The Next Baseline: Pilot Episode

The hardest part of a life reset is realizing the old structure is gone and it is not coming back. When relationships change, careers shift, parenting dynamics evolve, or your health throws up a warning sign, the question stops being, “How do I get back?” and becomes, “What do I build now?”

I’m Danny DeJesus, and I created The Next Baseline for people living through disruption who want something more useful than vague motivation. This podcast is grounded in a core idea that shapes all of my work: transformational resilience. It is the understanding that pressure does not only test you, but it also changes you, and that change can become the raw material for a stronger, more honest, and more intentional life. In each episode, I explore how that plays out in leadership under stress, professional growth, single parenting and co-parenting, identity shifts, health wake-up points, and the private work of staying balanced when everything feels unstable.

You will also hear the practical framework I built to guide a reset: C2R2E — Collapse, Confrontation, Realignment, Reclamation, and Elevation. I walk through what each stage looks like, why rebuilding starts with truth and self-awareness, and how boundaries, structure, and agency help you create a better next baseline instead of chasing an old one that no longer fits. To make this episode actionable, I also leave you with a simple Next Baseline exercise and one small action you can take to start aligning your life with what is real.

If this resonates, subscribe, share it with someone navigating change, and leave a review so more people can find a clearer path through their own life reset.

You can find more of my work at Elevatus Coach, and if you want to connect with me on a deeper level, you can connect with me through the RISE Community on Skool.

