Why do you keep restarting your life every 6 months?

If the title felt like a personal attack, sorry. It’s a personal attack for me too.

Every 6 months is the same cycle: new year, new month, maybe a Monday. You think you will change it all, and once you do, it’s gonna be over for the world!!!

So you pick a positioning. You rewrite your LinkedIn headline. You batch-create content. There’s momentum. You're on fire!!

It starts alright, but fades away by week 2?

You think- Why god, why? Why this keeps happening to me?

So you sulk, spend some time sulking even more, and then you find another idea, another niche, another Monday.

The cycle repeats.

So why do we keep doing that? Some say it’s the laziness to commit. Others label it "shiny object syndrome."

The way I see it - this goes way deeper.

Be honest and tell me - every time you plan a pivot, is this the question that comes to mind:

Who am I, and what do I actually stand for?

Well, you, my friend, have an Identity problem. And it is that identity crisis that fuels the 6-month pivot pattern.

A competitor posts something great? Must mean your positioning is wrong.

A prospect ghosts you? Must mean your offer sucks.

Your engagement drops for a week? Must mean you chose the wrong niche.

None of these things is actually evidence that you need to change direction (unless it sustains for months or you have enough data to validate). But when your identity is unclear, your brain interprets everything as proof that you're on the wrong path.

Psychologically, here is what is ACTUALLY happening in your brain (warning: some of these might feel like personal attacks):

1. The Existential Vacuum

You might be using "pivoting" as a way to avoid answering the question: "Who am I if I am not 'successful' yet?" If you don't have a "Deeper Why," you have an existential void. To fill it, you look for external validation (likes, revenue). When those don't come immediately, the void feels like a failure. Restarting is a way to pour a fresh layer of "hope" over that void without actually fixing the foundation.

2. The Ego-Protection Mechanism

Pivoting is often a proactive defense. If you stay in one niche for two years and still haven't "made it," you have to face the possibility that your skill or your message isn't landing. That’s terrifying.

But if you pivot every 6 months, you can always say, "I just haven't found the right fit yet." It keeps your potential infinite while keeping your actual results zero.

3. Neophilia (Novelty Addiction)

Your brain is wired to prioritize Anticipatory Dopamine.

Planning: High dopamine. Everything is possible.

Execution: Low dopamine. You actually gotta work to get results.

Without a strong identity-based foundation, your brain interprets the drop in dopamine as a sign that the project is bad, rather than a sign that the novelty has worn off.

No, but hang on a second- why don't we have a deeper why? Where does the deeper why come from?

Well, the answer to the former question is simple. Schools and colleges provide a pre-packaged "Why" for the first 25 years of life:

Get the degree, get the job, get the status.

But once you achieve those - or realize they don't fulfill you - there is no further guidebook.

You’ve spent your whole life executing someone else's "How" without ever being taught how to build your own "Why." Naturally, the internal void becomes deafening.

Now, where does the "Why" come from?

According to Viktor Frankl, the father of Logotherapy, meaning isn't something you create out of thin air. It’s something you detect.

It comes from three specific sources: Work, love, and suffering. Here’s how you "detect" meaning in them:

1- Work: Look at your natural obsessions. What is the one thing you can’t help but do? For example, I can’t help but organise random workflows into processes and systems. Meaning here comes from the realization: This thing needs to exist, and I am the one with the specific tools to build it.

2- Love: This is about connection - to nature, art, or another human being. Meaning here is found in the awe of what already exists. You aren't building something new as much as you are preserving or facilitating a connection. Think- wildlife photographers, heritage & restoration, environmentalists.

3- Suffering: This is the most powerful pillar. Frankl says that even when you are stripped of everything, you still have the last of the human freedoms: to choose one's attitude. The meaning is detected in your response to the struggle. Think- Mentors, Life coaches, Therapists. The path to noble professions mostly arises out of suffering.

Mistakes we keep making

I want you to pause here and think.

Did you really not have any calling in your life till now? Or did you not listen to it because you confused utility with meaning?

Utility: I am doing this to make 10k/month. (This is a goal, not a why).

Meaning: I am doing this because I want to solve problems for millions of people like my younger self.

If your foundation is purely utility-based, you will pivot the second the utility (the money/likes) drops.

A "Why" requires you to stand for something even when it’s not currently working.

If you’ve read till now, you already must have some idea of what to do next. But I really want you to avoid falling into the same pitfall - of the 6-month pivot cycle. So here are some guardrails:

Step 1: Obvious - start with the meaning detection. That’s how you ground yourself. Set a 30-min timer and figure the meaning out. Once you find the mission statement, make it your device wallpaper. Put it in your social media bio. On days when you fail, this meaning will ground you again.

Step 2: Lock in your niche, and you’re not allowed to change it for the next 3 months. Think of it as a science experiment. Write down exactly what steps you are going to take in this duration and at the end of 3-months, what will make this experiment a success or failure. Don’t attach your identity to results.

Step 3: Make a “Shiny Object” note. Any ideas you get in this 3-month duration that don’t fit your niche, go into the Shiny Object notes. You’ll get to it later.

Step 4: Every single day during this 3-month journey, write down one piece of evidence that your positioning is working. It doesn't have to be big:

Write it down. Date it. Keep it somewhere you can see it.

Think of it like building a legal case for your future self. When the doubt spiral hits - and it will - you don't argue with the voice in your head. You pull out the evidence journal and let the data argue for you.

This, my friend, is the real game. Making it harder to restart than to keep going.

And then one day - maybe day 45, maybe day 90 - you'll look back and realize you haven't thought about pivoting in weeks.

Here’s to hoping for that 🥂

See you next week.

— Shrishti