Overwhelmed Working Woman: Boost Productivity, Master Time Management, Overcome Overwhelm & Stop People Pleasing
Overwhelmed Working Woman is a podcast for accomplished women who want to feel more calm, in control, and focused without adding more to their already full plate.
This top 2% podcast is hosted by Michelle Gauthier, who has over 7 years of experience coaching hundreds of overwhelmed working women.
Each episode offers simple, practical strategies to help you reduce overwhelm, improve productivity, and stop people pleasing. You’ll learn surprising time management hacks, how to do less without guilt, and why the path to calm begins with changing how you think.
If you're ready to reclaim your energy, focus, and peace of mind you’re in the right place. Start with listener favorite: “The Power of a To-Don’t List.”
Overwhelmed Working Woman: Boost Productivity, Master Time Management, Overcome Overwhelm & Stop People Pleasing
#146| Why Starting Over in Midlife Is a Myth—And What You Should Do Instead to Beat Overwhelm: Overwhelm, Productivity, Time Management & People Pleasing
Have you ever looked around at your "successful" life and wondered, is this really it?
In this episode, career and life transitions coach Kavita Ahuja shares the eye-opening truth that reinvention in midlife isn’t about throwing everything away—it’s about rediscovering who you are by reclaiming your strengths, passions, and values. If you’ve lost touch with what makes you feel alive, this conversation is your reset button.
In this episode, you will:
- Learn how to reconnect with your inner self using the Japanese concept of Ikigai
- Understand why you're not starting over—you’re starting from experience
- Discover a proven, practical framework to turn midlife confusion into meaningful clarity
Press play now to discover how to craft a more purpose-driven, fulfilling second chapter—without abandoning everything you've built so far.
Featured on the podcast
It's My Time Now Coaching
The Midlife Reinvention podcast
Wondering why you're overwhelmed? Take my "why am I overwhelmed" quiz to find out the source of your overwhelm, and what to do about it.
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Life can be overwhelming, but on this podcast, you'll discover practical strategies to overcome overwhelm, imposter syndrome, and negative self-talk, manage time effectively, set boundaries, and stay productive in high-stress jobs—all while learning how to say no and prioritize self-care on the Overwhelmed Worki...
It's not like you're starting over. You know, you're starting from experience, right?
Michelle Gauthier:You're listening to Overwhelmed Working Woman, the podcast that helps you be more calm and more productive by doing less. I'm your host, Michelle Gauthier, a former Overwhelmed Working Woman and current life coach. On this show, we unpack the stress and pressure that today's working woman experiences, and in each episode you'll get a strategy to bring more calm, ease and relaxation to your life. If you have ever felt stuck in your career or your life, wondering is this really it? You're not alone. So many women hit a point where they realized they've checked all the boxes that they were supposed to, but something still feels off. And today's guest is here to help us navigate that exact transition.
Michelle Gauthier:Kavita Ahuja is a career and life transitions coach who specializes in helping women reinvent themselves, especially in midlife. When you listen to this episode, you'll learn how to rediscover your strengths and passions and values. I can't tell you how often when I work with a client and I say, like, what are you into, what are you passionate about, what's fun for you? They don't know anymore. So that might sound silly, but it's really true. Kavita is also going to teach us about a Japanese concept called Ikigai that can teach us about finding purpose and how you can apply purpose to your own life. And then the third thing we'll talk about today is why reinvention isn't about starting over. It's about using everything you've already learned to build something even better. So if you are kind of asking yourself, is this all there is? Could there be something else? For me, today's episode is going to be perfect for you, so let's get started. Thank you, kavita, for joining us. Can you just say hi and tell us a little bit about yourself?
Kavita Ahuja:It's wonderful to be here, Michelle. Thank you so much for having me. Yes, absolutely. I am a career and life transitions coach for women and I really you know it kind of ties into a little bit of what you do in terms of, you know, helping women who are feeling perhaps overwhelmed in their life and there can be different forms of overwhelm, right, Whether it's like what am I going to do next in my life, my career, especially around the midlife stage of life, when we're often questioned, you know, is this it? Or what am I doing, or who am I really? Or all of those big questions that we tend, especially as women, to ask ourselves. So that is my passion and my, you know, my coaching focus is on helping women in these career and life transition phases of life.
Michelle Gauthier:That's so great and I saw from your background that you had a successful pharmaceutical career. But you had sort of an inner voice telling you this is maybe I don't. You had sort of an inner voice telling you this is maybe I don't want to say what your inner voice was saying, but that there was something else for you. You tell us what your inner voice was saying.