Transcript

Welcome And Why Resets Happen

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hello everyone and welcome to the next baseline. If you're here for this first episode, I want to thank you. This podcast is created for people navigating change, pressure, disruption, and those moments in life when a life reset becomes necessary whether you planned for it or you didn't. Sometimes that life reset happens in your personal life, it happens as a leader or in your professional life. Sometimes it happens in your parenting, or even more specifically, as a single parent/slash co-parent. And sometimes it happens in more than one area of your life at the same time. And that is what this podcast is about. It is about when life no longer works in the way it used to, when the structure you relied on starts to break to break down. And when you realize the question is no longer how to go back, but what do you do to move forward, to build forward, to reset so you can move forward. And that is where the name, the next baseline, comes from. Because there are seasons in life where something changes, something breaks, or something becomes unsustainable. And when that happens, many people either try to hold on to what is already ending, or they rush to rebuild or reset before they even understand what is really happening or what is really changing. And so I think, you know, a question we should be asking when this happens is when a life reset is happening or disruption, uh, let me be more specific, is a something in a life was disrupted. I think the question really becomes, what do I build now? What is the next baseline I need to create for my life? And that question sits at the center of this podcast and it connects to the core idea that I will come back to again and again. And that is this idea of transformational resilience. So I want to break that word apart for a moment. So follow me. When I say transformation, what I mean is real change. I mean a shift in how you think, how you respond, how you communicate, and also how you build your life after disruption, after whatever is not working is no longer working. And then transformation also means that the old way is no longer enough. So when I say, in contrast, when I say resilience, what I want, what I really mean also in that word is the ability to endure pressure, adapt to difficulty, and also to keep moving when life gets hard. But what I want to drive here now is what about when I put those words together? Um, because for me, those two words, transformation and resilience, brought together mean something even deeper. Because resilience alone can sound like endurance, and transformation alone can sound like change without without cost. But transformational resilience, so follow me, means difficulty does not just test you, it actually changes you. And instead of trying to return to the old version of the life that you had, or the version of yourself that you were, you begin building a new standard from what the disruption had revealed to you. And that is why those words belong together, at least for me. Because sometimes life changes too much for just simply trying to get back to restoration. Sometimes a relationship changes. We see this in divorce, we see this in breakups. Sometimes family systems change. Going from a nuclear household to now you're having to co-parent across two different households. Sometimes a career changes, whether through job loss or because we took on a new position, for example, for example. Sometimes a role changes in life. We see this a lot when children become adults and they leave the nest. Our roles as parents change at that point. Sometimes our health requires attention. And then sometimes our understanding of ourself requires change as well. Because as we go through life, we will change depending on the environments and the people that were that we are around. So we can expect to change. And so when we put that together and when those changes happen, or sometimes disruption, the real work is not really getting back to what was. The real work really becomes is what are we going to build next? And so I also want to say this clearly. I did not put the phase or pull the phrase transformational resilience out of thin air or as if no one had ever used it before. Uh the broader ideas behind uh the broader ideas of resilience, adaptation, and transformation really exist in many places and across many different fields out there. So you can, I'm sure, go to Google and find this. Um, but what I have done, I made transformational resilience something very personal. And so I have specifically decided to apply it to life resets from a professional uh perspective, leadership perspective, uh parenting, really uh focusing on the co-parenting aspect, um, personal identity, health, and then the lived reality of what happens when life no longer fits the way it used to fit, or at least how we envisioned it. So for me, transformational resilience simply means this. All right, so you can jot this definition down. When disruption changes your life, the goal is not to force your way back to the old baseline. The goal is to build the next one, to build the next baseline. And this is personal for me. The reason I covered these topics is really, and I want to drive this home to you, is because I live them. And so I created this whole podcast and everything that I do because I live these experiences. And so I want to share the share the lessons learned along the way in hopes that someone else can learn from my successes, but also my failures. And so specifically, I lived disruption while serving on active duty. I've been active duty for over two decades, and I'm still serving right now. Um, I've navigated divorce, um, breakups, uh, single parenting, also uh co-parenting across um with my with both of my children's mothers. I say mothers because each one has uh has a different mother. So yes, I have two children with two mothers involved in the process, uh involved in the dynamic. So each child of mine has has her own mom. Uh so with that, I was also involved in a lot of legal conflict when it came down to co-parenting challenges. And I want to be very clear, I have a pretty good co-parenting relationship with both moms at this point. Um, but we did go through some some heavy challenges uh for um at various points in time. Um I overcame financial hardship from almost financial ruin to then finding financial recovery, um, getting clawing my way, you know, dollar by dollar out of debt. And then also the pressure of trying to keep functioning when life no longer felt very stable. So I know also what it's like to overcome childhood obesity. So I live a pretty fit life now, but there was a point in time where I was overweight, uh, specifically in my childhood years, adolescent years. Um I also know what it means to stay physically active, going to the gym daily, and still realize, especially in the more recent years, especially as I'm approaching my 40s, I'm 38 right now, about to be 39 this year. But specifically that health is not just about exercise alone, and that my body um will signal to me when something needs attention. And it's the same for all of us. The the body is is like this this entity that tells you uh when something is wrong. And so I also know what it feels like to carry the weight of responsibility in public, responsibility for for just the various things that that adults are responsible for. So I know what it feels like to carry a huge weight in public while privately trying to make sense of pressure, setbacks, internal struggles, and also the the weight of trying to rebuild your life and not fall apart in the process. I lived all of this also while continuing to serve my country on active duty, while continuing to serve the United States from a military capacity, also while being a graduate student, specifically as I pursued my uh master of uh education in higher education administration. And then also at the point in time, as alluded to earlier, navigating court battles, uh child custody court battles and litigation, and then also moving through seasons where uh life felt like it was closing in on me. So when I talk