Reinventing Yourself After a Life Pivot: 4 Strategies That Actually Work
From the latest episode of the Figure Out Your Life podcast
There comes a moment in every big life transition when you realize you can't be the same person anymore. Maybe it's a career change. Maybe it's becoming a homeowner, a caregiver, or an empty nester. Maybe it's all of it at once.
I know because I've lived it. In the span of a few years, I left the classroom after nearly 15 years as an educator to work in education policy, bought my first home, watched my parents retire, and slowly started stepping into a caregiver role. It was a lot of change, all at the same time. And it forced me to sit with a question so many of us face:
Who am I becoming — and how do I do this on purpose?
In the latest episode of Figure Out Your Life, I share the four strategies that got me through my own reinvention — and that can get you through yours.
1. Know Yourself
Before you can reinvent yourself, you have to understand who you actually are. I break this into three questions:
What are your passions? What do you love doing? For me, it's storytelling — it's the thread connecting my teaching, my presentations, and this podcast.
What are your skills? What are you genuinely good at? Look for proof — the things people consistently praise you for.
What are your values? What's important to you? My core values are authenticity, exploration, and wellbeing — and they guide everything from how I dress to how I spend my weekends.
Where your passions, skills, and values overlap, you'll find your purpose.
2. Envision What's Next
Transitions — whether voluntary or forced — are the perfect time to audit your life. What do you want it to look like? Is it like that now? If not, what needs to change?
I'm using this framework right now to plan my own next chapter, from my finances to where I want to live. My practical tools: vision boards, mind maps, and SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely). Don't just dream it — plan it.
3. Find Your Community
Reinvention is hard to do alone. I finished my PhD because of an accountability group — three graduate students checking in every month on our writing goals and our personal ones, until every single one of us earned our doctorate.
Your version might be an accountability partner, a book club, or a group chat. It doesn't have to be forever. It just has to be people who understand what you're working toward and won't let you quit on yourself.
4. Be Authentic and Intentional About Your Image
As you step into a new identity, decide how you want to show up in the world — and let your core values lead. I learned this the long way: it takes far less energy to be myself than to manage myself into someone else's expectations. My teaching got so much better the day I stopped trying to be someone I wasn't and just showed up as me.
That also means being intentional about your public image. Google yourself. Make sure what's out there aligns with the life you're building. Reinvention is a skill — think Madonna, think Janet — and every new era of you deserves to be presented on purpose.
The Bottom Line
Change is hard, but we can all do hard things — with a plan and support. You can reset and reinvent yourself as many times as you want, as long as it stays authentic and it's for you, not for anyone else.
Start today with one small step: grab a notebook, make a checklist, start a vision board. It's about progress, not perfection.
🎧 Listen to the full episode — including my story of going from the classroom to education policy, and my unfiltered take on the "Spend That" discourse — wherever you get your podcasts.
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Figuring Out How to Pour Back Into Yourself Through Rest
Having addressed how to cope with burnout and how to recover from it, I am now turning to the element I believe holds the entire process together — rest.
This is the final installment of my three-part burnout recovery series, and in this episode I explore the seven types of rest that have been instrumental in helping me pour back into myself after years of burnout, significant life transitions, and a five-year hiatus from this podcast. Sleep is only one form of rest. Most of us are neglecting the other six entirely.
In this episode, I discuss:
• Physical Rest — the importance of naps, restorative movement, and giving the body the recovery time it requires
• Mental Rest — distinguishing between physical fatigue and cognitive overload, and practical strategies to quiet a mind that is carrying too much
• Emotional Rest — creating space to authentically feel your emotions rather than performing wellness for the benefit of others
• Sensory Rest — understanding how overstimulation from screens, noise, and constant input depletes us, and how to intentionally reduce it
• Creative Rest — what I learned from stepping away from content creation entirely for two months, and how stillness refuels inspiration
• Social Rest — the practice of identifying the people and environments that restore your energy versus those that deplete it, and honoring that distinction
• Spiritual Rest — reconnecting with your values, your purpose, and the relationships and practices that remind you why any of this matters
I also share personal reflections on reclaiming my health after gaining thirty pounds during burnout, my daily affirmation practice, and other moments from my own ongoing recovery journey.
You cannot be at your best without rest. I hope this episode serves as both a reminder and a permission slip.
🎧 If this episode resonated with you, I would be grateful if you shared it and left a review.
📲 Follow along on Instagram and visit www.figureoutyourlifeblog.com for show notes and resources.
Figuring Out How to Recover After Burnout
Are you running on empty and not sure how to bounce back? In this episode of Figure Out Your Life Podcast, I get personal about my own burnout journey — including burning out multiple times since my last episode — and share 3 strategies for how to recover and move forward after hitting a wall.
Links mentioned in this episode:
Click here to subscribe via RSS feed (non-iTunes feed):
Figuring Out How To Deal With Burnout
Sick and tired? Need a break? In this episode of Figure Out Your Life Podcast, I discuss workplace burnout and emotional exhaustion and share 6 ways to deal with this psychological syndrome.
