The Rachel Hollis Podcast

903 How Do I Change Careers I Have Such A Good Job Already Rach How Do I Stop Feeling Anxious About The Future

October 30, 2025

Key Takeaways Copied to clipboard!

  • Building a new life or making a significant change does not require blowing up your entire current life; incremental changes and building 'bridges' are viable paths forward. 
  • The period between ages 35 and 50 often brings an intense self-reflection regarding one's career and life purpose, which can be a healing 'crisis' rather than a negative one. 
  • To manage anxiety and obsessive thoughts, focus energy only on aspects of life you can control, as obsessing over the uncontrollable is the fastest route to unhappiness. 

Segments

Fear of Change and Incremental Steps
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(00:01:01)
  • Key Takeaway: Do not wait to make changes; start building the new life incrementally now to avoid greater future misery.
  • Summary: People often hesitate to change because they fear the unknown outcome, assuming it might be worse. Listen to intuition that signals the current situation is unsustainable. Starting change now, while possessing energy, prevents stagnation and deeper future unhappiness.
Podcast Subscription Request
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(00:02:06)
  • Key Takeaway: Subscribing to a podcast is a direct, one-click action that supports the show and ensures listeners receive new episodes automatically.
  • Summary: Subscribing is one of the best ways to support podcast hosts and their staff. It guarantees the listener never misses a new episode drop. Unsubscribing is easily done if the listener decides they dislike the show.
Recording from Home Chaos
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(00:03:17)
  • Key Takeaway: When life chaos peaks, pausing major projects to organize one small area can provide the grounding needed to manage overall responsibilities.
  • Summary: Rachel Hollis is recording from home due to an overwhelming home remodel causing extreme clutter and dust. She felt compelled to stop and organize a small area to regain a sense of grounding. This pause allows her to manage family and work obligations effectively.
Ask Rach Segment Introduction
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(00:05:54)
  • Key Takeaway: Voicemails for ‘Ask Rach’ are answered live without prior review, based purely on intuition and a desire to offer friendly advice.
  • Summary: The ‘Ask Rach’ segment utilizes a podcast hotline where listeners leave voicemails. Rachel listens to these voicemails for the first time during recording. She aims to answer from her gut, offering advice as a friend at coffee, and listeners should feel free to ignore any advice that doesn’t resonate.
Career Change for People Pleasers
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(00:07:14)
  • Key Takeaway: The midlife realization of ‘Who am I and what do I want?’ is common, especially for women aged 35-50 who prioritized family needs over personal fulfillment.
  • Summary: Listener Mandy, successful in operations but unfulfilled, represents a common experience of building a life that serves the family first. This realization often surfaces when children are older and provide more space for self-inquiry. Instead of a ‘midlife crisis,’ this can be a necessary, though uncomfortable, period of healing and re-evaluation.
Niche Coaching Opportunity
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(00:16:07)
  • Key Takeaway: Leverage specific, hard-won career experience, like rising through the service industry, to create a unique and marketable coaching niche.
  • Summary: Instead of pursuing general executive coaching, Mandy should coach service industry workers on career advancement and maximizing income, utilizing her direct experience. Clients seeking specific expertise prefer coaches who have demonstrably succeeded in that exact field. Building this content-based business can start before leaving the current secure job.
Content Creation Consistency Advice
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(00:21:10)
  • Key Takeaway: To test a new content niche, commit to posting content daily for a full 60 days before evaluating its success or audience reception.
  • Summary: Creating content costs only time and should be used to test new ideas while still employed. Do not quit based on initial low response rates. A minimum of 60 pieces of content is necessary to understand the audience and determine which content style is effective.
Balancing Future Planning and Anxiety
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(00:23:43)
  • Key Takeaway: Anxiety often stems from trying to control uncontrollable future events, such as pregnancy timing or unknown vacation outcomes.
  • Summary: Using definitive language like ‘I am an anxious person’ solidifies that trait; instead, acknowledge feeling anxiety moving through the body. The quickest path to pain is obsessing over things outside one’s control, like conception timelines. Focus effort on controlling thoughts and actions in the present moment, not future outcomes.
Defining Being Present
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(00:32:59)
  • Key Takeaway: Being present is the simple, active process of noticing the immediate surroundings, which stops the mind from dwelling on the past or future.
  • Summary: Living in the moment is not about indulgence, like eating more ice cream, but about noticing where your feet are right now. This act of noticing prevents the mind from engaging in obsessive loops about what has been or what might be. This mental exercise requires practice but drastically improves one’s baseline level of anxiety.
Speaking Desired Realities into Existence
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(00:34:42)
  • Key Takeaway: Avoid speaking negative outcomes into existence, especially for journeys not yet started, as belief dictates feeling, which in turn influences results.
  • Summary: Listener Jen pre-decided that her pregnancy journey would be challenging based on prior testing, effectively creating a negative fate. One must maintain hope and faith that the best outcome is possible, even if the path is unknown. Belief about a situation determines how one feels, leading to greater results when approaching things positively.