Maybe the Story Isn't Finished Yet

What the 2025 Indiana football season taught me about the stories we tell ourselves.

The Story I Thought I Knew

As an avid football fan and Indiana University alum, I've spent years watching Indiana football.

If you're an IU fan, you know the story.

Every season seemed to reinforce the same belief: Indiana isn't a football school.

The expectations were low. The narrative felt permanent. It had simply become part of the program's identity.

Then the 2024 season happened.

A new coach. A new culture. A new way of thinking.

One game at a time, Indiana began winning.

What began as cautious optimism slowly turned into something none of us expected. The 2025 season culminated in a National Championship.

As I watched that season 2025 unfold, I found myself thinking,

"Wait... maybe this story isn't finished after all."

What surprised me most wasn't the championship.

It was realizing how easily I had accepted the old story as truth.

That season made me think about my own life.

I realized I had started treating my own future the way people treated Indiana football, as if the past had already decided what was possible.

How often do we mistake a long history for a permanent future?

The Story I Was Telling Myself

After more than two decades in healthcare, I had quietly accepted the story I believed about myself.

This is who I am.

This is what I'm good at.

This is where I belong.

Building something new? That was for other people.

Creative people.

Entrepreneurial people.

Certainly not me.

There wasn't one dramatic "aha" moment that changed everything.

Just a quiet pull that grew stronger over time.

A nudge I eventually couldn't ignore.

Maybe my story wasn't finished yet.

Not because I suddenly felt confident.

Not because I knew exactly what I was doing.

But because I was finally willing to question the story I had accepted for so long.

So I started coaching.

I began building a business that felt deeply aligned with who I was becoming, even though I had very little evidence it would work.

Much like Indiana's season, there were moments that gave me hope.

There were also setbacks that made me question everything.

I was building a website that nobody was visiting.

Posting on LinkedIn with little engagement.

Writing blog posts that felt like they were disappearing into the internet.

Those familiar doubts started whispering again.

"Maybe you're not ready."

"Maybe this isn't for you."

"Maybe you should go back to what you know."

Self-doubt has a way of showing up just before we're about to do something meaningful.

I didn't have much evidence that it was working.

The website wasn't getting much traffic.

The LinkedIn posts weren't reaching many people.

The blogs often felt like they disappeared into the internet.

But maybe the evidence wasn't the point.

Maybe the story was already changing before I could see the results.

The outcome was still uncertain, but I no longer believed uncertainty meant it wasn't working.

I kept thinking about Indiana football.

For years, people believed they simply weren't capable of competing with the programs everyone considered champions.

Yet behind the scenes, something was already changing.

The culture had changed.

The belief had changed.

The actions had changed.

The scoreboard simply hadn't caught up yet.

Building a championship team doesn't happen in one season.

So why would building a business be any different?

Every meaningful change starts long before anyone else notices.

The culture changes.

The mindset changes.

The daily habits change.

Eventually, the results catch up.

Maybe that's true for football.

Maybe it's true for us, too.

Maybe the Story Isn't Finished Yet

When the 2025 season began, there was still uncertainty.

Some people wondered if the previous season had been a fluke.

Maybe they had just gotten lucky.

Maybe they didn't really belong among the best teams.

Isn't that what uncertainty always whispers?

Go back.

Play it safe.

Stay with the version of your life that feels familiar.

The stories we carry often come from places we rarely question.

Some were handed to us by our families.

Some were spoken over us when we were children.

Some were shaped by the careers we've built.

And over time, we stop asking whether they're still true.

This Indiana football story wasn't finished.

Neither was mine.

And maybe neither is yours.

This was never really about football.

It was about recognizing how easily we allow old stories to define what we believe is possible.

It was about continuing to take small, meaningful steps before we know how the story ends.

It was about realizing that the past doesn't get to write the next chapter unless we let it.

Indiana football reminded me that stories can change.

Not overnight.

Not without setbacks.

Not without uncertainty.

But they can change.

Why This Matters in Coaching

One of the things I notice most often in coaching conversations is that people rarely come to me because they don't know what to do.

More often, they come because they've been living inside a story that no longer fits who they're becoming.

"I'm not creative."

"I'm too old to start over."

"I've always been the responsible one."

"People like me don't build businesses."

Those stories feel true because we've repeated them for years.

But coaching isn't about convincing someone to become someone else.

It's about creating enough awareness to notice the stories quietly shaping our decisions, question whether they're still serving us, and decide whether they're still true.

Because sometimes awareness is the first sign that the story is already changing.

So I'll leave you with the same question I found myself asking while watching the 2025 Indiana football season:

What story have you accepted as truth simply because it's been true for a long time?

Maybe the story you've been believing about yourself isn't wrong because you've failed.

Maybe it simply isn't finished yet.

If this resonated with you, chances are you're navigating a story of your own. This is exactly the kind of work I love doing with clients: not giving them answers, but helping them recognize the stories shaping their decisions, rebuild self-trust, and move forward with clarity.

If you're in the middle of building something new, you might also enjoy:

→ Why Successful Women Struggle to Start Over

or

→ When You Can't See the Finish Line

If you're navigating building a new life, career, or business and find yourself questioning what's possible, I'd love to help.