Links mentioned in this episode:
Burnout harms workers’ physical health through many pathways
8 black therapists on their best advice for coping right now
7 Virtual Mental Health Resources Supporting Black People Right Now
Filling our Cups: 4 Ways People of Color can Foster Mental Health and Practice Restorative Healing
How I Learned to Stop Glorifying the Hustle and Start Living Intentionally
Click here to subscribe via RSS feed (non-iTunes feed):
http://figureoutyourlife.libsyn.com/rss
Announcements:
Looking for life advice? Send questions for the new “listener’s letter” segment that’s coming to the podcast. Once I get a critical mass of questions, I can add this segment to the show. Email toya@figureoutyourlifeblog.com and put hashtag #AskingToyaT in the subject.
Social Media Info:
Have thoughts about the episode? Share on social media using #FigureOutYourLifePod and follow the podcast on Instagram. Email toyat@figureoutyourlifeblog.com with thoughts and questions!
Contact with Toya T on social media:
Website: www.figureoutyourlifeblog.com
Instagram: @figureoutyourlifepod
Figuring Out Lessons From My 20s
In this episode of Figure Out Your Life Podcast, I reflect on my 20s and share 10 lessons I learned from it. So much happened in that decade that has impacted my life now--especially how I think and approach life--and I thought it would be helpful to share what I learned from those experiences in my 20s with others. Hopefully, this will help twentysomethings avoid some of the hard lessons I had to learn, or inspire thirtysomethings and older to reflect back and figure out what they learned from their 20s.
Links mentioned in this episode:
Click here to subscribe via RSS feed (non-iTunes feed):
http://figureoutyourlife.libsyn.com/rss
Announcements:
Looking for life advice? Send questions for the new “listener’s letter” segment that’s coming to the podcast. Once I get a critical mass of questions, I can add this segment to the show. Email toya@figureoutyourlifeblog.com and put hashtag #AskingToyaT in the subject.
Social Media Info:
Have thoughts about the episode? Share on social media using #FigureOutYourLifePod and follow the podcast on Instagram. Email toyat@figureoutyourlifeblog.com with thoughts and questions!
Contact with Toya T on social media:
Website: www.figureoutyourlifeblog.com
Instagram: @figureoutyourlifepod
Figuring Out How to Fight Imposter Syndrome (Before It Hinders Your Success)
The term “imposter syndrome” was coined by psychologists Clance and Imes in 1978 to describe the persistent feeling that one’s achievements have come about through some sort of accident, luck, or deception and that at any minute other people might find out you're an “imposter.” People of Color are particularly vulnerable to this phenomenon due to experiences with racial discrimination, racial-gender stereotypes of intellectual inferiority, and underrepresentation in professional spaces. In this episode of Figure Out Your Life podcast, I discuss imposter syndrome and share five tips on how to fight it before it hinders your success.
Links mentioned in this episode:
CCW’s Alumnae Author Series with Mary Pattillo CC'91 and moderator LaToya Tavernier CC'05
How to mitigate the detrimental effects of imposter syndrome in the workplace
9 Ways to Deal With Imposter Syndrome Before It Hinders Your Success
Click here to subscribe via RSS feed (non-iTunes feed):
http://figureoutyourlife.libsyn.com/rss
Announcements:
Looking for life advice? Send questions for the new “listener’s letter” segment that’s coming to the podcast. Once I get a critical mass of questions, I can add this segment to the show. Email toya@figureoutyourlifeblog.com and put hashtag #AskingToyaT in the subject.
Social Media Info:
Have thoughts about the episode? Share on social media using #FigureOutYourLifePod and follow the podcast on Instagram. Email toyat@figureoutyourlifeblog.com with thoughts and questions!
Contact with Toya T on social media:
Website: www.figureoutyourlifeblog.com
Instagram: @figureoutyourlifepod
Figuring Out the Negative Effects of Being a “Strong Black Woman”
Many black women in America feel pressured to act like or be seen as “strong,” projecting themselves as self-sacrificing, emotionless, and unbreakable in their daily lives. However, the “strong black woman” identity can actually be harmful to black women. In this episode of Figure Out Your Life podcast, I talk with my friends Claire Gibson, an intellectual property attorney, and Courtenay Barton, a philanthropist, about being black women in America and explore how the “strong black woman” identity can negatively impact black women’s lives and well-being.
Links mentioned in this episode:
Where to find our guests:
Claire Gibson
Website: www.gibsonlaw.nyc
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gibsonlawnyc/
Courtenay Barton
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/highheelsnbooks/
Click here to subscribe via RSS feed (non-iTunes feed):
http://figureoutyourlife.libsyn.com/rss
Announcements:
Looking for life advice? Send questions for the new “listener’s letter” segment that’s coming to the podcast. Once I get a critical mass of questions, I can add this segment to the show. Email toya@figureoutyourlifeblog.com and put hashtag #AskingToyaT in the subject.
Social Media Info:
Have thoughts about the episode? Share on social media using #FigureOutYourLifePod and follow the podcast on Instagram. Email toyat@figureoutyourlifeblog.com with thoughts and questions!
Contact with Toya T on social media:
Website: www.figureoutyourlifeblog.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/latoyat/