from the inside. Not the dramatic version. The real one: slow, quiet, built out of small moments of awareness long before any visible shift.

If you’ve ever listened to someone else’s transformation story and wondered why yours feels so much messier and less certain, this episode is for you.

Lisa talks about what it looked like to walk toward leaving her corporate career, the role of honesty (not confidence) in starting change, why disruption is part of the process, and how self-trust is built, not found.

She also shares one small, practical practice for women who don’t know where to start: the “not right now” experiment.

Listen to this episode and then take a few quiet minutes with the quiz at www.thecourageousmiddle.com/quiz, a gentle way to notice where you are right now.

Read more on the blog: [link to blog post]

Connect with Lisa: www.thecourageousmiddle.com

IG: @lisablanchet_

You know something no longer fits. So why is it so hard to move on? In this episode, Lisa Blanchet names what's actually underneath that question, and it's not a lack of courage. Most women who stay in jobs, relationships, or roles that no longer feel like theirs don't stay because they don't know. They stay because they were deeply conditioned to keep going, to be dependable, to hold everything together and disconnect from themselves so gradually they barely noticed. Lisa introduces FINE: Feelings Inside Not Expressed. She talks about the high-functioning woman who still shows up, still delivers, still smiles while everything she's actually feeling goes underground. And she unpacks the fear that's really driving the staying. This episode is honest, grounded, and deeply personal. It's for the woman on a Sunday night who hears something quiet and doesn't know what to do with it yet. You don't have to know what comes next. You just have to be willing to stop pretending that fine is enough. Take the quiz: thecourageousmiddle.com/quiz Connect with Lisa - www.courageousmiddle.com or Instagram @lisablanchet_

In her mid-forties, after leaving a 25-year career, Lisa sat across from her first coach and couldn't answer a simple question: " What do you love to do?" She didn't know. And she beat herself up about it for a long time.

This episode is for the woman who is in the middle of something she can't quite name yet. The one who thought the answers would arrive faster. Who feels the doubt and the curiosity and the confusion all at once, and wonders if that means she's doing it wrong. She's not. And this episode is the reminder she needs to hear.

Lisa shares the story of her own messy middle, what she was afraid to say out loud, and the one realization that shifted everything, not because she found all the answers, but because she finally stopped waiting for them.

Connect with Lisa:

Website: www.thecourageousmiddle.com

Instagram: @lisablanchet_

How many hats are you wearing right now? And more importantly, did you choose them, or were they placed on your head by someone who believed in you, needed you, or simply assumed you'd figure it out?

In this episode, I share a story from my own career, a hat that slowly cost me more than I was willing to admit. Not because the people around me were wrong. But because the hat was never mine to begin with. The hats we were gifted came from people who believed in us. We don't have to resent them for that. We just get to decide which ones stay, and which ones we get to peacefully put down.

Connect with Lisa:

Website: www.thecourageousmiddle.com

Instagram: @lisablanchet_