Kavita Ahuja:Well, I'm sure many of your listeners perhaps have come from corporate backgrounds, with all the pressures and all of that that our careers can lead us to. And, yes, I was in the pharmaceutical industry for 25 years and we were talking a little bit before this. But I'm Indian and grown up in Canada and kind of followed the traditional expectations, I would say, of life. You know, education, career, marriage, kids, all of that. And you just kind of go and you're very successful at it and you're almost like, oh my God, where did the time go? And then all of a sudden it's like you pause.
Kavita Ahuja:And that's what happened to me. I was very successful Kids growing up. Now this is a stage of life where I was like questioning is this what I really want? Is this what fulfills me? Is this what, what I would like? When I'm 90 years old, when I look back and go, yeah, I've done everything that I want to do, you know, and it wasn't and it was scary and you know, it was overwhelming and it was the time of life where a lot of women also, you know, question that. So I decided that I was going to take the leap and change things and figure out who I was, and so I did that and that's where it led me today, and my passion is to help one do the same.
Michelle Gauthier:I absolutely love that because and I think for everybody listening just because you thought you wanted to, for example, have a really successful pharmaceutical career in your case, and get married and have kids, and you sort of had this dream in your mind for what your life wanted to be, and you had that and maybe it was really great. But then at some point, if it's not anymore, where you're like OK, this isn't fulfilling me. That's exactly what I had, exactly that same thing.
Kavita Ahuja:It's.
Michelle Gauthier:It's OK to say, oh, that was good, I'm glad I did that. Now I want something different, and it doesn't matter, in my opinion, how old you are, how many years experience you had doing something else, because you and I are the same. I had a completely different career and when I decided I wanted to become a life coach, I was like, who am I to become a life coach? I don't know anything about this, yeah, but it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. You can still do it.
Kavita Ahuja:Yeah, the thing is, Michelle, is that you know it's not like. It's not like you're starting over. You know you're starting from experience, right, and everything that has happened to us in our lives led us to the point where we are, so it's not like, oh, I have to give up everything and start over. That's why, you know, like, my podcast is called the midlife reinvention it's reinventing, it's like taking the best parts of you and putting them into something that's magical, right?
Michelle Gauthier:Yes, exactly, and I definitely did learn things about. You know how to be a life coach in certain methodologies, but so much of what I learned from my business career also helped me. Of course, yeah, if you feel like gosh, I already decided this is the life I wanted. Now I have to stick with it. It's not true?
Kavita Ahuja:You can take your skills and move them on.
Michelle Gauthier:Yes, so tell us a little bit about how you help your clients do that and what the listeners can take away today if they're feeling kind of stuck and overwhelmed with where they are.
Kavita Ahuja:Yeah, it really actually just ties in very well with what we were just talking about, because I went through this process and I decided I'm going to kind of document this, because I actually went through it and I was like this is, a lot of women can do it themselves. You can, you know, figure out what it is that you want to do next, but it may take longer. You may need a guide, right? So I call it the pyramid of reinvention, and it all starts with rediscovering who you are inside. You know, there's a really good quote that I like by Carl Jung. He says that he who looks outside dreams, but he who looks inside wakes.
Michelle Gauthier:That's interesting, especially for a midlife career woman who's also a mother. We're not really thinking a lot about ourselves and who we really are.
Kavita Ahuja:We've been looking after everyone else.
Kavita Ahuja:And yes, we've had very little time to look at, so I encourage the pause is what I would say. So this is the first thing I do in terms of how I actually help my my clients is I first get them to look at their strengths, like whatever they're really really good at, taking into consideration all they've done in their life. What are the greatest things they've done? What's their natural ability, and are they using it right now to the utmost? If not, why not? And how can you use it now Right?
Kavita Ahuja:The second thing is looking at your passions, and what I mean by that is what just makes your heart sing. You know what would make you wake up in the morning and go. I mean, I can't wait to do this thing. Or what did you do as a child that you know? Your time went by so fast, so quickly, that you just didn't know where the day went. Can you bring that into today? And the third thing is looking at your values. Do our values change year by year? Are you living your values? Are you like is it now, you know, serving people versus maybe before it was, climbing the corporate ladder? And then those kind of culminate into determining what is called your ikigai, or reason for being Okay, and that is a really interesting concept. Once we figure that out, then it's about visioning your future. It's about looking at your obstacles that are in your way, and then it's about gaining the confidence to actually reach your reason for being.
Kavita Ahuja:So it's kind of a step-by-step process that is very, very eye-opening, very transformational.
Michelle Gauthier:Yes, yes. I find that a lot of times women are like I don't even know what I think is fun to do anymore. I don't know what I like. Like I'll say if you had a whole day to do whatever you want, what would you do? I don't know, and I think it's just because we get out of practice. On reflecting, and paying attention to ourselves.
