by Liz Clark | Jan 28, 2016 | Getting Stuff Done, Personal Development, Pursuits
With a headline like that, I’ll get straight to the point: Ashamed is how you feel in the morning. Or at least that’s how I felt. Can’t-look-myself-in-the-mirror-ashamed. And despite the awful shame, it happens again and again. It starts innocently enough: An adventurous glint in my eye, a pep in my step, The seed planted deep within my mind, nothing else will satisfy… I rush impatiently through my “regular” work and chores and errands. Sometimes it takes hours, sometimes days, but it always happens the same. Sooner or later, I can wait no longer. The pull becomes too great. Everything else pales in comparison to the singular fulfillment of this one desire: I HAVE A SHINY, NEW IDEA! Bolstered by sheer will-power and determination, I start out confidently, thinking I know exactly how this love affair with a new idea is going to go: “Why, hello there, Idea. Ready to change the world?” But this Idea is not so easily tamed. After one or two rough nights of unmet expectations, I awake in the morning – bleary eyed and ashamed – and slip back into my “regular” life. Leaving the idea behind without so much as a phone number. I try to pretend it never happened. Have you ever had a great – I mean lightning-bolt-great – idea? Maybe while driving? Maybe in the shower? Maybe in those moments just before you fully wake up in the morning? Ever felt that idea slipping through your fingers the moment you do a little research and find a similar (or identical) idea already out there? Has an idea even broken your...
by Liz Clark | Jan 21, 2016 | Family, Personal Development
Last week, I was scrolling through my Facebook News Feed, passing time while my husband drove us to our son’s karate practice & belt promotion ceremony. Without warning, I landed on a status update that didn’t make any sense. It was a death announcement on a dear friend’s Facebook wall. She had died just hours before. Normally, I would have kept it together and waited until my husband wasn’t driving to tell my family this news. Normally. But, this was so shocking! So unexpected. My husband and I know this family well. I shared the news immediately and we were all in disbelief. I learned that she had been in the hospital since Monday of that week. I didn’t know. In the days since her passing, I’ve reconnected with friends we had in common that I haven’t talked to in a long time. While all of us were shocked and saddened, it is astounding how so many of us seem to know exactly what she would want. I didn’t realize it at the time, but my friend lived her life in a way that, in many ways, prepared us for her death – in the best way possible. She lived out clear values and boundaries that are surprisingly comforting even without her here. Here are the lessons my friend taught with her life that unintentionally prepared us to grieve her death: Look to God to Meet Your Needs She was a strong, independent woman, a wife, mother and minister. But despite her many responsibilities, her source of strength, love and peace came from one source – God. She...
by Liz Clark | Jan 11, 2016 | Getting Stuff Done, Personal Development
So, you’ve set some goals or you have a great idea! You’re excited about making this new idea happen. Maybe you want to: lose weight get organized be smarter with your money get a new job launch a new business take your business to the next level You start of with great intentions and lots of momentum. Then regular life happens and days turn to weeks and you realize you haven’t made any progress toward your new goal or idea. It still excites you. It’s still something you want, but there is literally no time to work on it. As a small business owner, wife and mom of 4 kids, I totally understand how this happens. Here’s the thing: it’s actually normal. In fact, most people don’t succeed. The amount of change that’s required to accomplish new goals or to make a new idea into reality takes a lot of effort. But, some people do manage to accomplish their goals and ideas. It is possible. So where do you start? 1. EVALUATE YOUR PLATE Taking on something new doesn’t mean that regular life goes away. Get honest with yourself about your current responsibilities and the scope of the new idea you’d like to make happen. Don’t do this in your head; write it all out on paper. Make sure you get everything. It is common for us to overlook or forget about certain responsibilities if you’ve been doing them for a long time. Keep a journal for a week to see exactly how you’re spending your time. 2. DECIDE WHAT STAYS – AND WHAT GOES Taking on something new takes effort and focus....
by Liz Clark | Jan 5, 2016 | Personal Development
Sometimes (particularly after streaming a historical/period movie or series on my flat screen TV from the coziness of my warm couch), I daydream about how much better life must have been in the “good old days.” You know, those good old days before we had to worry about work at the speed of light, a thousand daily distractions and parent-guilt? The simpler times when we grew our own food, we rallied together when we were in crisis and had perfect hair all the time? Ok, that last part might be Hollywood. The rest must be true, right? I am as guilty as the next person as romanticizing the “good old days,” pining away for a simpler time. Or maybe, for you, the future is your daydream of choice: a bright and shiny day when things are finally humming, when technology stops creating problems as fast is it solves them, when everyone gets along and you finally feel fulfillment from your work and life. The truth is, at any given point in history or the future – things aren’t perfect. By only imagining the good stuff, we create a version of the past or the future that makes for great fiction, but it simply isn’t real. What’s more, measuring our current lives against that fantasy isn’t fair. For every romanticized ending, there were an untold number of struggles we simply didn’t see or don’t appreciate because we haven’t lived through them. What’s real is your right now. You may be facing problems, but you will get through them. Life may not be what you expected it to be, but you’re not done with life yet. What matters is whether or not you are...
