Tag Archives: Notice

Little Words That Will Make a Big Change

If you are just now joining us in this series, I encourage you to start reading at the earlier posts (links included below) to build the foundation for the thoughts I share here.

1. Looking at the BIG moments that Change Your Life
2. What Happens When a Moment Changes Your Life
3. Hope & Healing in the Holidays
4. Have you noticed what you need this holiday?
5. Say It Like It Really Is

Today we are taking a look from Psalm 77 at the last two letters in our NEPO exercise that invites us open our fists in the middle of our grief and loss and find HOPE AND HEALING IN THE HOLIDAYS (if this doesn’t make sense- go back and read the links above.  None of them are very long.)

We have already opened the pinky finger which stands for
N: NOTICE your NEEDS

Then we extended our ring finger also to remind us to
E: EXPRESS your EMOTIONS (honestly)

That brings us to the third and middle finger and the middle of Psalm 77 where the psalmist moves from ‘woe is me’ in verse 10  (back of hand to forehead, remember) to Continue reading Little Words That Will Make a Big Change

Looking at the BIG Moments that Change Your Life

The discussion Rennie & I shared  with a small group of friends turned to moments in our life we remember really well.

We each shared stories of special events- concerts, sporting events, etc. that we recalled in vivid detail.  We remembered who was with us, what happened, how it felt.  Often, someone would share how that moment had changed their life. 

Like the young man who as a boy was with his father at a baseball game when a world breaking home run was made.  He remembered the permission he and the entire grandstand had to celebrate the moment in a loud and crazy fashion.

Or the young woman who just experienced a training event over the weekend that seems to have had a life-changing impact on her future. She spoke with excitement, passion and tears about the moment she knew this was was she needed to do next.

Then our leader asked, ” What is the arena where God shows up in our life?”

Life events – Tragedies – Celebrations

We all had moments to share.  And most of them were the Big Moments.  Moments we could recall in vivid detail.  We remembered who was with us, what happened, how it felt.  Often, someone would share how that moment had changed their life.

I immediately thought of my MOMENT. Actually a series of moments that I consider to be my RED SEA moment. Continue reading Looking at the BIG Moments that Change Your Life

Who Are You Supposed to Be

What if you already ARE who you are supposed to be?  

I have pondered the words for several days. Here I am, once again questioning what I need to do to get better- be more.  It seems like I should be well past this.  I mean I’m—well, old enough to know better.

Once again I feel ‘stuck’.

Often when I work with a coaching client to identify what is causing the ‘stuck’ feeling as they try to move forward, I use the metaphor like…

“Life is a Highway!”

We jump in an imaginary helicopter of sorts and get a bird’s eye view of all the lanes of their life: spiritual, professional, family, personal, physical, financial, social, etc.

Often when they take that perspective on their lives, they can tell which lane has a car with a flat tire that is causing slow down in the other lanes, or they see there was an accident that is causing a traffic jam every where else.

Or they might find that one lane, like the professional lane is going a different direction than the family lane.  The difference may be slight, but in the long run, they are not going to end up in the same place.  Just recognizing that helps my clients tweak a few changes while they are little to help them get where they want to go.

Good exercise, very helpful on many levels since we are all familiar with the process of planning a journey.

However, the exercise can be somewhat misleading. It can imply that who we are is out there somewhere.

But what if we already ARE who we are supposed to be?

What if we already have within ourselves what we need
to do what we were made to do?

David Benner recently challenged this thought as I reread his book, The Gift of Being Yourself .  He writes,

Once we realize this {that we already are what we seek and where we long to arrive}, the nature of the journey reveals itself to be more one of awakening than accomplishment, more one of spiritual awareness than spiritual achievement. 

Awakening! 

Yes, I’ve experienced this many times during the decades of my life. Moments when I am suddenly aware that my skills and abilities – even my dreams are exactly what was needed.

But that’s truly what they are- moments.  Just as sure as I know I’m the right person in the right place at the right time, I become unsure, or at least less sure.  However they are not just fleeting moments.

