Change

Prioritize

Priorities

Sheri Here,

The last couple of months have been a blur, between my husband’s passing, going away for a week, and a milestone birthday. The mania that accompanied all that activity was a bit overwhelming.

Whether it was the activities associated with the events or the feelings, good or bad, that arose as a result, it was a lot.

Identifying Priorities

After all that activity, while that’s all behind me, I’m now looking around and thinking, “Now what?” What does my life look like? What does life feel like? What’s the next indicated step?

Everywhere I look, the landscape has changed.

To say I’m disoriented is an understatement, but what is a constant in my life is the relationship with my Higher Power, whom I choose to call God.

Sometimes I must be reminded that God’s in charge – so what is the question?

My questions revolve around handling a new singlehood and living alone. I haven’t done that in about a quarter of a century, 25 years. Yes, it is a long time.

I’ve started to go to the gym. It’s been a while since I was last there, but it’s coming back, the old routine and now a new routine. But it’s still strange.

Coming home to a house exactly as I left it is also strange and yet there is comfort there.

Next Indicated Steps

Getting to new routines similar or not to old routines is hard. Everything has changed. Not bad, just change. How do we deal with change? How do we go through the process of revisiting every aspect of our lives? Where do we start?

We start with the most important priorities: food and shelter. Once that’s been taken care of then we can move on. By being an active participant in my life, not abdicating my responsibility for my self-care, I can more easily address those issues.

Ok, what’s next? Next depends upon one’s priorities. What are they? Do you have them? Have you revisited your personal priorities lately? Yes, I’ve asked some big questions; but priorities help us answer those questions! I’ve mentioned my priorities start with God, then my health and wellbeing, knowing those are managed, I can address the next items on my list.

What About You?

What are your priorities?

If your world is rattled by life circumstances, do you know what your next actions are?

Or even where to start?

If you’re struggling with your priorities now, change will make a mess of it. If you are ready to get your priorities in order and need help, call me here.

Let’s talk and work on it together. Sometimes two heads and hearts are better than one. Just a simple conversation can make all the difference in the world – contact me here.

Until the next time.

Ciao,

Sheri

P.S. No time like the present to revisit your life priorities since we’ve no idea what tomorrow will bring. Let’s talk, set up time here and let’s get started!

Gratitude Changes Everything

Gratitude Changes Everything

Gratitude

Here it is November, the month dedicated to Gratitude.  Gratitude is the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness. Gratitude changes everything.

What a lovely quality to possess or to have as a recognition practice in your life.

Gratitude Practice Growing Up

Growing up I don’t remember this practice being taught at home or in the spiritual institutions I attended. Maybe I just missed it.

Yes, occasionally we’d get the “eat up and be grateful you have food on the table” speech from our parents, but not a consistent ritual of gratitude recognition.

I didn’t encounter that practice until my 40’s, when I was complaining to a friend, and she started saying I should write a gratitude list of all the things I was grateful for during a day. But at a minimum, write at least three things down.

Gratitude Changes Everything

That was hard for me at first because I couldn’t think of the blessings in my life, although they were abundant. The more I worked on this writing as a daily practice, the more I discovered the abundance that surrounded me. I softened and so did my attitude. Gratitude changes everything.

A few years later, I was given a copy of Simple Abundance – A Day Book of Comfort and Joy, written by Sarah Ban Breathnach. In this lovely daily reader book, she talks extensively about gratitude and how a daily written list will change your life. It changed mine. This book is a gem of simple practices that help us realign our thinking and with that our lives.

At the time I started my written gratitude list, I needed some changes in thinking and the book was also extremely helpful in that regard, but especially around gratitude.

This simple practice has changed my perspective and my thinking over the years and with it, my life. It has been a contributor to the more positive outlook I now have in general toward life.

A Brief History of Gratitude

Gratitude is a concept or principle that every major religion embraces – one of the few things that they agree upon.

Even the Romans in the B.C. years recognized it. Cicero, a lawyer, writer and orator of those times said, “Gratitude is not the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.”

Gratitude has a rich history. As it is one of my favorite topics, I’ve written a couple of other blogs on the topic if you are interested: Gratitude – A Solution for Chaos and Celebrating Gratitude and a Challenge.

Do you have a gratitude practice, where you write daily, in the morning or in the evening, 3 to 5 things that you are grateful for? Leave a comment and let me know, let me know how it has affected your life.

