Do You Know What You Want to Be When You Grow Up?

 

Last night I attended an Aspiring Authors event at Foxtale Book Shoppe, my favorite little bookstore in Woodstock, Georgia.  The place was packed with friends and family of the authors who were there.  I spent the first few minutes chatting with several of the authors, then listening to their three minute talk about their book and why they were inspired to write it.

 

What Inspires Writers to Write

It was interesting to me how many of the authors were writing now as a second career.  For many it was a long time dream but they were either discouraged from writing early on in their life or as one put it, "life got in the way and I had other responsibilities."  I spoke to a Gail Heller, a special ed teacher who retired after 38 years and now has written a mystery with two other children's books in the works.  I listened to Sara McDaniel H. Kemp, a 91 year old woman who has enthralled her children for years with her stories and who has now put her legacy into a book for all to enjoy.  I listened to Sharon Kiser, who was told in kindergarten that she would never amount to anything because she colored her autumn leaves blue instead of brown, yellow or red.  Her novel about a young girl who feels plain and unloved is a reflection of her own experience and she has spent a lifetime as a speaker encouraging others to recognize their true potential .  I was struck over and over again by the unlived and unexpressed dreams of so many people who finally took that first step and then followed the path to the completion.

A Dream Come True

I too have a story of wanting to be a writer but instead following the path of a career in counseling.  Early in my career, I worked as an addiction counselor, a social worker in a nursing home and a rehabilitation counselor on a stroke and head injury unit.  I eventually found myself in the perfect setting to not only be a counselor but also to explore my dream of being a writer.  As an elementary school counselor, I spent much of my day encouraging and listening to children and their stories.  It was a path that was long and winding but once I set the intention of publishing my childeren's stories, I moved steadily in that direction until now, four years later, I've just had the most successful book launch yet of my fourth book, Wyatt the Wonder Dog Learns about Giving.  It's a dream fulfilled and a continuous journey as well. 

Deciding Who You Want to  Be When You Grow Up

 

It's important to determine your mission in life.  Most people spend more time planning a vacation that lasts two weeks than they spend planning their life.  Most people survive the week just to get to relax for two days and then do it all over again.  What if every day you were living your purpose and discovering your mission?  What if you lived in the present tense rather than holding out for the future?  What would that look like? 

 

One of the things that I enjoy doing is helping people discover their mission, set goals and move forward in achieving them.  Creating a mission statement that clearly identifies your purpose is the first step.  Here's why it is important:

• Decision making is easier because it gives you something against which to  measure your activities
• It connects you with what is true about your life and helps you cut away what is false
• It keeps you from getting tangled up in the details of your life and helps you focus
• It keeps you from responding to the urgent rather than the important
• It grounds you in the present rather than the past while planning for the future

Determining a mission statement is an introspective and contemplative journey that takes committment and time but the result is amazing.  It brings clarity and focus to each day.   

 

The Called Woman Conference 2014

March 15th is the third annual Called Woman Conference in Marietta, Georgia.  If you are interested in discovering your mission or taking your goals and dreams to the next level, this is the conference for you!  I'll be speaking on:  Where Do I Go From Here-Finding and Fulfilling the Calling You Were Meant to Live.  You can learn all about the conference and some of the amazing speakers we have here: 
The Called Woman-Reinvention Convention 2014

I hope to see you there. In the meantime, Keep on Dreaming!  Like the authors at Foxtale, it just might be your time to make those dreams come true.

Want to learn more?  Join the Called Woman Creative Team, Sunday, November 10th for a free webinar: 
Taking the Leap:  How to Get Unstuck without Becoming Unglued!  You can sign up here:  Taking the Leap Webinar

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Five Things I Learned From The Called Woman Conference

Yesterday was the Called Woman Conference and what a great day we had!  The attendees learned about their personality style, how to discover their mission to guide their life and about the leadership qualities that we all have.  We had three additional speakers who talked about how they discovered their passion and reinvented their lives after leaving a failed business, a six figure income from a job she hated and finally a career that just wasn't a good fit.  We enjoyed  a delicious lunch, networked and left with a bag full of goodies and giveaways.  All in all it was a huge success.

Putting together a conference that encourages and empowers women to make the most of their gifts and talents has long been a dream of mine.  Just as I have attended conferences, consulted with coaches and done a lot of reading to  reinvent my career and life, I wanted to share that journey and that information with others who find themselves embarking on a similar path.  In the beginning, the idea of a conference like this was just a dream, but bit by bit the pieces began falling into place.  The dream began when I read the book, The Path by Laurie Beth Jones which is one of the clearest directions I have found for creating a mission statement.  You'll find it on my reading list.  Next, I toured the MUST ministries facility with my friend and MUST event planner, Betsy Matthews and discovered what a gorgeous community room they have and how they make it available as a way to give back to the community.  Finally, I talked with my friend and fellow author, Kathy Brunner, who immediately and enthusiastically said, "Let's do it!"  when I proposed the idea of a women's conference.  I would never have embarked on the journey without her support and can-do-spirit.  We added Kim Wiggins to the team of planners. She brought her great organizational, technological and leadership skills to the group and we were off and running.  How long did we have?  Six months.  Was this an ambitious plan?  Could we have used more time and developed it more?  YES!  Was it successful anyway?  YES!

