What if..We Embraced Transition?

Recently, I have had the opportunity to help quite a few men and women who are contemplating leaving the corporate life they have known for 25+ years to start their ‘second phase’ of life. Whether you are age 55+ or thirty-something, “redirection” can be defined as looking for changes to improve or enhance your personal, professional and/or spiritual life.

Transition (or commonly known as change) can be a smooth or rough ride, depending on how it is approached. If, for example, you are terminated from your job without warning or preparation, your transition to another job might be rougher than someone who has quit to take another job elsewhere.

Transition can be seen as a threat or as an opportunity. What I have seen over the years as a life and business coach is that what might start out as a threat, winds up becoming a wonderful opportunity.

HERE ARE SOME TIPS TO HELP PREPARE FOR A SMOOTHER TRANSITION:

1. Remember that your job or career DOES NOT define who you are: it only defines WHAT you do.

2. Take the time to discover your values, your passions and how you are wired. These items are foundational in making future decisions about your life direction. Seek outside resources like coaches, classes or conferences that can help you.

3. Make sure you are not living life inside a box. Do you have a network of contacts outside your place of employment, or home? Does your network include personal and professional contacts? These contacts can serve as a great resource if and when you want to explore something outside of your current situation.

4. Keep a running tally of your strengths and talents. Be willing to look outside your industry to see how you can creatively transfer your talents to other markets.

5. Pray about where your life is and if you think a different direction is where you are being led. Be willing to be patient until you feel you have an answer.

Live Out Loud Ladies!
www.lynnjarrett.com

What If...Deliberate Acts Of Kindness Became A Habit?

I think I shall dedicate this week to Deliberate Acts Of Kindness.

Tomorrow, I will wake up and give thanks to the Lord for the wonderful kindness He has given to me over my lifetime. This is how I will start my day.

Then, I will make an intentional plan. I will plan a deliberate act of kindness to very specific individuals. I think I will make a choice to specifically target those who have NOT been kind to me recently.

Would anyone like to join me?

I really need to step outside some pain inflicted. Today, I became completely aware that, although unkindness has been shown to me, so much kindness has also been shown. Isn't it interesting how easy it is to "obsess" over the kindness taken when so much kindness has been given?

What if...deliberate acts of kindness became a habit?

What if...I could stay on task this week.

I don't know about you but as a mom I find myself easily getting distracted from my daily tasks. I start my day out with great expectations to get lots done and so I start to tackle my first project of the day. Soon my kids interrupt and need my attention for one reason or another so I stop what I am doing and help them but then very often something else gets my attention which also keeps me from my task at hand.

I have never been very good with cooking and taking time to be creative with food all my life but since getting married now over 10 years ago, this has been something I have tried more times then I can even count to get better at preparing dinners for my family but it is still just as much a struggle today as it was ten years ago. Everything else seems to take priority and distract me from my goal to have good dinners prepared for my family every night and not just having the same old meals that we all are tired of.

I will be going grocery shopping today for the next two weeks of dinner meals that I have planned out. Hopefully I can keep it up and make it a habit to do every two weeks and take the time out necessary (and stay on task) to plan and prepare what we will be eating two weeks in advance rather then at the last minute like I do too often where I either find that we don't have all the ingredients and need to make a last minute trip to the store or we just eat out.

Can any of you relate?

What if...you only saw your child once or twice a year?

My daughter Kelly (see photo above!) came home to Michigan this week to visit from her home in Ft. Lauderdale. The last time I saw my daughter was at Christmas; needless to say I had a hard time letting go when I grabbed and hugged her as she walked through the door at the airport terminal. Hopefully that also helps explain the lateness of this post, and myriad emails I've sent asking people to understand a delay in my work schedule this week on freelance endeavors. My baby girl is home, and everything else has taken a back seat to spending time with her.

