All In For Me: A Career Change Journey

Attraction as opposed to force. Manifesting and Making $hit happen (MSH) versus forcing outcomes. It is something I've been thinking a lot about these days.

I love talent reality shows where they create something….Project Runway, Top Chef, etc.   There are these moments when the contestant will create something really personal to them, putting their heart and soul into something, staying true to their vision, and creating something they are really proud of.   What could be possible if we create with passion and share without constraint?   

When it comes to entrepreneurship, a lot of people will talk about feast or famine.  In my 18 months, it is more like famine, lean diet, feast, and gorging so much you need a Pepto.   THE QUESTION FOR REFLECTION:  What message do you need to hear?

Haven't we all been playing a game of safety and survival for 18 months that might warrant talking about, processing and healing?  Haven't we all been doing the best we can or know how to do?  So why not go to an expert to who can provide us with coaching, tools, and support we wouldn't have otherwise?  We go to experts to train for events, do construction on our homes, fix our cars, heal our physical health….so let's get over ourselves about going to an expert to support our mental health and well-being.

QUESTION FOR REFLECTION:  How is your journey going and who is supporting you? 

I take my first vacation as an entrepreneur...and discover what is the same and really different about creating a daily life you don't need to take a vacation to escape!

If 2020 was the worst of years, perhaps 2021 becomes the year when the full breadth and depth of the human experience is possible.  The year we will find ourselves most alive, most present to the gifts and the grief in any given moment.  It will be our roller coaster.    

In business, juggling is a constant.  So...what is juggling teaching you?  

The world of small business, which comprises 50% of employment in the US, is also AN eco-system.  One that is interdependent.  Generous.  Supportive. And seemingly, infinite.  I've met so many people this past year…and there are so many more to get to know.  QUESTION FOR REFLECTION:  WHERE ARE OTHERS GENEROUSLY CONTRIBUTING TO YOU? 

We are all at, or coming upon, a one anniversary of sorts.  An anniversary where our world was one way and then it was another due to the pandemic.  We are coming up on a grief anniversary.

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life,” Confucius is reported to have once said. I don't know that I'll quite say that is the truth, but I have found the beauty of when my work is a realization of my calling and, being in the flow of my calling, time flies and the process itself is enjoyable rather than a source of stress or drain.

In this episode we explore how collaborative games mirror how success, growth and connection happen in real life. 

Securing my first paying clients was a succession of two steps forward, one step back. It was a series of “almost clients” to get to actual clients. Some of these “almost clients” did become clients, eventually. And that isn't the point of this post. The point is that sometimes “almost” is as valuable as actually accomplishing. There are lessons in the “almost”. In work. In running a business. In life. QUESTION FOR REFLECTION: What have you learned from the “ALMOSTs” in your life?

Perhaps it isn't just time and distance that provides perspective, heals wounds and allows access to greater compassion.  Time and distance help.  They only help, though, if we use that time and distance to do our work of personal reflection, growth, and locating ourselves in our truth.  In that work is where we find a new perspective and where we heal. QUESTION FOR REFLECTION:  WHERE IN YOUR LIFE IS THERE WORK TO DO TO GET COMPLETE?

What is family?   This year, we find ourselves reinventing how we celebrate holidays that many of us have traditionally celebrated with a larger group of people.   How do you choose?  Who is your chosen Family?

In this episode, we explore what it means to BELIEVE.... and that believing in a plan or course of action is not the same as believing in yourself.     Question for Reflection:  Where is it time to BELIEVE... in yourself?

Speaking Our Truth is not without cost or consequence.  And yet, at some point, when we come to the end of our “set” period, there is a part of ourselves that compels us, catapults us forward.  We can no longer sit in incubation, because the cost of not honoring, speaking, and living our truth is even greater. QUESTION FOR REFLECTION:  Where are you ready to Speak Your Truth?   

I love this picture because it perfectly captures my journey to uncovering the "SHOULD"s that are not serving me in life, or in my new business.   Reflection Question:  Where are you “should”-ing in your life?    

We cannot possibly continue to evolve to be a more perfect union without the voices of each and every person.  Have your voice heard.  Vote.  Vote with power.  Vote with intention.  QUESTION FOR REFLECTION:  What is your voting plan?

We all have the power within to create. We also collectively have the power to create and alter our world.  I was reminded of that when doing some leisure reading lately!  

Today's podcast episode  is a current, topical post reflecting on energy...     Think of each of us like a drinking glass. The glass has unlimited capacity for air, that positive flow of energy. The glass also has a finite capacity for heavy, negative, wet sand form of energy. We each have unlimited capacity for positive energy flow. At the same time, there is only so much solid, negative energy any of us can hold.   QUESTION FOR REFLECTION: How are you managing your energy?