Not only was the program successful but I learned five things that will greatly help us as we begin planning our Second Annual Called Woman's Conference for next year.  I think these are valuable things to know whether you are planning a women's conference, reinventing your career or planning a book launch.  Here's what I learned:

• Dream BIG--I admit that I'm not the best in the group at dreaming big.  I tend to downplay things and dream small but expect growth.  To really grow though you need to dream bigger and begin with the end in mind.  We tend to get what we expect so don't undermine your efforts by dreaming too small.  
• It always takes twice as long as you think and costs twice as much as you would think to reach your dream.  Dream big but don't forget to count and conserve your resources.  You will need to plan carefully and expect that your dream will take time to reach.  Don't give up when you don't see the results you want right away.  Give it time to develop.  When I first embarked on a speaking career, I spent the first year developing things.  Developing topics to  speak on.  Developing contacts and building relationships.  Developing a plan or strategy.  It was not only exhausting but sometimes discouraging.  But it paid off.  While I continue to do all of those things now, I also usually speak at least once a month, sometimes more.  
• It's okay to ask people for things.  Many times they are excited that you did.  One of the things that we provided each participant was a goodie bag.  My goal was to have everything in the goodie bag be donated by businesses that wanted to promote their product.  In the beginning it was difficult to ask people for this but I really came to the point where it was fun because so many people were happy and eager to participate.  I also learned a lot by about different businesses and their philosophy about giving.
• Be flexible and don't give up.  Be ready for people to cancel and not show up.  We had everything from a speaker who arrived an hour late (after the conference was over) to attendees who were sick and unable to come.  I learned to be prepared for anything and to always have a plan B in mind.  
• Support is critical-you don't have to go it alone.  The two women that worked with me to plan the conference were amazing.  They were both a powerhouse of energy and ideas.  They were creative and hard-working.  We enjoyed working together so much we are already planning how we will work together during the next year to plan our next conference.  What a difference it makes to know someone has your back.  

So there it is.  A successful 2012 Called Woman Conference.  I 'm already dreaming BIG about the next Called Woman Conference for 2013!

What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?

Cover of John Lennon







I recently read this quote from John Lennon, "When I was five years old my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life.  When I got to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up.  I wrote down 'happy'.  They told me I didn't understand the assignment and I told them they didn't understand life."  I bet this story makes you smile because it's just the kind of thing that a five year old would do.  I hope it also makes you think.  What do you want to be when you grow up?  Are you on that path?

Much as the pursuit of happiness seems like a worthy destination, I would actually challenge it as a worthy mission in life.  Here's why;  I believe that happiness is a byproduct of your perception, your mindset.  I believe that you create your own happiness and you create real happiness and joy by discovering the passion, the art, the creativity, the God-given gift within you and pursuing that.  When we pursue happiness itself, we are pursuing something that is often elusive, that may change daily and that may not actually be in keeping with other important values.  For instance, it may make me 'happy' to go on a shopping spree that I can ill afford.  It may make me 'happy' to become involved in a relationship that violates prior commitments.  Ultimately of course, both of these examples will result in unhappiness since in both these examples there are many other values and circumstances that need to be taken into consideration.  When we search within for the mission or purpose in our lives then make that our north star, we are much more likely to not only reach our goal but to be happy in the process.

None of this is easy.  I've spent much of my life setting goals but having a hazy idea of my mission or purpose in life.  When we set goals that aren't grounded in our basic purpose and our beliefs or values, then we not only have difficulty staying focused on them and achieving them but we are often amazed at the destination when we arrive.  Figuring our where we are going and getting on the right path   are both important parts of the journey of life.  A great book that I've recently read on this very subject is The Principle of the Path by Andy Stanley.   One of the questions that he asks and answers in the book is, "Why is it that smart people with admirable life goals often end up far from where they intended to be?  Why do our expectations about our own future often go unmet?"   There are a lot of explanations for this but the simplest and most basic is that while we establish our goals, we don't take the time to  establish the mission for our lives and the path that will lead there.

In a couple of weeks, I will be part of a one day conference for women where we will address these questions;  What is your passion?  What is your mission? What is the path to follow to arrive at the destination?  You can check out a video about the conference here:  A Called Woman Conference

What about you?  What do you want to be when you grow up?

Are You Feeling Ecstatic?

Image via Wikipedia This past week I was teaching a first grade class and talking about feelings and feeling words.  I asked the children to name some feeling words and I got the ones that I usually do:  feeling bad, feeling good, happy, sad, mad, scared, really good, really, really good, etc.  Then I called on one little girl whose feeling word was--- ecstatic.  I was stopped short in my lesson.  Did she know what it meant?  She most certainly did, it means, "really really excited".  I was impressed to say the least.

I've been talking in recent posts about discovering your mission in life and centering your goals in life around that mission.  Here's something I may not have mentioned.  When you review your mission statement and when you identify your goals, do you feel ecstatic?  When you get up in the morning and determine what aspect of your goals that you are going to work on that day, do you get really really excited?  If you do, then this is a good indication that you have found the true north for your life.  If you dread your 'work' whether that refers to your job or your goals and can't wait until you get to the weekend so you can do what you really want to do... well then you need to revisit that mission statement and those goals.  Like my little first grade friend, you should be feeling ecstatic about your mission!

Related articles

• The Art of the Personal Mission Statement (workawesome.com)

What Do I Do With It Now That I've Got It?

There's an old Frank Sinatra song called, I've Got You Under My Skin. In the song, old blue eyes sings,"I've got you under my skin, I've got you deep in the heart of me, So deep in my heart, that you're really a part of me, I've got you under my skin..."  That's what you need to do with your mission statement.  Make it such a part of you that it is deep in your heart.  Make it such a part of your being that you just naturally follow it.

How do you do that?  Here's what I have done for the past year.  Every morning during my devotional time, I write my mission statement in my journal.  As I write it, I reflect upon each part of it.  Sometimes I have changed a word or a phrase. I revise it and develop it occasionally, but for the most part it has stayed the same because it is a general statement of my life at it's best.  My mission statement has become such a  natural part of me that I use it as a compass throughout the day to determine my actions and my priorities.  Pretty powerful result for just taking about five minutes each morning for reflection.  Can you find a way to weave your mission statement into a regular part of your life?