When our children are little we don't often think of the fact that we are raising them to be adults and self-sufficient enough to make their way in the world. Sometimes we don't take into consideration that their world will end up being so far away from our own! I'm so grateful for how communication has evolved through the years. When I was a teenager, there was that corded phone that we would drag as far as we could into closets, or around a corner in order to have a private conversation. Long distance calls were mostly out of the question though; too expensive. The plus side was that everyone became good letter writers, and there are beautifully handwritten letters to lovingly store away. Still, though, I'm so grateful for the relatively inexpensive cell phones that let me talk to my daughter most days, and email that can travel through space in just a moment's time. Frequent communication certainly helps us feel closer.

But there's nothing like being together in person, having conversations face to face, and the joy of wrapping a loved one in your arms. So until next Wednesday, I'm a little bit absent from my online world of friends. But I am so totally present right now in my life with my daughter. Wishing you all a warm hug from a child today; your own or a treasured borrowed one!

What if ... we could be a fruit?

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer. I am learning how to have more fun in my life so lets have a little fun here as I myself need to have a lot more fun in my life and not be so serious always.

If you could be any fruit, an apple, peach, pear, plum, watermelon, honeydew, cantelope, banana, pineapple, rasberries, strawberries, blueberries etc., what would you want to be and why?

My initial thought was I would want to be an apple so I would always be the apple of God's eye but I don't really care much for the taste of most sweet apples as I prefer the sour apples but wouldn't want to be thought of as one of those sour apples.

With summer here, two of my most favorite fruits to eat are rasberries and watermelon. I have fond memories of picking rasberries every summer as a child in our back yard but I think If I were to pick one it would be a watermelon since they are so filling and also help quench your thirst on hot summer days.

What would you want to be?

What if..We Paid Attention to Our Needs?

I just went through three weeks of insomnia. There was nothing stressful or spiritually upsetting in my life. My body just decided it was going to be stubborn and not function properly. (For any of you who have had bouts of sleep deprivation, you know how frustrating this is!!)
A little proactive investigating on my part led me to a homeopathic doctor who was able to pinpoint a specific hormone that was completely depleted, which was causing my insomnia. I was ever so grateful to learn that there was something actually wrong and I wasn't crazy!!
During my three weeks of non-existence, it forced me to focus on God for help and wisdom to get to the bottom of what was wrong. There are some lessons I have had to learn through this and wanted to share those with you.

1. Don't ignore your body. Heart disease is the leading cause of death among women today. Why? Because they ignore the signs. Women are known to focus on everyone and everything else EXCEPT themselves.

2. Keep in mind that your body, mind and spirit (physical,mental and spiritual) must be in balance in order for you to function optimally for God. If one area is off balance, the others are affected as well. Take action to get yourself back in balance.

3. Rest. Recognize when your body, mind or spirit is weary and force yourself to rest. If you don't, you'll be miserable and everyone else will know how miserable you are too!!

Live Out Loud Ladies!!

www.lynnjarrett.com

What If...I loved Him the way I love him?

We sent our children off to their grandmother's until Sunday. Ah, 5 days alone with my husband.

Grammy picked up the kids on Tuesday at 11:00. My husband came home to kiss them goodbye and decided to spend the afternoon alone with me. We went to lunch and came home for an afternoon nap. It was wonderful.

I awoke about 3:00 PM in time to make it to work at 4:00. As I worked, I was thinking of our wonderful afternoon. Then a floral deliveryman came into the showroom with a bouquet of beautiful, long-stemmed roses.

"Are you Randee?", he asked.

I opened the card to find the note: You're too good to be true. I can't take my eyes off of you. I blushed. It was an good afternoon.

My husband is an easy man to love. He personifies the strength that I so desperately admire. He is a man of truth choosing never to allow things to simmer but get them out in the open immediately. This can be unsettling to some but for me it's quite refreshing. Something that I've always admired him for. He lives in the present. He is full of gratitude and appreciation. He is hilariously funny.

He is easy to love.

Lately, I have been contemplating God as Lover. I've been pondering just how much energy and effort I put into "loving" my husband. I wondered...

What if I loved my Lover like I love my lover?

How would that look? Feel?

If God established marriage as the ultimate "love" relationship, then why NOT begin seeing my God as my Lover?