Stay the Course: How to Stay Grounded When Life Feels Off Track

Have you ever felt like you’re doing everything right… but still feel off?

In this powerful episode of Wellness Within Her, Jeri Mallow shares a deeply personal and relatable message about what it really means to stay the course—even when life feels overwhelming, uncertain, or emotionally heavy.

Through humor, real-life stories, and honest reflection, Jeri explores:

• Why so many strong women feel “off” even when life looks fine on the outside
• The difference between being busy… and being anchored
• How to reconnect to your identity when you’ve lost yourself in responsibility
• Letting go of quiet guilt—especially in motherhood
• Why grace matters more than perfection
• How to stop drifting and start feeling grounded again

If you’ve been feeling disconnected, overwhelmed, or unsure of your direction… this episode will meet you right where you are.

You are not behind.
 You are not broken.
 You may just need to get re-anchored.

🎧 Listen now and come back to yourself.

Thanks for being here on Wellness Within Her. Remember, this chapter matters, your story matters, and the wellness God placed within you is enough. If you’d like to explore personal growth, healing, and purpose with me one on one, you can connect with me at lakeshorelifecoach.com.  Behind every smile is a woman carrying a weight she shouldn’t have to bear—let’s speak honestly, share vulnerably, and lift that weight together.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hi everyone, welcome back to Wellness Within Her. Today's episode is going to be a little bit different because this is also another message, just like the last one I shared at a women's event at a church. And I knew when I was speaking that it wasn't just for that room. Because the message it's for the woman who really feels off course. The one who's a little tired, a little unsure if she's doing it right. And if that's you, you're in the right place. So I very rarely introduce myself. So I'm gonna just kind of give you a little rundown. You know, my name is Jerry Mollow, and I have been married for 34 years, and I'm a mom and a very proud grandma and an entrepreneur. I currently own four businesses. I also own Lakeshore Life Coaching, where I walk through women with emotional overwhelm and transitions and reconnecting to themselves and to their faith. And just so you know what kind of a podcast you're in for. This last uh for our 34th wedding anniversary, we celebrated it in such a romantic way. I had a colonoscopy that day, yeah. Nothing says love like a colon cleanse because you know what? We know how to party. But underneath the humor, there's something really deeper that I want to talk about today because life pulls you off course so easily, and sometimes you don't even realize it's happening. So I am completely directionally challenged, like impressively. Before GPS was even a thing, I literally had a Rolodex in my car, and it was filled with the handwritten directions to like my grandma's house or to you know the grocery store, like literally, and for people who don't know what a Rolodex is, it was um kind of like this place where you put a bunch of different business cards and it just rotated like in a circle, and that's why it kind of went around and around. And that was supposed to be for business cards, almost like a phone book but on a dial. But I use this as my navigation system, so you can imagine how grateful I was now that we all have a GPS system right on our phone. But my husband used to say, without it, I he'd say you're never gonna make it home, like ever. So not that long ago, I was driving to my friend's house and had my coffee and my worship music on, and I was feeling you know so good and so holy, right? And I typed in the address and I hit the road, and I was cruising, and about 20 minutes in, I realized, huh, I haven't seen any cars. And honestly, I I don't know the last time I passed a house, like there's no signs of life, and I'm pretty sure I passed the same cow twice, but I knew for a fact I was confidently, confidently going in the wrong direction. But here's what I love my GPS doesn't judge me. Mine is named Nigel, and he's British, and he just calmly said, recalculating, recalculating, recalculating. Well, meanwhile, I'm like yelling, you know, come on, Lord. Like a sign would be nice. And I heard this one said that GPS actually stands for God please steer. Um, not just like Jesus take the wheel, but like God please steer me home, because clearly I cannot be trusted without a GPS. And here I even had my GPS and I just wasn't paying attention to it. And isn't that what life can feel like? Like you think you're doing all the right things, and somehow you drift, not in like big dramatic ways, just kind of slowly and slowly. Kind of think of it as like the shopping cart with just like one janky wheel, right? And this is where like I picture an anchor. This is where anchor anchor comes in because life is going to move you, but you don't have to drift. So we all know an anchor is designed to put like to hold a boat in its place. It in calm waters, it just rests on the bottom, right? You just throw it over and it rests on the bottom and it'll keep your boat in place. But in a storm, it has to take the ends of the anchor and dig it in deeper into the bottom of the lake to keep it held in place. But here's what most people forget: it's not just about the anchor to keep that boat in place, to keep your life in place. It's about the rope. So I learned this the hard way. I grew up in Okanemwak on a lake called Loch Lavelle. So I loved growing up on a lake, and I'm so thankful that I get to live on a lake now again. But my dad would take me out on the boat, and he would say, you know, throw the anchor in, and I would toss it over, and I would watch the anchor sink, and then along with the rope, I would watch the anchor sink with the rope because I didn't tie it to the boat. And my dad, I could hear him saying it now, guess you're going swimming, right? And I would, I'd have to jump back in to get the anchor, and I think how many of us are living like that, right? We've we say God is our anchor, and honestly, one of my favorites is Hebrews 6.19. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. God is our anchor, but we're not actually tied to him. Because here's the truth: life will pull on you, right, with expectations, pressure, maybe comparison, maybe it's overwhelm. Sometimes it's trying to be everything to everyone, and if you're not anchored, you will drift. So, what is the rope? One suggestion could be your identity, and this is where it gets real because most women I talk to, they don't struggle with doing, right? They struggle with who they are underneath it all. Your identity is not what you produce, it's not how well you perform, it's not what others think of you, and it's not how together you look. Your identity is rooted in who God says you are loved, chosen, pursued, and known. And I'll be honest, even knowing all of that, there are moments where I think, God, you cannot love me for just being me. I'm a work in progress. And if anyone ever presents themselves like they have it figured all out, run. I'm telling you, I will meet someone at a conference or a church or any women's event that I do. And honestly, if they present themselves like they have had a fantastic life, that they have it all figured out, I run. The only one who has it all figured out is God. So my father-in-law, my husband's dad, he was a very, very successful banker. Unfortunately, he was taken from us way too soon. And he was very, very driven. He was extremely faithful. In fact, um, he had cancer, and when he found out that the cancer had gone to his brain, he had six weeks left to live. He recorded all of his prayers that he said all day so that when he couldn't remember them, at some point we would just press play. And he would remain faithful even when his brain wasn't completely working. Even though he was that faithful and loved his Lord so much, he was not super expressive. So I I always knew he loved me, but I didn't always feel it. And whenever we would go to him for advice, whether it was on finances or life decisions or struggles, he would say the same thing every single time. Stay the course. And I, you know, my husband and I would kind of push back and we'd say, yeah, but what about this? You know, what about this scenario? What about, like, what if this happens, or what if this doesn't happen? What do we do then? And he'd say, stay the course. And that phrase, it really stuck with me because that's what this is really about. It's not perfection, it's not having something all figured out, it's just staying the course, and this is where grace has to come in. Because staying the course like doesn't mean doing it perfectly, right? So the subject of grace and parenting, that one gets me. Because I've replayed moments in my head, like what I've said, what I didn't say, what I wish I would have done differently. And here's what I've had to learn. God is not asking me to go back and reparent my past. He's asking me to trust Him with my children's present. And that's really, really hard. Because as women, we carry regret. So much regret. But Grace says you actually did your best with what you had, and where you fell short, God steps in. It's been really powerful, but when I've been with even two or three women or two to three hundred women, I ask them to say this out loud because I believe so much that what we say out loud truly gets heard in our brain and our hearts. And sometimes that's negative, right? The the worst things we say about ourselves, we're the ones who hear it the most, and that's the worst thing. So say this to yourself. I did my best. I love deeply, and God's grace covers it all. And that leads me to purpose and surrender because we need to talk about purpose. I because identity and purpose they're connected, right? But they're not the same. I recently had someone two years ago, I sold one of my businesses and I still work there. And I had someone just recently say, Was it a really hard transaction uh transition? And I said, not really, but honestly, my first month there, I didn't know what to do. Like I didn't know what to do. And she said, Well, that's because you lost your identity. And I went home thinking, no, my work wasn't my identity, and it actually wasn't my purpose, it was my role in life. There's a big difference between the two. Identity is who you are. Your purpose is what flows from that. But your position, your title, that's just a role in your life. And here's the part that we don't really love, though. Purpose requires surrender. Which I'm gonna say for my control loving best friends out there, this is a little uncomfortable. We want the full plan. God usually just only gives us that next step. And it does, it leads me back to that same question from that retreat that I went to. Why do you matter in this world? If you've heard me say it in other episodes, it is, it's that powerful. Ask yourself that. So I want to go back to what we talked about in the beginning, which is the anchor, right? Without an anchor, a boat's gonna drift. And with an anchor, it may move, but it stays grounded. Life is gonna move you. But you don't have to lose yourself. So here's the question: are you anchored? Or are you drifting? Because you can totally and always recalibrate this entire thing with no shame and no guilt. Just a quiet return. Just by staying the course. Not perfectly, but consistently. No matter what question is brought to you, stay the course. Yeah, but Jerry, what about this? Or what about this? You don't know about this, you don't have the realization of this, you don't understand my pain, maybe I don't. But the answer is the same. God asks us to just stay the course. Stay the course. And if something in this episode stirred something in you, like if you feel a little coarse or you're caring more than you were meant to, I want to invite you in just for a conversation. I offer a free clarity session where we slow things down, we get honest about where you are and guide to reconnect to what matters most. You don't have to figure it out all alone. And guess what? I don't have it figured all out. But it's amazing when an authentic, true, honest conversation with someone who is not there to judge just to give grace. And if this episode spoke to you, but you really feel like, hey, you know what, I know someone who could really use this. Please share it. Please share it with another woman who might need to. Please remember you're not behind. You're not too late. You're still coming and coming home. And I'm gonna meet you right here the next time. On Wellness Within Her. Thank you so much.