Things are about to become real. It is one thing to sort out in my mind what I think my next steps are and why, it is another thing to speak it out loud.  This may not seem like a monumental step, but it is.  There is something that happens in speaking our inner thoughts, hopes and dreams that create them in the larger world.  Declaring is an act of creation. Merriam Webster defines declare as “the formal announcement of the beginning of a state or condition” This act of declaring and creating is enlivening and exhausting.  It takes something to alter our existence and being.  For once we declare ourselves, it gives us access to being and doing consistent with our new, declared state. In the being and doing, we create the outcomes consistent with our declaration.  We become what we say we are. 

The universe is speaking to me.  Actually, it is sort of knocking me over trying to wake me up! The universe is telling me something about one aspect of what is next for me.  It involves sharing myself, writing and, perhaps eventually, speaking.

The Hebrew bible talks about two kinds of fear.  This podcast explores the typical type of fear we are used to as False Evidence Appearing Real, as well as the second kind that shows up when we are stretching ourselves beyond who we knew ourselves to be.  

What will your legacy be?  We explore this topic in four categories of Family & Friends, Cause, Wildcard & Career.

I'm continuing to read the book “Playing Big” by Tara Mohr .  In the next chapter of her book, Tara introduces the concept of the Inner Mentor with a visualization exercise where you meet yourself twenty years from now, looking back in life from then to where you are right now.  Pretty trippy.  And amazing.   I'd love to raise all of our girls to seek their wisdom within.  Not to the exclusion of the guidance or wisdom those of us around them, but with equal weight.  For women to listen to themselves, trust themselves and honor their own inner wisdom would be a victory for humanity.  

Most of us have a critical inner voice who is rarely empowering us in our journey to live full, lush, vibrant and empowering lives.  I'm also learning to look for the critical inner voice as a sign that I'm playing big enough in my life, taking enough risks to warrant a little concern. Because, ultimately, I want a life big enough to scare me a little….in a good way.     Reflection Question: Where are you living big enough to be a little scared?   

SHEDDING: Today's post is a current, topical post reflecting on shedding what no longer works for you and your life. There are those who are afraid to shed. Afraid to let go of beliefs, relationships, ways of being and ways of acting. My husband was the one who taught me to prune rose bushes for them to grow bigger, more lush and healthier. Shedding is the same. Question for Reflection: Where are you shedding what no longer works for you?

In this podcast, I explore how i continued to allow my boundaries to move with work, home and the people in my life.  As I go on this career journey to create what is next for me, boundaries are important to explore.  

In this topical post, we explore FEAR.   We are dealing with a lot of FEAR in our lives. COVID-19. Job Loss. Racism. All of this on top of the day-to-day aspects of life we are dealing with that others don't realize. Decisions and actions driven by FEAR are rarely ones that give us access to the full breadth of life and living. So look....Where does FEAR have a say in your life?

On airplanes, they tell you to put your own oxygen mask on first before assisting others. I suck at that in life, much less an airplane. I honor my word to everyone and everything else first, only then keeping my word to myself. My coach asked me to reflect on my relationship to Self-Care. I didn't even know I HAD a relationship to self-care....but I did and I do. Through this process of reflection, taking it on as a practice versus perfection, I've started establishing a powerful foundation for my life, my career and my business.  

During the global coronavirus pandemic, it feels a little strange to launch a podcast with a name that is “me” centric.  I explained in the What's In a Name podcast how I came up with the name and why it fits this particular career change journey to entrepreneurship.  And yet, since I've just launched this blog and you are still getting to know me, I thought it was important to share my overall approach to life, which is about WE. 

As this mid-career woman starts her journey to entrepreneurship, I have a level of freedom and lack of obligations like never before.  It is unnerving, unsettling and disorienting.  I do not know what to do with myself. I start to explore what it means to be brave - this minute, this week and this year.  As I acknowledge the bravery in others, I am reminded of it within myself.  

Now that i was leaving corporate america, what was i going to do next?  I needed some space to clear my head, heal my heart and refuel my body.  So uncharacteristic of me to take space.  

How did i know it was time to leave corporate america?  My body had been giving me cues for months.  

This podcast episode shares about a process for branding with archetypes.  During this process, i learn something about myself and how i leaned into my secondary archetype because that is what was recognized and rewarded in corporate america.  

This podcast talks thru the meaning of the Hummingbird as the logo for this podcast.  We discuss the larger symbolism of the tiny, might bird, as well as the personal significance.  In the end, we ask the listener to reflect on who has encouraged them to live their fullest life.  

This foundational podcast to the All In For Me podcast series provides some context for the name of the podcast series and asks the listener to explore what "all in" means for them in their life.  

This podcast shares why i went from reflective journal entries to creating a blog and podcast, in the hopes of empowering others in their career change journeys.

This is an introduction to the All In For Me Podcast chronicling a mid-career woman leaving corporate America to launch her own business. This introduction provides a sneak peak of what to expect in the series, covering what the podcast is and what it isn't.