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You’re Not Stuck—Your Survival Skills May Be Holding You Back
byChuck Tuck
Life doesn't always follow the plan.
Relationships end. Careers change. Children grow up. Grief arrives. Retirement forces a new identity. Sometimes the person you thought you were—and the life you thought you were building—no longer exists.
So what do you do next?
On this episode of The Raw Vibe Podcast, I sit down with Chanda Coston, U.S. Navy veteran, business strategist, published author, mother of five, grandmother, and self-described “professional pivoter.”
Chanda has lived through military service, entrepreneurship, career transitions, four divorces, grief, retirement at 50, and multiple seasons of rebuilding. Her experiences have given her a unique perspective on something many people struggle with:
How do you stop simply surviving your life and start intentionally creating it?
Our conversation goes far beyond motivation.
We explore the hidden ways survival skills can become self-sabotaging patterns, why highly capable people often feel compelled to carry everything themselves, and why being needed can sometimes become tied to our sense of self-worth.
We also get into the difficult questions:
👉 How do you know when resilience has turned into unnecessary endurance? 👉 Why do we stay in situations that no longer serve us? 👉 What happens when divorce, grief, retirement, or major life changes disrupt your identity? 👉 How do you rebuild self-trust after making choices you regret? 👉 Is changing your mind really failure—or can it be a sign of growth? 👉 How do you let go of the version of yourself that everyone else expects you to be? 👉 And perhaps most importantly, how do you start over without believing you're starting from scratch?
Chanda brings both professional expertise and deeply personal experience to the conversation, offering practical insight for anyone navigating life transitions, personal growth, career change, relationships, burnout, identity shifts, or the challenge of figuring out what comes next.
Because sometimes the biggest breakthrough isn't becoming someone new.
It's finally giving yourself permission to become who you were meant to be.
