Changing the Channel with Kirsten Powers

I left the (media) circus.

I appreciate your patience as I took time to discern what I wanted this newsletter to be.

The truth is, I was stuck.

I had gotten unstuck in so many areas of my life and seen magical things happen. But I knew in my bones that a part of my life was still out of alignment. I couldn't pull the plug because it didn't rationally make sense. 

So, what happens when you don't pull the plug?

Blockage. Lack of flow. Stuckness.

Reader, I knew this.

But my mind kept overruling my bones, shushing my gut and heart with perfectly reasonable questions like, "Who walks away from a paycheck with no new job lined up?" It's not like I have a trust fund, and my husband is a print journalist—an important job but not exactly a big money-making scheme.

Then there was the existential taunting: Who are you without your job? 

Without your platform?"

I hate that word.

And I had come to hate my job.

A year ago, I renewed my contract with CNN for an unusually short period for me—just a year—assuming it would be my last. I felt the pull to move in a different direction professionally, and though I kept an open mind, I suspected I would not be a good fit with CNN's new owners.

Reader, I was not wrong.

I stopped writing for USA Today, where I was a columnist for a decade, because I couldn't bear to write one more column with a "news hook" pegging my piece to the outrage du jour.

I began doing mindset and executive coaching, and clients managed to find me through word of mouth. I discovered that there were people who wanted to pay me to do something I loved.

Ironically, I was mostly helping high performers get unstuck and into their flow.

I was helping them "align & be," the name of my soon-to-be officially launched coaching business. I know this is formula works: Align with your authentic self, values and spiritual beliefs and watch everything fall into place without the hustling, forcing, anxiety and exhaustion.

It's very simple.

Simple, but not easy.

While many areas of my life were flowing, I was creatively blocked. Writing generally came easily to me, but nothing was coming.

"Your growth has been about changing the channel from things that are not aligned for you to things that are," my friend Jeannie pointed out as she ticked off all the areas where I had experienced transformation in my life.

"You need to change this channel, literally," she said of my job at CNN.

CEOs and celebrities pay Jeannie tens of thousands of dollars for this type of advice.

Reader, did I listen to her?

I did not.

The truth is, I wanted the Universe to push me off this cliff. As I neared the end of my contract and entered the period that would typically be a re-negotiation, I said a simple prayer.

Please give me whatever is for my highest good.

I knew I wouldn't be able to say no to the guaranteed income if it was offered to me, and by God's grace, it was not.

And so, at the end of July, CNN and I parted ways after seven years. My agent suggested we talk to other news outlets about jobs.

Let's not, I said.

I finally had my clarity.

I was unequivocally ready to change the channel on my career and the identity I had developed in the past few decades working in the political media.

It was time to focus on what I love—writing and mindset/executive coaching—and live in the excitement and terror of building my own business. (There is more to say on my CNN exit and the ending of a nearly two-decade career in the media, which I will discuss in my next post).

Within weeks, my creativity was back with a vengeance. Writing streamed out of me. My mind raced with ideas for client offerings, book proposals, women's health activism, long-form articles, and how to move forward with this newsletter. It was almost too much to keep up with.

I was happy and energetic in a way I hadn't been in a long time.

Yes, reader, this is how it works.

We are often what's standing in the way of our happiness and growth.

While I appreciate the swift kick in the butt from the Universe, the better way to make changes is on your terms and before you have wasted years of your one wild and precious life.

I think most people feel stuck in some aspect of their lives. At a minimum, is there anyone who doesn't feel hopelessness about the state of the country, the media, and other institutions that are failing us?

If this is where you find yourself, I want you to imagine that you possess a remote control — like the one you use for your television — where you can choose to switch from the toxic, numbing, or self-defeating channel you are currently tuned into to another that is more aligned with who you are, what you value and the life you want to create.

We possess this power but can find ourselves frozen by inertia or reflexive, unexamined habits that keep us small.

We are limited by self-defeating behaviors and beliefs we absorbed from cultural and family conditioning that can keep us locked in unhealthy or unrewarding patterns, sometimes for our entire lives.

For example, I can see in hindsight that my long goodbye was rooted deeply in my family’s Irish history, rife with a lack of resources and agency. Even though it's not very likely I will starve if I change careers, some deep part of me unconsciously believes it's a real possibility because a family story of scarcity was drilled into me in a misguided effort to keep me safe.

What family story might be holding you back?

When I think of changing the channel in my life, it is both literal and figurative. An actual television channel is no longer part of my life, nor is the political media circus I called home for decades.

But I've been hitting that clicker a lot over the last seven years or so.

I changed the channel from religion to mysticism—from a need for certainty to an embrace of mystery.

I let go of forcing my life in a particular direction to tune into what's flowing.

I moved from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset, gave up reacting for responding, and traded rushing for rest.

I went from a life of striving and “doing” for to a life focused on “being.”

I could go on and on.

And I will: there will be much more to say about this journey in later posts.

What I realized is that as long you have breath in your lungs, you have time to switch to a better channel—to do a colossal reset or make a slight adjustment in your life— to stop accepting the world as it is and leave your mark on it; to find renewed purpose to rewrite your life's narrative.

This is what I have done in almost every part of my life and I will share my journey with you here along with the knowledge I’ve amassed during in this process about psychology, sociology, faith + spirituality and other juicy topics.

This newsletter—Changing the Channel with Kirsten Powers—is at its core about change. You can change the channel on a relationship, a mindset, health, a career, a political party, and even a country. (I hope to be writing to you from Italy soon).

It is about the shifts we choose to make, those that are thrust upon us, and the changes we need to make as individuals and as a society.

I plan to release a post each week and regular Threads for paid subscribers. Paid subscribers will also receive a ‘weekly edition’ on Sundays that includes a curated roundup of articles and books/shows/podcast recommendations as well as updates on my life.

Commenting on public posts will unfortunately be limited to paid subscribers to prevent trolling. My hope is that because I’ve left CNN the trolls will lose interest in me, but for now I need to have a barrier to keep them from taking over the comments section.

By clicking the subscribe button, you will be supporting the vision of this newsletter and receiving valuable content throughout the week.

But that’s not all.

You also will be expressing faith in a different kind of media supported wholly by readers. Advertisers and restless shareholders hold no sway here. Topics will not be chosen to garner clicks or ‘eyeballs.’

I believe we can create the media we deserve, and I know the people here at Substack agree.

Welcome!