three things about a season of change
Have you ever looked around and realized that the life you’re living doesn’t really feel like your own? Like you might have partial, but you don’t have FULL ownership of it? Like you aren’t totally sure if you intentionally made the decisions that led you to where you are today?
Or maybe you’re feeling like something is a bit ‘off’ and you don’t feel like yourself any more. Maybe you had these specific plans for your life, but they don’t feel the way you thought they would.
OR maybe you never thought to make any plans in the first place, and you just woke up and thought “how did I get here?” — and now you aren’t quite sure what to do about it.
It’s definitely a scary feeling when you feel like your whole life needs an overhaul. Can you relate?
I’ll never forget year 5 of being an entrepreneur.
I had started and scaled a full-service, luxury travel agency. I had finally reached a point where we were working with some celebrity clients, were featured with big name media outlets, I had a team of amazing, incredible women, and we were pulling in multiple millions of dollars in annual sales. Oh yeah, and travel perks didn’t hurt either!
It felt like the vision I had for my life was becoming reality.
The problem?
I was working early and late hours. And while I loved every second of the work, I hated every second it made me miss with my family and friends. I was stretched thinner than thin.
And I realized that while my business was thriving, I wasn’t becoming the wife, mom, and friend I wanted to be in the midst of it all. And these are the MOST important things to me.
I had put so much hard work, sweat, and tears into this business – and it worked. But my dreams for the business just kept getting bigger – and demanding more of me – more than I had to give… And suddenly the whole situation felt like fitting a square peg in a round hole.
And I had no idea what to do about it. My life felt like it needed an overhaul.
For MONTHS I wrestled in search of an answer of how to run my business, while also being the woman I wanted to be in the process. How could I have it ALL?
I was looking at every option from every angle. And at the end of each day, I felt defeated. I couldn’t find the answer I was looking for. And I felt stuck and scared.
Like I said, square peg, round hole… no solution in sight.
Finally, and I mean finallllly, one morning with a quiet heart before God, I heard my answer loud and clear. It wasn’t an audible voice, but Jesus himself might as well have been sitting at the foot of my bed talking to me – and He said very clearly, “I’m telling you to put this down.”
It was not the response I was looking for. I had envisioned a very specific life for myself, and laying down my business was not part of that plan.
But my striving for solutions certainly wasn’t working, and so I decided to surrender and TEARFULLY responded: “God, I’ll shut it down if I’m supposed to. I have no idea what that’s supposed to look like, or how that will work, or what comes next, or what it means for my family… but I trust you. Even if I close shop and this is a dead end, I will do it.”
Quite literally, less than ten minutes later, I received a text from a travel agent friend and colleague whom I hadn’t spoken to in awhile. The text said, “I don’t know why I’m sending this right now, but I feel like I’m supposed to reach out. How is everything?”
I’ll keep the details for another time, but ultimately, that same person ended up purchasing my travel agency.
And listen – I know not all of my listeners are believers, but for people who do share the same faith as me… I mean, come on – Won’t God provide an answer when we give Him a surrendered heart?
Now – I wish I could tell you it was all rainbows and butterflies after that, but if I’m being honest – that’s just not the case.
I wasn’t called to lay down the business just because… I believe God was calling me to lay it down so that He could do some work on my heart. I hadn’t realized it, but I had placed so much of my identity in my business, that without it, I wasn't sure who I was any more.
And so began the journey of self discovery that led me to today; the journey where I learned three HUGE life lessons that I’d love to share with you about seasons of transitions.
SURRENDER YOUR HOW.
We might have the big picture of how we want our life to look, but God is going to direct our steps to get there. Proverbs 16:9 says “In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps.” – I learned that surrendering the HOW of the process allows you to co-create your life with God. He WANTS to give us the desires of our hearts. And what an adventure partnering with him is!NOTHING IN NATURE BLOOMS YEAR-ROUND.
Following the sale of my company, I told you it wasn’t rainbows and butterflies. Part of that was learning this lesson right here – a hard one to learn for anyone who is a goal-oriented, fast-paced achiever like me. But we can’t expect to see great fruit in all areas of life at all times. And this is NOT failure. It’s just the natural flow of life. Because nothing in nature blooms all year round, we shouldn’t either. Sometimes, seasons of slow, small, and simple rest are exactly what we need.THERE IS BEAUTY IN THE BLANK PAGES.
And lastly, I learned that there is so much beauty in the mystery of the unknown. Even when it’s really hard to see, there is beauty in the blank pages in life. And it’s a delicate dance – but if you can find the balance between bold ownership of your life, and holding on to alllll the things of your life loosely – that is the balance that allows beauty to flourish in the unknown. That is where God can work some serious magic (I mean, he always can, but you get the point).
These three lessons: surrendering our how, realizing nothing blooms year round, and finding beauty in the blank pages… THAT is the heartbeat of the Your Brand of Beautiful Podcast.
And THAT is what you can expect to beat throughout every episode as I, along with some other experts in their fields, candidly share our life stories that might help YOU to navigate through some of the hard and beautiful decisions in YOUR life.
AND I’D LOVE FOR YOU TO TUNE IN! :)
Sometimes I’ll be hopping on the mic solo and other times - I’ll be chatting with thought leaders to bring you their unique experiences and stories about creating a life as unique as they are. About creating THEIR own brand of beautiful.
Because ultimately, my heart is to help YOU want to create YOURS.
YOUR brand of beautiful – your life defined as beautiful by your standards – and not the world’s. I want to help you feel connected to your own life again or, maybe for the first time ever!
I want YOU in the driver seat, co-creating with God – living out YOUR giftings and YOUR purpose.
I want YOU excited to wake up every morning, ready to take on another day living out YOUR brand of beautiful.
Because if you are in any kind of place similar to where I was - scared, stuck, and stagnant, I GET YOU. And I’m here to be your friend through it all.
