Keeping Life in Balance

Wild Flower Picture Taken on a Friday Walk

What do you do when you are single mom and in the second year of a new business?

Well if you are like me- you work just about all the time.  I am either planning class projects, teaching a class, invoicing, making sales calls or collection calls, experimenting with a new art medium, blogging, keeping up with social media,writing articles or updating marketing materials. Doing it all on a shoestring budget- sometimes in the middle of the night.

Whew!  I am worn out just talking about it!

I realized lately that my life has been consumed by my work- every room of my house has become my studio. My house is a mess, my garden is over run with Bermuda grass, the lawn needs to be mowed- and with 100 degree day Texas summer days- I'm not that enthused about pushin the lawn mower around for a few hours.  Let's not forget the Master bedroom toilet has stopped running, the dryer has stopped drying and the fence has a hole that needs to be fixed.

Always so much to do-and only one of me to go around.

So in order to keep some semblance of balance in my life I try to take time to do at least one nurturing thing for myself each day.  Some days it is taking a late evening walk with my daughter to get some good endorphins and talk about our day.  Sometimes I meet up with girl friends for a night on the town and dance my cares away.  Sometimes I give myself an hour to wander around Half Price Books all by my lonesome and dig for bargains.  Sometimes it is going to the garden store and just walking through all the beautiful blooming flowers.  And since I am living life on the cheap these days- sometimes it is just re-painting my toenails a bright summery color.

It really doesn't matter what I do- it is the conscious act of taking care of self that is important.

After all- the dishes will always be waiting when I come back home- and the grass won't mow itself, but with a little "ME" time all the tasks of the day seem much easier to handle.

So I encourage all of you other "Super Women" out there to stop "doing" for just a few minutes and enjoy just being the wonderful You that you are!  Do something nice for yourself every day, you've earned it!

Choose a new color- Hot Pink is great this time of year!

I Changed My Career After 50 and You Can Too!

Trading Business Travel for Watercolor Class!

Like many other people who were laid off during the recent recession, I decided I needed to make a radical change in my life, and my career. If you are thinking about starting your own business or changing your career, I will share some of my process with you to help you make the transition from employee to entrepreneur.

First take the initial step of making a list of your interests and talents and look at as many options for your future as possible to see what really resonates with your inner calling. I always felt I should be doing work that somehow made the world a better place, even if it was just making one person's life happier or more fulfilling each day-but your motivation may be entirely different than mine. Everyone must find their own spark that lights a fire in their soul (and under their butt).

Spend time investigating all your options. After I spent months doing online research, considering getting a Masters in Gerontology or other certifications--I eventually settled on creating my own pilot program in a Nursing Home introducing Horticultural Therapy to the Senior community.

Learn as much as you can about the industry and its culture that you can. How will you grow your business? Does your industry rely heavily on referrals? Should you advertise, make formal sales calls? Are there organizations or networking groups to join so that you can become known in your business community?

While I concentrated my efforts on the pilot program, I learned more about the industry and how things really worked. I learned every Nursing Home, Assisted Living Residence, Memory Care Center and Independent Living Community provides activities for their residents. And since the Activity Directors cannot do everything by themselves, they hire outside contractors to help fill up their calendars and provide variety and high quality experiences for their residents. So I decided there was a need to fill- and I was happy to step in to fill the need.

Be flexible and lean into the process. Things may not go as quickly as you would like and you may have to change your business model as you go along. I found that after a few months of relatively slow but steady growth, I had to expand the types of classes I offered and changed my business' focus from strictly gardening related activities to art, music and garden related activities. First I added nature arts and crafts to the mix and have tried several different combinations of class offerings over the past 19 months. Now I change my class offerings in the "Fall Semester" and "Spring Semester" to keep things interesting and new.

Enjoy yourself! When you get to do something that is meaningful to you it will make going to work each day something to really look forward to. For me, every day is different--just as unique as the Seniors I work with. And I don't even mind that I work practically 24/7 for peanuts. I'm happier now than I have ever been.

My path may not be your path, and frankly it probably isn't. But if you are not happy with your life and you want to feel fulfilled in your day to day experience you must take a leap of faith and be willing to take a risk.

Do your research. Figure out what your strengths are. See what sources you have available to you. Create a business plan, do your due diligence. Search your heart for the things that make your heart sing.

I won't lie and say it will be easy. It isn't. You probably will have to change your life significantly (financially) in the beginning. Most likely, you won't be able to travel, pick up that cute trendy pair of shoes or possibly even pay for some of the basics in the beginning. You may want to throw the towel in every day (maybe twice a day)because it is so hard.

But if you really want to be your "authentic self" summon up your courage and take the leap. Like they said in the Kevin Costner movie, "If you build it, they will come," your customers will come and eventually so will the money!

Reinventing My Life at 50- The Beginning

I had always heard that when women turn 50 they experience a dramatic shift in their attitudes and become much more comfortable in their own skin - confident, outspoken, a more authentic version of themselves. So as my 50th birthday was quickly approaching in the fall of 2009, I was looking forward to this new and exciting time in my life.

Little did I know that the proverbial shoe was about to drop - right on my head. At the time I was traveling 50% of the time, handling an 8 state sales territory, had just developed REALLY high blood pressure and had put on 20-30 lbs due to job stress. I was NOT a happy girl!

And as the worst recession of my lifetime was peaking - I was laid off from my printing sales job in September 2009. It was time to do some serious soul searching. Some of you probably have had similar experiences over the last 2-3 years.

I realized I could not go back to selling printing after 27 years in the industry. I literally hated what I was doing and felt like the life was being sucked out of my body day by day - plus there were no print sales jobs to be had at that time anyway.

With no savings, no retirement money and no golden parachute I decided it was time to reinvent myself - or maybe just go back to being the person I had always been. Somehow I had to find a way to make money AND make my heart sing - while making said money. Not an easy proposition to say the least. So I started thinking about all of the things I really enjoyed doing, made a list for myself and tried to figure out what kind of job I could do to use my interests and talents.

Making your list - or "Mind Mapping" or making a goal poster is the first step toward creating a new life for yourself. My list probably does not look like a list you would make for yourself - but that is the beauty of this exercise. This is the part where you figure out who YOU really are and what YOU want for yourself.
For example - my list of interests and talents looked something like this:

1. Working With Seniors - I enjoy working with older people. I love their energy, wisdom and their senses of humor.

2. My Creative Talents - I am very person and feel my creativity is my strongest asset. M hobbies include gardening, watercolor painting, floral design, arts and crafts, singing, playing instruments, teaching water aerobics and wine tasting.

3. My Professional Talents - Experienced marketer, Communicator, and Sales Person

4. Entrepreneurial Spirit - After trying to start businesses several times before only to return to a corporate job after a few months I make a commitment to myself to stick with my new business for a minimum of 2 to 3 years - not 2-3 months.

5. Computer/ Internet Savvy - and willing to learn how to incorporate the Internet into my business.

You may wonder what kind of business incorporates working with Senior Citizens, arts and crafts, floral design, singing, gardening or learning about wine - sounds like something really "out of the box". At first, I did too - and I'll share more of my progress with you in my next blog

It's been an interesting journey for the last 19 months - I encourage you to take steps to have a fulfilling "second act" also - after all everyone says 50 is the new 35! Taking a new path is not always easy, but now every new day is an exciting adventure to look forward to!