about life resets, leadership, professional growth, single parenting, uh, co-parenting, I'm not speaking from some abstract place. I'm speaking from on these topics because I lived all of it. And over time, what I realized was that the common thread across all these challenges for me was I desired and craved a need for structure, uh, a need for understanding what was going to come next, specifically predictability. Um, but then also I needed a way to be honest with myself. And until I was able to be honest with myself, there was no way I was gonna be able to move forward. And so that was key is being honest with what I was going through and what I was responsible for on top of that. Even if I didn't cause it, I had to still take on responsibility that may have not been mine to take, but I had to take because I can't change anything if I don't take extreme ownership over it. But with that, you know, that this is why this podcast exists. Because many people I found, um, especially, you know, as a coach, I've I found that many people stay stuck trying to recover a life that is already gone and it's not coming back. And so they want what I found over time, I mean, myself included, is that there's there's times that we want whether it was an old relationship back, um, an old certainty back, an old routine back, an old confidence back, an old identity back, an old body back, an old version of ourselves back. But sometimes that old baseline is truly gone. And and and we have to, and we have to accept that. Because the moment we can accept that that old baseline is gone, the moment we can accept um that that that finality, the the better question is not doesn't become how do I get back to what I to what was. The better question starts to become what do I build from here? So for me, that question led me to a framework that actually it's proprietary that I developed and I call it C2R2E. What C2R2E stands for is collapse, confrontation, realignment, reclamation, and elevation. And so here is how laid out in a simple, simple version is that collapse means when something in your life is no longer holding, is no longer working. It's not just pain, it is unsustainability. Confrontation, the next step, is where you begin facing what is real, um, not what you wish were true or were real. Realignment, uh, the third step in the C2R2E process here is where you start becoming intentional, you reorganize your life around what is true, what matters. So think about your values, the people that you hang out with, for example, and what supports a direction, uh, what will support you in the direction that you're trying to go. And so sometimes uh realignment means um not hanging out with certain people or not doing certain things anymore. The fourth step here is reclamation. And so reclamation is where you begin taking your your yourself back, your voice, your confidence, your discipline, your peace, your standards, your personal agency. And then last but not least is elevation. And this is where the work begins to integrate into how you live, how you make decisions, how you lead, how you parent, and how you carry yourself. I mean, there's more to that, but that is that is elevation in a simplified way. And so put it all together, that is that is C2R2E. And that framework sits underneath everything I will talk to you about in this podcast. And so this podcast is not gonna be, you know, a place for empty motivation or inspiration or vague self-help language. There's a lot out there that covers that. This podcast is not gonna be one of them. Instead, this podcast is going to be a place where we have clear conversation, very honest conversation, practical insight, structure, and deep reflection. We're also going to talk about life resets because many people reach points where what used to work no longer works. So I look forward to hearing from anyone that listens and that uh shoots sends us a message about what they're going through and and who knows, I may feature it in a future episode. And then also, you know, I want to talk about leadership and professional growth because how you think, decide, communicate, and operate under pressure, under stress, it matters. We're also going to talk about parenting, specifically single parenting and the co-parent life, because family systems also matter to me. Uh, communication, how we communicate with our co-parents also matters, and how we communicate with our kids also matters too. And then also structure matters. So as you can see, there's there's a there's a theme across all the things we're going to talk about. Um, we're also gonna talk about health and personal responsibility too, because sometimes growth is not just about emotional or professional, sometimes it is um your own body telling you that it is time to pay attention um and make make more honest decisions about how to take care of your health. Um, you know, we can't be as effective as we as we can unless we take care of our health. So with that, you know, I'll leave you, I'll leave you with this um because we're coming towards the end of this podcast. Um, and I want you to be able to find more of my work and be able to explore what what I'm about. And so you can explore a lot more about me and what I do at elevatiscoach.com. And so this podcast um is also um currently sponsored by Elevatis Coaching, which is my personal brand and the home of my work around transformational resilience, life resets, leadership, professional growth, single parenting, and co-parenting. And then also you can you can I want to extend to you an invitation to to the Rise community, so which stands for resilience insight, strategy, and elevation. So if you want to connect with me on a deeper level and continue this work beyond the podcasts, I will welcome that. So there's actually a seven-day free trial, and you can find all that information and more details at elevatiscoach.com. And so before I close this first episode, I just want to highlight that I'll leave all the links in this uh and I'll leave all the links into the description, and then uh last but not least, I also want to leave you with something practical. And what I call this uh practical piece is really an exercise, and so I call this the next baseline exercise. And so what I want you to do, what I'm asking you to do is this set aside a few quiet minutes after this episode and answer these five questions. So the first one is gonna be what in my life no longer feels sustainable? The second question is gonna be what truth I have been avoiding. The third question is going to be what needs to change in how I think, decide, or operate. The fourth question is gonna be, what do I need to take back? So is that going to be your peace, your time, your discipline, your standards, your confidence, your voice, or your health? Or maybe a you know, more than just one, maybe or all of them, who knows? And the fifth that I want you to do is that I want you to answer is what does my next baseline look like? So not the perfect version. Don't focus on perfection, but not the fantasy version either. Um, what I want you to be is honest, intentional, and then also create a workable version. So if you go through this and you do it correctly, you're going through the all the different phases of C2R2E. And so when you as you're going through this exercise, you know, where I want to take you is to a place where you're gonna write down one action that you can take this week that's going to reflect what that next baseline is gonna be. And I'm just asking for one. I'm not asking um for 10. I'm just asking for one. Make this very simple, don't complicate it. Um, because what I want to get across is that your next baseline does not begin really when anything is perfect. It actually begins when you start acting in alignment with your baseline, with whatever it is that you're looking to do. So, with that, I want to say thank you for being here for the first episode of the next baseline. I'm Danny De Jesus, the host of this podcast. And so, again, you can find more of my work at elabatiscoach.com. So, until next time, this is the next baseline, and this is only just the beginning. Take care, see you soon.