Around Town

If you missed the last 3 Keys to Radically Transform Your Life and Finances, I’ve scheduled another on November 29, 2022, at 2pm PT. You can register here.

You can buy my book Everything I Learned About Life I Learned on Vacation here.

Ciao,

Sheri

We Will Never Forget

Change

Sheri here –

Whenever I see the date September 11, my heart does a stutter. In that moment, I remember – I will never forget.

There are some events we will never forget.

Here it is 19 years later, and I still get stopped.  This is one of those dates in history, that you remember where you were and what you were doing.

One of those dates we remember forever.

Each of us has those dates and times.

Those dates that we never forget

Those are days that change the world or at least our personal world. 

Those are the days that time stands still, that we hold our breath and wonder. Wonder what is next.  Wonder how do we make sense of this? 

Slowly, things sort themselves out.  We grieve for the world that was and move on.

Hope and Opportunity

These are the times we seek comfort in our spiritual relationship with our God, Higher Power, the Universe.  The source we lean on for strength and clarity as we take the next indicated step.

As we reflect on an anniversary, can we use that reflection to instill hope and see the opportunity in our lives in a world once again changed?

As a species, we adapt.  We are survivors.  That is the hope.  See the opportunities.

Share your reflections, your hope, and your opportunities in the comments below.  Or send me an email at [email protected]. 

Ciao,

Sheri

 

Change is Hard in the Middle

Change, Opportunity

Sheri here –

Rosabeth Moss Kantor, the Harvard University chair and director of the Advanced Leadership Initiative has said: “Change is Hard in the Middle”.

A New Normal

Here we are hitting the reset button on a “New Normal” – major abrupt change. 

What has happened?

For some, the pace has slowed; there is less traffic and clearer skies; more time with the family; and creative ways to stay in touch.

For others, that is not their reality. It is different, they have lost jobs, temporarily or permanently; their stay at home is confining; their health might be compromised; or they fear for the safety of their loved ones.

We have choices: 1) to incessantly complain about a world out of control, 2) move forward without a care or concern for anyone but oneself, or 3) stay in the moment, and take advantage of this time to hit the reset button, to complete things, to explore new learning, and to spend time with loved ones.

Some are on the front lines, the health care workers, the first responders, those in essential jobs, including grocery and drug store workers, and all their families.

Community

Yet, for many, an enhanced sense of family and community has risen to the forefront. 

In this time of change, it is an opportunity for compassion and empathy, for looking out for one another more.  An opportunity for our communities to bond differently, with care and concern for each other as if we were more closely related.

Where have you bonded with your community in new ways? Share with us in the Facebook Group “Money Talks with Sheri”.

If you haven’t joined the Facebook Group yet, just click this link and join us in the group.

We are in the middle of a substantial change. While we have experienced pandemics, job losses and stock market crashes before, we haven’t experienced them concurrently. ⁠ 

Change

Add to that the “safe at home” directive many of us are under and the massive closures of “non-essential” functions – it is disruptive, in addition to massive change. ⁠

Many have been pushed to work from home. Businesses of all sizes have gotten creative in how to do that.  Additionally, there are large numbers of parents who are home schooling their children.  All of us are learning to share space in new creative ways.

Opportunity

This time at home is an opportunity to build new skills, to continue to stay in contact and enhance your business. 

But there are those who are hurting.  The hourly workers with no safety net, who were struggling before everything shut down.  The employees in industries that have been shuttered: travel, entertainment, restaurants and brick and mortar stores.

Many are fearful about their personal financial situation and understandable so.

We need to be aware and supportive of those around us in physical and emotional pain. We do not know what burdens they carry. We need to allow kindness to soften our response to others. 

Will we emerge more united and bonded as we did after 9/11 (for those who remember), changed forever, but in different ways? Most likely, but no telling how.

Change Looks Like Chaos in the Middle

Things are changing and its hard – chaos in some ways.

I remember Rosabeth Moss Kantor also saying that “change looks like chaos in the middle”. That certainly describes where we are now. ⁠

Stuck in the uncertainty of change?  ⁠Look past the chaos – if you want to talk strategies on how to do that, then let’s talk.  Just click this link to setup a time to do that!

This is also a time of massive opportunity, but you need to look around to find it.  You need to be open to the possibility of new opportunity.  Look past the chaos.

Stay safe.  Stay connected! Leave a comment below and until the next time…..

Ciao and hugs,

Sheri

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