Rising Above the “Outdated Version” of Myself
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
By Yuliana Francie In every season of life, we arrive at a fork-in-the-road moment—a choice between fear or love. But these options rarely present themselves clearly. Often, adversity doesn’t appear as disaster, loss, or catastrophe. Instead, it arrives disguised as success. It comes dressed as the life you thought you wanted, the relationship that “checks all the boxes,” or the career you built by being everything to everyone.
On my long flight home from Las Vegas after presenting at the She Wins Summit, a movie caught my attention: Materialists.
And within it, the story of Lucy Mason—a matchmaker in the glittering swirl of New York City—became a mirror.
Lucy’s adversity didn’t show up through failure; it arrived through illusion.
A failed actress turned successful matchmaker, Lucy spent years crafting other people’s happily-ever-afters while quietly doubting she’d ever receive her own. She hid her fear of being alone behind polished pitches, curated matches, and the fantasy of marrying someone wealthy. To the world, she looked confident, accomplished, and composed. But inside, she was exhausted from carrying an identity built on expectations rather than truth.
Her defining moment wasn’t losing a job, a home, or a relationship.
Her defining moment was losing herself.
Like many women, it happened gradually—one compromise, one silenced intuition, one “be reasonable” at a time. She ignored clients’ unrealistic standards. She ignored the guilt when one of her matches went wrong. And she ignored her own heart when she stepped into a relationship that was perfect on paper but empty in reality.
When Harry, a wealthy financier, pursued her, she convinced herself that ticking boxes was the same as building a real connection. He was generous, successful, and socially polished—the kind of man she believed she was supposed to want. But adversity has a way of revealing the places where we’ve abandoned ourselves.
For Lucy, her truth cracked open when she found an engagement ring hidden in Harry’s luggage—right beside the revelation that he had spent $200,000 surgically altering his height to feel “good enough.”
In that moment, she saw the mirror with painful clarity: both of them were trying to be chosen for who they weren’t.
That clarity became her turning point.
Rising above an outdated version of yourself requires choosing truth over approval, alignment over expectation, love over status. It meant telling a good man the hardest truth: We are not in love. We are in love with an idea—an idea suffocating us both.
Walking away wasn’t dramatic or explosive. It was quiet, reverent, and profoundly brave—like all genuine transformations.
But her deepest rise came later, when she faced Sophie, the client harmed by one of her matches. Even after being told to stay away for legal reasons, Lucy chose integrity over convenience. She apologized—not as a businesswoman protecting her brand, but as a woman waking up to the cost of self-abandonment. Sophie lashed out, but even that was part of rising: standing in truth without demanding instant forgiveness.
Her greatest liberation came when she reconnected with John—the man she once left because he didn’t meet her checklist. Confronting him meant confronting herself. It meant acknowledging that she once valued financial security more than emotional truth. And it meant realizing that the love she dismissed was the love that saw her most clearly.
She rose above adversity the moment she chose authenticity over aspiration, emotional wealth over financial optics, and connection over performance.
Rising above adversity isn’t always about conquering external battles—it’s about shedding the identity that no longer fits.
Lucy’s story is a reminder to every woman:
You become unstoppable the moment you stop contorting yourself for a life that doesn’t honour who you truly are.
It is not success that makes you unstoppable.
It is self-honesty.
It is self-trust.
It is the courage to choose the life that feels like home, not the one that looks good on paper.
Sovereignty isn’t a role you claim—it is the embodiment of your truth.
And when you step fully into who you really are, life opens doors that were always meant for you. For me, one of those doors was standing on the She Wins Summit stage, reminding women what it feels like to reconnect with their true selves, to remember their power, and to build their business and lifestyle from a place of deep inner alignment.
That is the moment I rose above my outdated version.
And like Lucy, I chose the woman I was becoming.
If this resonates with you… your evolution has already begun.
My book Unbecoming You is your next step, a 21-day journey to shed the identities that no longer serve you and step into the woman you were always meant to be.
Check out Unbecoming You and start your transformation today. Connect With Yuliana www.yulianafrancie.com/unbecoming
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