If I’m paying attention,  especially exquisite attention I’ve talked about in recent posts, then the truth of each moment teaches me something about myself.

Maybe I learn I have a strength I didn’t know- or need before that moment.  Or perhaps I see that I can be very creative and resourceful in other moments.

As I continue to journey on life's highway, I am not 'becoming'- I am awakening to who I am. Click To Tweet

Even after all my years of life, today I continue to awaken to who I was created to be.

What about you?

Where do you feel ‘stuck’?

What do you think you need to get ‘unstuck’?

What if you already ARE who you need to be and HAVE within yourself what you need to have to move forward?

If you believe this to be true, how does it change your behavior in this moment? 

Here’s to both of us- Awakening! and living like we believe!

Be inspired to Be You!

A Close Up Look at THE Exquisite!

Last week I shared with you the wonderful word EXQUISITE. In that post, I defined the term and the different meanings associated with the word.  (You can go back to read that post here.)

I had every intention of writing a second blog post related to this because I wanted to think through a concept Jonathan Fields introduced at the TRIBEWRITER Conference I attended in September.

In our journey to hone our voice in writing, but also in our life work, we so often give out, put out, produce only to find ourselves going through the motions, but feeling a void; of running out of ideas, direction or energy.  That happens because we are not effectively refueling or putting back into ourselves.

Jonathan challenged us to develop an ‘inner key’ that is more about input rather than output.  Continue reading A Close Up Look at THE Exquisite!

Exquisite!

At the recent Tribewriter ConferenceGood Life Project author & speaker Jonathan Fields challenged us with the key concept in being successful in life is to pay “exquisite attention” to the important things.

More on that later.

His comments prompted me to  ponder this word exquisite.  I asked the GHC community what their first thought was when they heard the word ‘exquisite’. Continue reading Exquisite!

Live Out Your Value in 2017

I’m talking a lot about VALUE these days.  Mostly that is because a woman in my life dared to ask me these questions.

Do you know your value?

Do you offer value to the people in your world?

Listen in as I share with you some of my insights this summer as I processed the answers to these questions.  I invite you to answer these questions for yourself.


New S.N.A.P It 5 Day Challenge begins 9/11/17

Find out more about the Five Day S.N.A.P it Challenge!  Register today to get set up for our first S.N.A.P it video on Facebook Live, Monday at 9:00am.

S.N.A.P to Finish

The Fall season is not officially here, but with the start of school, and football games and the cooler temps we’ve been having (at least in Ohio), it feels like fall all over.

But that also reminds me that we are nearing the end of 2017.  Can you believe this year is on the wind down? Doesn’t it seem like we were just setting our goals for the new year?

If you are a goal setter, you might strategically set goals

  • the month,
  • or the quarter or for 90 days at a time
  • or 100 days at a time.
  • or maybe just a wing and a prayer moving through each day as it comes.

I like to look at 100 days at a time (though the ‘wing and a prayer’ has been known to happen on many occasions. )  I especially look at the last 100 days of the year which, if I counted right, actually starts September 23rd.

Or if you save the last week of the year for time with family and friends, or reflection of the old year and planning the new, then the last 100 days of the year start September 16th.

But here’s the thing.

I can spend a lot of time making goals, creating plans, strategizing about next steps and get to the end of the year and wonder…

Is this where I wanted to end up this year?

Or am I trying to do what I think I should do to be who I think I’m supposed to be?

Have I made the kind of difference that I really value most in my own life?  

What questions do you have in your own experience?

Well, that’s why every year about this time Continue reading S.N.A.P to Finish

Boy, Do I Have a Story to Share!

I have been told more than once how amazing it is that I could write my book about my experiences- or create videos that share something I learned on a given day.  “I just don’t have those kind of things happen to me. But it’s nice that you do!

Hmmm? Could it be that I have more things happen to me than you do? I doubt it.  Would God show up in my story more than He would in yours?  I don’t think so.

I don’t have a secret password to get to God.  I have bad things happen just as much as I have good.  Some of you wouldn’t want my story- and I wouldn’t want yours.

But my story Continue reading Boy, Do I Have a Story to Share!