Identity after change is the part nobody schedules for. The role gets restructured, the company sells, the career you gave twenty years to ends on somebody else's timeline, the house goes quiet. Every piece of advice you get after that is about the calendar, update the resume, find the next thing, fill the week. None of it touches the real question, which is who you are once the thing that used to answer that question for you is behind you. Dr. Douglas R. Lindsay, Lt Col (Ret), USAF, has crossed this gap more than once and spent a career studying what happens inside it. Twenty-two years in uniform, a PhD in the psychology of how leaders actually get built, editor of the peer-reviewed Journal of Character and Leadership Development, and now deputy editor at Military.com and founder of Next Mission Leadership, where he coaches leaders at organizations including Walmart and ExxonMobil. He and Dr. Traci Eisenberg-Rayburn get into why looking backward feels so much easier than looking forward, which of your patterns are worth carrying into whatever comes next, and what retrospective versus prospective identity actually means for a leader standing in the middle of change. In this episode, you’ll discover: Why change is an identity question dressed as a logistics problem, and why filling the calendar is real work that still is not the work.Why the patterns that made you effective never came from your title, and why they are the most portable asset you carry into whatever comes next.The difference between retrospective identity, which is finished and knowable, and prospective identity, which is neither, and why looking backward always feels easier.What Dr. Douglas Lindsay's peer-reviewed research on courage, stress, and resilience says the leadership industry gets wrong.Why Next Mission Leadership is built on the idea that leadership is defined by how you perform next, not by what you have already done.Doug's argument that organizations should maintain their people the way they maintain equipment, on a schedule and before something breaks.Why the one-thing rule on Dr. Traci's free collaborative call filters for people who actually engaged with the episode, not just the free book. We talk about: 00:00 Change tests your patterns, not your plan 00:03:00 Welcome to Got Your SiX with Dr. Traci 00:04:15 Meet Dr. Douglas Lindsay, a career built like scaffolding not a ladder 00:10:53 What is actually pulling you toward this work 00:13:26 Which turn in his career was hardest, and why 00:17:04 Why he named it Next Mission, not a second act 00:20:38 What is the change actually asking of you 00:36:00 Choose your hard, staying versus taking the risk 00:44:00 Why looking backward feels easier than looking forward 00:47:13 One leadership truth to take with you today 00:53:07 Bring one thing, get the book and workbook free Resources: Bring one thing you took from this episode to a free 20 minute collaborative call with Dr. Traci, and her book Inside Out Leadership: Transforming Your Life from the Core, plus the companion workbook, are yours at no cost: https://drtraci.erbusinessconsulting.com/mission-check-in-call Connect with Doug LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/douglaslindsayphd/Author page: https://www.military.com/author/douglas-lindsayWebsite: https://www.nextmissionleadership.com/ Connect with me Leadership Call: https://www.erbusinessconsulting.com/coaching/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-traci-55410868/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrTraciER/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drtraci_battletested/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gotyoursixpodcast/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@erbusinessconsultingWebsite: https://www.erbusinessconsulting.com/Email: info@erbusinessconsulting.com #LeadingThroughChange #IdentityAndChange #LeadershipPodcast #ChangeManagement #ExecutiveLeadership #ResilientLeadership #BattleTestedLeadership #ComposedOperator #LeadershipDevelopment #CareerTransition #NextMissionLeadership #LeadershipResearch #ChangeReadiness #SelfLeadership #PersonalGrowth #LeadershipMindset #TransitionCoaching #GotYourSiX