Over-50

Abrupt Change of Plans and an Unwise Financial Decision - So?

Yes, I had already put down the security deposit on a one-bedroom apartment about 10 miles from the "scene of the crime" here in Toledo, Ohio.

The location was a crime scene - metaphorically - because from the get-go more than the average number of things went very wrong.

I was set. Right. On December 28th I could move in. That would be more cost-effective than going with my dream: relocating back to Southwestern Arizona. The reality was that the five years I had been living in OH represented a time of coping - sometimes just barely. Not enjoying life.

The tipping point on the decision to stay rather than leave came when I called around for estimates to move my furniture. No, Plan A was not going to be cost-effective. The furniture wasn't even worth what the vendors proposed. 

I returned to the drawing board. Could I really parachute into Plan B? That is, circling back to the Paradise of the desert.

On the internet I found an affordable apartment in off-beat Sierra Vista, AZ. It had been a mining town near the border of Mexico. In the middle of it is a military base. Weird little businesses have sprung up around the town, mostly to accomodate tourists going underground to visit the old mines.

Yes, I could lock in the entire apartment rental online. 

The drive would be four days, with motels at night.

Shipping my furniture would have cost a king's ransom. So, okay, I have to approach the move as a startup in life, investing in furniture again.

The apartment at which I put a deposit indicated it would only return $100. 

No, the decision, made abruptly, wouldn't be at all financially smart.

So?

Sometimes watching every hundreds of dollars or even thousands can doom us to unnecessary unhappiness.

On December 16th, my four-legged son LOV and I pull out of Toledo. AAA mapped out the southern route. 

And, tomorrow, the local psychic is picking up my furniture to donate to the needy he knows.

That will be sad.

The one thing which went right in OH had been the merchandise I bought, including the bicycle I loved. Only years of Buddhist training on non-attachment has gotten me to the point that I can let go of that. I hope the bicycle brings joy to whomever will be its next traveler.

What are "they" - the busybodies who watch others' lives - saying about my (sudden) change of plans? Age has given me the gift of not-caring, at least not very much.

Christmas Day? I will spend it with a friend I had left behind in Tucson, AZ five years ago. 

Takeaway: Go with intuition, not with what is supposedly a smart financial decision. Embracing the dream doesn't have to make any financial sense. 

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Relocation On-hold, So Bored (and lonely), Pondering Weighty Legal Matters: Holiday Season in COVID TImes

First, Pennsylvania issues its version of a travel ban. Those in cars entering from other states would be subject to a COVID-19 test within 72 hours and/or a 14-day quarantine. 

Now, it's happening at the borders of the Big Apple. Bloomberg reports:

"New York City will have vehicle checkpoints at key bridges and crossings, and will strictly enforce the travel quarantine ..."

Abruptly, similar travel bans could be declared at the borders of myriad other states. 

Those were the dots I had to connect about my carefully made plan to relocate from the midwest to Arizona. Yes, I had given the Ohio landlord the required 60-day notice. Yes, I had begun the good-byes with acquaintances. Yes, I had bought a car which could hold up for the 2,000 mile trip.

Then, I envisioned myself, quite realistically, trapped in a motel for 14 days somewhere just within the border of St. Louis, Missouri or Dallas, Texas. Then, it was not unthinkable the whole thing could play out again and again at just inside other state borders.

You bet, I have had to scramble.

Here in OH I went in search for another apartment to rent. Not easy in this era of Landlord Nation. Property managers have the upper hand with demand so high. Few can afford to purchase a house. An Ok, Boomer I had sold the family home years ago. Echoing the Christmas Story, at so many apartment complexes I contacted there was no room at the inn. Or the rent seemed way too high. 

Yesterday, I landed a one-bedroom costing more than what I had been paying or what I would have been paying in AZ. 

Meanwhile, I feel foolish. And probably look foolish. Those who no longer follow COVID news are unaware of the travel bans. They size up my backing out of relocation as being stuck. Yeahyeahyeah, she's just another one of those who talk up the dream and don't follow it.

