Strategic Serendipity

You've seen the tests on Facebook that help you figure out which Disney Princess you are.  Because we want to be a princess, right?  Honestly, lately I feel more like the meme that shows Cinderella running down the stairs at midnight and says "all she really wanted was a new dress and a night out."  Or maybe the one that expresses our discontent that wild animals don't really clean house for me on a regular basis. Don't get me wrong.  I grew up on Disney.  I listened to my books on record of every story they had and would turn the page when Tinkerbell rang her bell.  I watched Wonderful World of Disney every Sunday night.   In high school I had a season pass to Disneyland and spent my 16th birthday there.  I still have the Tigger I got that day sitting in my room.   In college, I had my Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast VHS tapes constantly going while I was studying.   I owned all the VHS tapes, th...

When life kicks in and you start wondering where the day, week, month, or year went, it is time to slow down. (C) DeAnn Malone 2019 In our fast-paced society, this can be a real challenge.  Last year, I bought a camera and started taking photography classes.  I hadn’t ever used anything but a point and click camera or a cell phone.  I was intimidated at first by all the setting and rules for when they use them.  Over the course of 11 classes in 13 months I have fallen in love with photography.  And not just because of the priceless memories I have in photos of nature and my son.  What I found was a way to slow down. You have likely read all the studies on the benefits of meditation.  I tried it, I really did.  I WANT to master it.  But I really struggled.  Yoga has eluded me, too, so far.  I refuse to give up.  But in the meantime, I can go to the local gardens and spend a ridiculous amount of time trying to get a pictu...

How much alone time do you need? There seems to have been a cycle to my life where I go from a lot of alone time, to next to none, then back again.  When I was six, I was a latch key kid of a single mom who worked three jobs.  When we were together, she was tired in a way I could not understand.  I loved my time alone listening to Disney fairytale books on my record player and following along in the book.  I would turn the page when Tinkerbell made her sound.  I swear it is how I learned to read and to love reading.  But I would also get so lonely. Fast-forward to college and there were always so many people around. You weren’t ever really alone for long.  Summers were as much decompression as recharging my brain. Then I lived alone as a single person in DC. I had friends and volunteered a lot outside of work. But long weekends often consisted of a good audiobook while I worked on a quilting project. There were times that I was lonely and felt...

Have you ever had a plan in place for your life and then had it interrupted?  Life happens friends and while the last five years have not been what I had intended, they were exactly what they needed to be: family-focused.  I took advantage of a limited-time opportunity and will forever be grateful that I did. But life is changing again, and I welcome it.  For the first time in longer than I can remember, I can think about the future.  I spent the last three months working on my ICF coaching re-certification and realized I have time for coaching in my life.  And it brings me great joy!  So I will be taking on a few private clients each month for the rest of 2019. Leap Year by Helen Russell Is change a constant source in your life?  Do you embrace it or fight it? If you are looking for a great book about change, check out  Leap Year by Helen Russell  (amazon associate link).  Russell does an amazing job of exploring the science a...

I will never forget presenting a team-building program using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) when the self-proclaimed "senior" member of the group said "maybe I'm just old but most of this I've learned through my fifty-plus years of working with others."  I had to smile.  Because here's the deal, if you spend fifty-plus years paying attention to how you react and how others react to you in various situations and analyze what works and what doesn't, you don't need these types of assessments.  However, if you want to shortcut that learning process and learn from others (yes, please!) there are tons of ways to do it.  I like to call this Relationship Shorthand. There are three main instruments I like to use and each one is based on research.  Is this an exhaustive list?  Not by any means.  These three instruments are the ones I find give my clients solid information they can act on to improve their understanding of what they bring to the ta...

If you've been on social media the past 24 hours you've seen the infamous page from the April Issue of Self Magazine.  Check them out here .  You may have even seen the half-hearted, tongue-in-cheek apology from the magazine's Editor-in-Chief.  Opinions are flaring and some are siding with the magazine and some are siding with the women pictured in the article and their company Glam Runner.  For the record, I am very strongly on the side of the women pictured and very offended by the article, regardless of whether Ms. Allen was a cancer survivor.  Here's the point the magazine has missed entirely up to this point - sometimes just starting the race or just finishing the race is a major accomplishment.  If people want to put on "armor" to face a challenge like a tutu, face-paint, custom t-shirt, etc. who cares?  Not everything is about being the fastest or being first or being stylish.  Unless you are magazine for marathon winners, you probably want...

A little over twenty years ago, my friend and I jumped in her car the day after finals and moved to Washington, DC, without a place to live or a job (both of which were remedied within 48 hours of arriving in DC - ahhhh the good old days).  Today I pack up again.  Now I have a legal career I am proud to have served in, a new business in Executive Coaching with certifications in multiple areas, a two-year old son I couldn't be more proud of, and a new chapter ahead. While I will return to DC for work over the next few years, I will have a new home in the heart of the Midwest.  I will miss the friends I have made here but I look forward to renewing old friendships, making new friends, and reconnecting with family I have been away from for too long.  I leave the comfort of having four Starbucks within walking distance and a grocery store in the basement of my condo for the comfort of having both parents within a mile of home.  The nearest Starbucks will be about ...