Michelle Gauthier:But I'm really curious about this ikigai concept. Am I saying that right? Yes, yes, okay. So where? Where? What is this word? Where does it originate from? What does it mean? Tell us all about it, yeah, yeah.
Kavita Ahuja:I was really, Michelle, really fascinated by this concept early on because it just seemed to click, especially with the time of the life that I was going through, the stage I was going through, and it really fits in well with the whole transition idea, right. So ikigai is a term originating, it's a Japanese term originating in the village of Okinawa, Japan, and it is so. Okinawa is one of the world's blue zones. I'm not sure if y'all are familiar where the blue zone is.
Michelle Gauthier:Yes, but tell us for anybody who doesn't know.
Kavita Ahuja:Yeah, so there's areas, different areas in the world, where the largest numbers of centurions live like the hundred year olds, and in fact, there was recently a Netflix I don't know if there's a series.
Michelle Gauthier:Yes, there's a Netflix documentary about it. Yes, it's fascinating.
Kavita Ahuja:Yeah, so he looked at Dan Bietner, looked at. You know, why are these people in these areas of the world? Why do they live for so long, and particularly in this area in Japan? One of the reasons he found in research was people follow the concept of ikigai and that really means there's a combination of two words to live ikuru, which means to live, and kai, which means the realization of what one hopes for. So it is really the reason for being and it's really a lot more than purpose. You know, purpose can seem very overwhelming for a lot of people. When you break it down into how to find your ikigai, it's really like it's four elements. So it's kind of like a Venn diagram if you look at it.
Kavita Ahuja:Combination of what you love, your passion. So, as I was talking about passion earlier, right, what you are good at, so your strengths, what does the world need? Right? So kind of related to your mission or your values, and what you can be paid for. So all of that, what can you actually put forward in the world? So it's a really interesting concept.
Kavita Ahuja:So what we do is we go in each section and you, you come out with the words or how you feel in each your strengths, your passions, your values, what you can be paid for, and you see the overlaps, right, and it's it's so interesting because it's so eye-opening, because you can see the overlaps right away, and it's like, oh my God, that is what I, that's what I need to do, yeah, and it brings forward so much positivity when you're actually leading your life according to all the combinations of everything. It's not just you know what you can be paid for or what's going to make you the most money, or you know, but it's also like how do you want to contribute to the world and what unique skills do you have to to lead to that? You know mission in your life.
Michelle Gauthier:Yes, yes, that's so. I love the idea of taking all those things into consideration, because maybe you have this huge passion, but it's not something that you could really do to like support your family, for example, you know maybe it's not you know, not something that can make money.
Michelle Gauthier:Or maybe there's something where you can make a lot of money, but it doesn't, you know, suit your values or whatever. So what are some of the things that you have come up with in working with your clients, like, what are, what are some of the results of doing this with yeah, yeah?
Kavita Ahuja:So I've worked with so many clients on this and it's always an eye-opening experience and you know I can give you an example. So, for example, one of my clients, she she was in like an education system. She was an administrator for like 25, 30 years and she came to me she was. She said, Kavita, I'm just like dying inside. I just can't do this anymore. I really don't know what to do. I'm feeling very stuck. I'm over.
Kavita Ahuja:She was overworked, overwhelmed and she just wanted to know what. What is it she wanted to do? And so we went through this process and she realizes the things that she actually liked about her previous job was like this, process work and helping people, getting processes together. You know she loved working with people, but she didn't love other aspects. Her passion was writing also and she so her strengths were in organization and all of that. So as we looked at all this stuff together, we came to realize that she would be best suited as a consultant in process improvement. That's what she could actually work at. But at the same time, she had her personal issues with family members who were going through anxiety and depression, and she really wanted to bring that out in a writing. So she started to write a book on that.
Kavita Ahuja:So it's not about just like, okay, yes, work, yes, but other parts of your life where you can apply different passions, different skills which will create what I call anabolic energy, which is positive energy in your life which will fuel you to do the things that you really love. I love that, you know. So it's like identifying what she likes, what she's good at, what she's passionate about, but putting it all together, and so that's just one example.
Michelle Gauthier:I love that, though that's such a great example and I love how you're talking about that. The result wouldn't just be like OK, here's your perfect job, because here's a job you could do with those skills and maybe you absolutely love it, but here's some other fun, interesting things that you could do. Like for me, I miss creativity and of course, I have creativity in trying to find solutions with my clients and writing in things, but, like, I'm forever decorating my house because that's like the outlet that I need for that. So I think it's important to look at your whole life versus just your career. So I love that. That is so cool. Thank you for sharing that with us. I've never heard of it before.