Within borders there has also been the return of constraints on socializing. There is lots less to do this holiday season. The Lucas County Public Library, which functions as a Third Place, has been shuttered again. Will the iconic Toledo Museum of Art close? Those in my fav support group fear we will soon be forbidden to meet up in-person.

Floating around is the horror scenario: The majority will refuse to take the COVID vaccine.

A recent University of Michigan survey found that two-thirds of those in Detroit are unlikely to line up for the COVID-19 vaccine. That mirrors public opinion in other locations throughout the U.S.

Of course, there is plenty of legal analysis in the media if vaccination can be made mandatory. 

On the federal level, that's unlikely. On the state level, there is the authority to do that and it has been done in the past. 

A more likely play-out is to make a long list of whatevers contingent on proof of vaccinations. Those could range from receiving a passport to attending a concert. Recall that in order for us Ok, Boomers to be admitted to those overcrowded classrooms our parents had to pony up the vaccination data.

The biggest issue for most is this: Does their employer have the right to mandate vaccinations? After all, having to go to work essentially is the one ought imposed on most adults, even in a democracy.

Here's the data on this NPR provides:

"The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration has stated that employers can legally impose a flu vaccine requirement on their workforce, but employees have the right to request medical or religious exemptions under federal anti-discrimination laws. Each claim must be evaluated on its own merits, a time-consuming process for employers."

There may be COVID fatigue but how it impinges on our lives is a brutal backdrop.

The legal questions generated, especially related to the workplace, are already unfolding. They can shape myriad policies about the Future of Work.

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Inside the Beltway, Age Can Be a (big) Asset - What Did in Dianne Feinstein

"Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said she will not serve as chairman or top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee next Congress." - Madison Adler, Bloomberg Law, November 23, 2020.

The reason is probably not her age - 87. In the U.S. Senate age can be an asset since during all those decades alliances had been formed, favors granted and enemies publicly punished. An insightful study of how Inside the Beltway operates is Hedrick Smith's "The Power Game."

According to Bloomberg Law what did in Feinstein was how she was perceived handling the confirmation hearings of Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Barrett. What was needed, some posit, was more aggressiveness. 

That will be especially needed to balance the Joe Biden persona of boring. Boring is a strategic personal branding after four years of the bombast from Donald Trump.

If it isn't balanced by more aggressiveness than the Feinstein type of liberal politico has demonstrated, Biden could wash out in the first all-important 100 days. He may not receive the usual honeymoon period. The nation remains deeply divided. Trump supporters could be major mischief-makers. Biden could be assessed as not able to bring that under control. That's a primary reason he requires seasoned street-fighters, metaphorically speaking, around him. 

The lesson here is that Feinstein did not change her own personal branding and political stylistics enough as times changed. All Democrats should be doing an audit of how they have positioned and packaged themselves and what in that still is a fit with crazy times. 

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Circling Back to Our Apartment Days - But, This Time, W/O the Extreme Interior Decorating

One thing more and more of us now have in common with Millennials is this: We are both apartment renters who we are unwilling to invest time and money making the property Martha-Stewart beautiful.

The Wall Street Journal reports that, yes, many Millennials are working from home. But they aren't rushing off to any of the home-improvement big boxes to fix up the place. Personal-Finance savvy, they get it that the apartment is the landlord's property, not theirs. If they beautify it, especially through long-term interior design such as painting, that will financially benefit the landlord, not themselves.

The advice from many financial planners for us Baby Boomers is to wait for the real estate to boom, then sell the family home. I did that in 2004. Since then I have been renting. And since then I haven't picked up a paint brush or gone to the art museum for wall decorations. You bet, I am in a Millennial mindset: Why enhance the landlord's property? And, no, I don't need pretty. Enough heat in winter, enough cold air in summer, and I am doing just fine. Bare walls? So? Less and less do we aging invite others in. The last time I hosted a dinner party had been 2005.

That perspective is way different from how we went about renting before we bought our first house. For us, having an apartment, especially w/o roommates, was a significant rite of passage. We were really out of our parents' homes and out of the dorm. Ah, personal freedom, at last. If the landlord wasn't one of those busybodies we could have lovers overnight and down-and-out friends from college bunking with us forever. It was days of heaven.

