You don’t leave because things are hard. You leave because they’re wrong.
- Jillian Stidd
- Jan 3
- 4 min read
Updated: Jan 4
You were likely told — implicitly or explicitly:
You’re restless.
You don’t stick things out.
You’re always moving on to the next thing.
Maybe it wasn’t said outright.
Maybe it lived in sighs. In side-eyes. In the tone people used when you left again.
It slowly became a story about you.
There’s a lie that follows people like you your whole life.
That you’re restless.
That you can’t commit.
That you always want more.
But here’s the truth that changes everything:
⚡ You don’t leave because things are hard.
⚡ You leave because they’re wrong.
And once you see that, you can never unsee your life again.
That distinction matters more than most people realize.
Because there are people who flee discomfort —and then there are people who refuse to live inside what has gone false.
If you’re the second kind, you don’t abandon challenge.
You don’t abandon depth.
You don’t abandon effort.
You abandon misalignment.
You stay in marriages long past the honeymoon.
You stay in jobs long after the shine wears off.
You stay in beliefs until they no longer tell the truth.
And when the truth shifts — when the room no longer fits, when your soul starts shrinking to survive — you leave.
Not impulsively.
Not lightly.
Not without grief.
You leave because staying would require you to betray yourself.
That’s not restlessness.
That’s discernment.
Here’s the part that rarely gets named:
People who move like this often get mislabeled because their exits are visible — but their staying is invisible.
No one sees how long you tried.
How deeply you committed.
How thoroughly you gave something a chance to be real.
They only see that you eventually walked away.
And now — maybe for the first time — you’re in a season where you’re not leaving.
Not because everything is comfortable.
Not because you finally “settled.”
But because something here, in the not-knowing, in the quiet, in the in-between…is true.
It’s uncomfortable.
It’s undefined.
It doesn’t give you the relief of a plan.
And still — you stay.
Which tells you everything you need to know.
You were never someone who “couldn’t stick things out.”
You are someone who sticks only to what is alive.
And when it’s right — even when it’s hard —you stay.
I am in this space right now.
In this very moment in time.
So much so that it threw me into a panic attack.
That place of “I fit nowhere at this moment — and yet, I am right here.”
All past versions of myself no longer fit.
Places don’t make sense.
Things that once anchored me feel foreign.
It’s fucking scary as hell.
Especially when you’re in it alone.
No one to share it with.
No witness.
(And honestly — that’s also a gift. Because they would just look at me sideways, and that would make it worse.)
I went through it.
It took collapsing into a quiet nap — my nervous system finally waving the white flag.
But here’s the part I’m proud of:
I didn’t rush to do something.
I didn’t grab for a plan, a purchase, a decision, a distraction — anything to make it feel better.
I stayed.
And this realization on the other side — this clarity, this softness, this truth —this is the magic that gets birthed only if you stay with your nervous system long enough to meet it where it is.
What it needed wasn’t an answer.
What it needed was me.
(Which, apparently, looked like a nap. 😌)
Powerful Potent Question
What if the part of you that stayed wasn’t weak —
but deeply loyal to what was still true?
Mantra
“I don’t leave when it’s hard.
I leave when it’s wrong.”
XOXO Jillian
Founder, My Ingredient List™
📖Evicted On Purpose
The origin story. The philosophy. The collapse that became a map.https://www.myingredientlist.com/podcast
Evicted on Purpose began as a story of collapse — the moment everything familiar fell apart and nothing made sense. But inside the wreckage was a revelation. Every heartbreak was a coordinate. Every ending was an instruction. Every detour was a doorway. What started as one woman’s unraveling became a blueprint for awakening. This book didn’t just tell the story.
UNPodcast: Unredacted — Recorded Truth isn’t a show.
It’s a reckoning.
These are spoken recordings of my Substack writing—186 pieces read aloud exactly as written. No commentary. No coaching. No polishing for comfort.
This is truth spoken before it’s tidy.
Silence included. Breath included. Resistance included.
Every recording ends with one question—
the kind that quietly calls you on your own bullshit
and doesn’t let you off the hook for a while.
Listen in any order. Stop when something hits.
If you’re looking for answers, this isn’t that.
This is where the map starts revealing itself.
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