Fear or a Real Signal to Pivot?

“How do I tell the difference between fear and a real signal to pivot?”

This is one of the most honest questions you can ask yourself—and I’m glad you asked it.
Because the truth is, fear and intuition can sound very similar at first. They both show up as discomfort. They both interrupt your plans. And if you’re a high-achieving woman, you’ve probably been taught to push through both without stopping to ask which one you’re actually dealing with.
So let’s slow this down together.
Based on my own journey—across multiple degrees, career shifts, and the lessons shared inside the Black-Liberation.Tech community—here’s how I’ve learned to tell the difference.

1. Fear Usually Means You Need More Data
A Signal Means You Need a New Environment
Fear often shows up as:
“I don’t know how to do this yet.”
In our Conversation for the Future lesson, Charlene shared that when she started her first job in publishing, she didn’t even know how to use the computer they handed her. She felt embarrassed. Overwhelmed. Exposed.
That was fear.
But she didn’t leave. She learned. She implemented. And over time, she built websites and entire campaigns.
Here’s the distinction I want you to hold onto:
If the discomfort comes from lack of skill, the solution is usually learning.
If the discomfort comes from lack of respect, growth, or recognition, that’s often a signal to move.
When I earned my master’s degree and was still denied a raise I had clearly earned, I wasn’t afraid—I was informed. That environment had reached its limit for me.
Fear asks for more information.
A signal asks for a new container.

2. Pay Attention to the Questions You Keep Asking
Real signals often arrive as questions that won’t let you go.
When I was a biology teacher, I loved my students and the subject—but I kept asking a different kind of question:
“Who decides what gets taught in my classroom?”
That wasn’t fear of teaching.
That was my curiosity pressing against the walls of the room.
That question couldn’t be answered inside biology alone. It pulled me toward public policy.
So here’s my coaching question for you:
What questions keep showing up in your mind—questions your current major, job, or role can’t fully answer?
That’s not confusion.
That’s your intellect asking for more space.

3. Check Your Spirit and the Practical Roadblocks
Sometimes signals arrive through logistics that line up with your well-being.
When I explored graduate schools, I tried to attend an orientation at George Washington University. The traffic was so overwhelming that I never even made it. In that moment, I realized I didn’t want a life that required that kind of daily drain.
Later, during my PhD, the pandemic hit. I had planned to run an after-school program with middle school girls—but ethically, it no longer felt right. I didn’t want to become another burden during a crisis.
That wasn’t fear.
That was alignment.
A real signal often asks:
“Does this path still honor my values, my energy, and my integrity?”
If staying requires you to ignore your peace or compromise your ethics, that’s information worth listening to.

4. Flexibility Is Not Failure
I once had to cut 30 pages from my dissertation prospectus and completely change my theoretical framework.
It felt like starting over—but it wasn’t.
In my blog post “Flexibility,” I compared life to a good jam session. You don’t stop playing because the rhythm changes—you adjust.
Fear says, “This is too hard. Quit.”
A signal says, “This needs a different approach.”
As I often remind my students and nieces:
Slow and steady still wins the race.
Pivoting is often just choosing a pace you can sustain.

5. Notice What Keeps “Following” You
Fear whispers that you’re not enough.
Signals remind you of who you already are as an individual.
When I looked back at my life, I realized technology had always followed me. Whether I was teaching biology or working in administration, I was always the one helping others figure things out on the user side of tech.
I wasn’t chasing it—it kept showing up.
So here’s the final check-in I’ll leave you with:
If you’re running away from something because it’s hard, pause and ask if that’s fear.
But if you’re being pulled toward something that keeps appearing naturally in your life, that’s often a signal worth honoring.

A Gentle ReminderYou don’t need to have perfect clarity to move forward.
You just need to tell the difference between a skill gap and a misalignment.
Fear asks you to grow.
Signals ask you to change direction.
And learning to tell the difference?
That’s not hesitation—that’s wisdom.