That feeling of utter liberation was universal among us. We treasured it. So, we pitched it to beautify our buddies' apartments. After the painting was done, out came the beer, wine and cheap eats. I recall our being so happy. 

Unfortunately, it didn't stay that way. From everywhere came the nudge to buy a house or at least a condo. Unless we had wealthy parents, that meant a mortgage. And that meant our carefree days were over. We had to worry about keeping the job and getting ahead as property taxes rose and the water heater went kaput.

Returning to apartment living does signal the embrace of a certain kind of freedom again. No longer is there the fear of an unexpected big bill for a basement which is starting to fill with water or a roof that is leaking. So, the money essentially is ours. And, none of mine since 2004 has gone to making the nest like something out of the glossy shelter magazines. It's simply a roof over my head.

Because I can afford that w/o needing roommates I am grateful. This Thanksgiving, as I hunker down in my apartment during social distancing times I will look at the walls which could use a coat of paint and feel good that age brings the gift of not needing much. That's what Roger Rosenblatt emphasized in his memoir "Making Toast." As I keep pivoting to new values with aging I reflect on the extreme contentment which comes from needing so little.

Indeed, someone might peek into the window from the street and mistake the digs for that inhabited by a  medieval monk.

There are my writing equipment, books, candles for prayer and meditation and a mat to get my rest (I have a bad back). That's it. That's the liberation from the ethos that we are our shelter.

Instead, I have become my own person (finally). Come to think of us, our generation really did take a bit of time to gain a real sense of self.

During the counterculture we were as conformist as during the Eisenhower Administration. Then came the careerism. Next we entered the worry-about-retirement box. 

A minimalist apartment becomes the symbol of having found ourselves after a lifetime of being lost. Millennials could escape that kind of rigid journey. 

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Template for Transcending Your Stuckpoint

I felt I had been kicked by a horse.

Twice, in fact.

That sums up my 2 encounters of the unexpected kind with search firm Heidrick & Struggles. Here are the details, for readers wanting to find out more.

As the months went by, I couldn't shake the trauma.

Yes, I was stuck.

Even though the 2 antidepressants I had been prescribed afterward have been kicking in, the flashbacks continue. The apparent smugness enrages me. 

The healthcare worker asked me if I wanted to "talk with" (that's how they put it nowadays) with a psychiatrist. "No" I answered. 

I had a sense that I could manage this DIY.

NPR presented the therapeutic experience of a Millennial woman who had been raped at age 13. Because of shame, she kept that under wraps ("Law & Order SVU"  provides many episodes with that plot line). However, beneath the floorboards the trauma was screaming louder and louder at her. Therefore, she was willing to try a modality focused on reducing the power of a stuckpoint.

Essentially a "stuckpoint" is an event which puts a chokehold on a human being because it is believed as true. But it isn't. The therapeutic intervention aims to lesson the power it has over us. Eliminate it? Probably that's not possible.

The process starts with writing down what we believed happened.

I penned:

One morning I sent an email to Heidrick & Struggles coaching division as a follow-up to lock in a time for a video interview for a contract coaching assignment. Earlier in the week those in the loop had set up 3 time choices and that's where it stood.

I assumed that this was the on-the-ball response. Yes, show that you are REALLY interested by eagerness to move along to the next step.

Out of nowhere (at least in any reasonable scenario of expectations) a partner (why the hell was a partner communicating with someone pitching for a gig assignment) chastised me.

I felt kicked by a horse. In the head. Everything swirled around. To stop the swirling, I sent an email back indicating I was withdrawing my application for an assignment.

2 anxiety attacks later I notified Heidrick & Struggles' departments of law and human resources about what had gone down in email. A former corporate ghostwriter, I also left a description of the event with the chief executive officer.

The horse galloped by again. Another kick. A lawyer in Hedrick & Struggles legal sent a disembodied email to me. Yet, aren't lawyers trained somewhere along the line to use the tone and content of persuasion. Nonono, I haven't been the same since then.

Next was the exercise of analyzing what the facts really were. That is, pivot from the hardened memory back to the actual event.