Kavita Ahuja:Yeah, it's you know it's age old, it's been researched and if you can put it into your life practically, it really does. It's eye-opening, you know it really guides you and you know I do this other exercise where I really take my clients through what is it their vision for themselves? What is it? What is they envision for their life, like, who's their inner mentor? That's your inner self, and usually they say that when they see their inner mentor, it's actually aligns very well with what we came up with as our Ikigai.
Michelle Gauthier:Oh, interesting, that's what they're actually doing.
Kavita Ahuja:That makes a lot of sense. Oh, that's so cool.
Michelle Gauthier:I also want to ask you, before we wrap up, the two things that I ask everybody, and the first one is what is something that you do when you feel overwhelmed to make yourself feel better?
Kavita Ahuja:Yeah, great question, because there's so much overwhelm in our lives all the time, right? So I would say that whatever I do is I always just take a pause. You know, it's always about taking the pause and assessing how I'm feeling at that moment, you know, and taking clues from that. Am I, like, really stressed? Why am I stressed? And asking myself why, right?
Michelle Gauthier:Yes, Because when you're overwhelmed it's hard to access anything useful, like useful thoughts about what to do. So if you can make yourself take that pause, that's a game changer. Yeah.
Kavita Ahuja:And then, and then, and then, you know, depending on how much time I have, if I only have a few minutes, I will pause, take a deep breath, close my eyes. I'll say something like everything always works out for me, everything's okay, right? So if that's only 15 minutes but I have more time, then I will try and take a walk. You know I'll go outside, I'll try to go do a workout. I'll, you know, listen to music, I'll meditate, you know, all those things that will create that anabolic energy that I talked about earlier. Yeah, but it is really about taking whatever amount of pause you can take.
Kavita Ahuja:Yes, but it is really about taking whatever amount of pause you can take and assessing and analyzing what is the emotions that you're feeling at that moment.
Michelle Gauthier:Yes, that's great One of the other things we talk about on the podcast all the time is how to do less to save more time, because it feels like, as women, there's always more that we can be doing, and so what is something that you do consistently?
Kavita Ahuja:to either save time or just to do less.
Kavita Ahuja:Yes, well, I think it's really important and what I try to do, and what I do is is I really schedule my, my week ahead of time and I schedule in downtime me time as well, so that I'm not looking at my day and feeling, oh my God, I didn't even have time to take a shower or whatever.
Kavita Ahuja:So it's scheduling my time ahead of time and also looking at going back to you know what we're passionate about. It's like, what do I really love to do? That really I want to focus more of my time on. So for me, it's coaching, it's writing, it's, you know, it's podcasting, right, and all the other things, if I can delegate those, honestly, and so it frees up more of my time to do the things I love, right? Yeah, so I recently hired a virtual assistant who does a lot of the stuff that I don't like to do, like, so social media posting and all of that. I've delegated that so that frees up time, you know. So that I think it's important, like, if you do the things that you're, that you really identify that you love, that bring you that positive energy, then then that that just creates a life that's more at ease, and flow right yeah, absolutely.
Kavita Ahuja:I don't know if that answers your question, but that absolutely answers the question.
Michelle Gauthier:I mean, I can't imagine how much time you save in a week if you've planned out your whole week, because you don't have to refigure it out every day, every hour, every minute. You've got it all on there and I love that you can put white space on there for yourself to just do things that you like to do so.
Kavita Ahuja:that's a great answer.
Michelle Gauthier:Thank you so much.
Kavita Ahuja:You're welcome.
Michelle Gauthier:Well, you mentioned your podcast, which we'll put that in the show notes. Where else can people follow you or find more information about you?
Kavita Ahuja:The best place to go is my website and you can go to itsmytimenowcoaching. com and there you can learn about my coaching program, my podcast, which is called the Midlife Reinvention Podcast. I have an online course as well. I do one-on-one coaching and group coaching, but I also have an online course that, if somebody is interested in you know self-directed learning, they can take a look.
Michelle Gauthier:They can do that too. Okay, okay, that's awesome, thank you, and thank you so much for being a guest today. It was so great to talk to you and I love your story and I just want to say amazing what you're doing for the world and that you had the nerve to leave your corporate career and start something else awesome and help other women too.
Kavita Ahuja:Well, I mean, it's the same to you, like you did the same thing and you're. I mean, I think we're from our experience and our passion, we really it's important to know that you know it's. You don't have to have it all figured out. Go with your gut and just be yourself and focus on your ikigai, if you can, if you can yes. If you don't. If you want to help with that, I'm there for you.
Michelle Gauthier:But yes, yes, yes, yes, okay, wonderful. Thank you so much. Thank you for listening to the Overwhelmed Working Woman podcast. If you want to learn more about my work, head over to my website at michellegauthiercom. See you next week.
