Every time I got comfortable, the season changed.

Hey, Reader!

Happy Saturday, Fellow Go-Getter!

Can I tell you something that took me embarrassingly long to understand?

God never designed any of us to be a one-trick pony.

I know that sounds almost too simple. But stay with me.

I spent years trying to be the thing — the finance writer, the homeschool mom, the wife, the person with the tidy brand and the published book and the life that made sense on the outside.

I followed the plan.

I worked the system.

I was the "together" one.

And then, one by one, the seasons changed anyway.

The marriage ended. The income fluctuated. The market I thought I understood shifted underneath my feet. And every single time, I had to look up and ask — okay, Lord. What now?

Database work. Financial writing. Airbnbs on the south side of Chicago. Real estate in the Caribbean. A house in Puerto Rico, I bought without a safety net.

A home under construction in the Dominican Republic. And right now? I'm in conversations about acquiring a boutique hotel on this island — as a single mom, with my kids in tow, caring for an aging parent, learning Spanish, and navigating a new culture.

None of it was in the original plan. All of it was purposeful.

Here's why I'm telling you this:

A lot of us are in that moment right now. Knocking on 50. The ground keeps moving. AI is reshaping how companies hire.

The economy is not what we thought it would be when we were building our lives in our 30s. And the temptation, I felt it too, is to run back to what felt safe and familiar. Even if safe and familiar is what quietly broke us.

If you're in a season of starting over and you genuinely don't know where to begin, here is what I want you to hear: the first step is not a budget. It's not a business plan. It's not a pivot strategy.

The first step is clarity — on who you are, what you actually want, and what you were made for.

Not the version of you that held everything together for everyone else. The one underneath that. The one who has always known, even when she was too tired or too scared or too "responsible" to say it out loud.

That woman deserves a map.

That's exactly what The Designed Life workbook was built to give you. It's a guided framework — not a 30-day challenge, not a budget exercise — for casting the vision of the life you actually want on the other side of the thing you didn't choose.

And it's free.

👉 Download The Designed Life Guide here

Print it. Sit with it this weekend. Give yourself one hour to stop managing the crisis and start imagining what comes next.

Vision before strategy. Always.

And if your gut is already pulling you somewhere warmer…

I hear from so many women who follow my life here in Puerto Rico and feel something stir. Not because they necessarily want my life, but because watching someone throw caution to the wind and actually land somewhere good gives them permission to consider what their bold move might look like.

If real estate in Puerto Rico — whether to live, invest, or create income — is something you're curious about, I put together a practical guide on exactly how to navigate working with realtors on the island. What to expect, what to watch out for, and how to move with confidence even when you're starting from scratch in a new market.

👉 Get the How to Work with Realtors in Puerto Rico guide here →

You don't have to have it figured out to take the first step. You just have to know roughly which direction you're headed.

Talk soon,

— Aja

P.S. — If you want to watch someone figure it out in real time, in the sunshine, with bad Spanish and big dreams, come find me on Instagram. I show up there most days with updates on life in Puerto Rico, real estate moves, faith, finances, and all the things nobody tells you about starting over at this stage of life.

👉 Follow @principlesofincrease on Instagram

A few things that might help right now:

📋 The Designed Life Guide ← Start here. It's free.
🏠 How to Work with Realtors in Puerto Rico ← If the island is calling you
📲 Follow on Instagram ← For the daily, unfiltered version

— Aja

P.S. — If you're curious about what life actually looks like on this side of the leap, come find me on Instagram. I show up there most days, chronicling my Caribbean hennaighans and building something in the sunshine.

Come see what "starting over" can look like.