After plenty of tries, what I arrived at this:

An old-line company snapped at me. With no reason. I had done nothing wrong. Then legal leveraged old-line talk-like-a-lawyer to have me go away.

How do I feel now?

Here I write:

I had done nothing wrong.  A potential vendor, the ball was in my court to follow up. Yes, I will continue with my mission to tell my story of what shouldn't have occurred in a routine communication with Heidrick & Struggles. Others who are treated likewise shouldn't have to suffer as I did.

The stuckpoint, which had hardened into a boulder, is reduced in size. The conventional wisdom is that I should be able to transform this negative into a platform for growth. That may or may happen in the future. Right now I am grateful to feel somewhat better. My gallows humor (I come from a funny family) is that life is about pain and when it passes (temporarily) that's what joy consists of.

Meanwhile, the revenue for my two boutiques shrunk as I was downright stuck. Shame replaced feeling good about myself. Self-doubt gnawed at my self-confidence. Questions preoccupied me as to why any business would behave like that in this era when Emotional Intelligence is how success is happening.

Reflection: The burden is on those with the most power - that is, the folks who can hire us for work - to be human in these difficult times. 

The Future is already underway. Ghostwriting/Marketing Communications and coaching on those issues. Sliding scale fees. Complimentary consultation (janegenova374@gmail.com)

Retired, Then Discovering 6 Years Later, You Can't Afford Not to Work

The new pattern among retirees is this:

You exhale. Great to be finished with all that goes along with earning a living.

Adjusting to a daily life without work can be challenging. But you did it.

Life is good, until you find it harder and harder to make ends meets.

Then you're not making ends meet.

There's the Ah-Ha Moment. You have to return to work. However, you are clueless how to go about it.

One such retiree tells that story to MarketWatch.

In my coaching I am hearing about it more and more frequently.

The Federal Reserve confirms that one-third of retirees bounce back into working. Either that's as an employee or as self-employed. The major reasons are both financial necessity and boredom. 

There is no one "best way" to circle back to working.

Here are the seven recommendations I make to those I coach who are over-50. Some were blessed and did a FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early). Others didn't have the financial resources to stop working until they were in their late 60s. Others sat on the beach and really didn't enjoy it because they had been forced out of their career before they were ready to pack it in. Eventually, all found themselves short on money.

The Seven:

• Stop the "too much money" from going out. That's immediate. There are many small expenses you delete from your life. They range from purchasing the brand instead of the generic to subscribing to this and that. The bigger items include struggling to maintain a house. If the real estate market is up in your neighborhood, sell the house. Then, relocate to where you can cut big chunks out of your budget. When I packed it in the New York Metro area for southwestern Arizona in 2014, I reduced my fixed expenses by 50%. My two boutiques generated increased revenues because, no longer so worried about money, I could sell in a more relaxed manner. 

 

• Get a job or gig assignment. Anything. You need to be re-socialized on how to go to work. That's a must-do before you go after a job or gig assignment that is a good fit for you. Right off the bat, employers can pick up on someone who's been without work for too long. Here is a free read on re-entry Download Outwitting ageism. 

 

• Research on the internet the new templates for resumes and cover letters in your particular field. Like everything else the models for those change.

 

• Study help-wanted ads on job boards for two things. One, to discern what skills and experience those hiring need. And, two, notice the language they use to describe what they're searching for. Language also keeps changing. Use outdated language and you will tag yourself as "old." 

 

• Role play how to interview. Essentially you will do that in real time. That's why you should grab as many interviews as you can. You must get back up to speed on how you present yourself. Ask a trusted friend who hasn't left the workforce to help you continue to fine-tune everything from facial expressions to body language to the actual sale pitches.

 

• Get it that you don't have the luxury to become discouraged. If nothing is happening "reverse engineer" every aspect of what your thinking and doing in your search for work. Experiment with modifying each one of those. The weak link, for example, could be the kinds of work you are going after. Those doors may be closed to you. 

 

• Look at a job or assignment you hate as not your "last job." Rather, it's the bridge to a better job or assignment. The new game is not linear. That's exactly what Willis Towers Watson posits about the future of work. And that future is already underway. 

If you need a professional nudge to return to work, I'm here for you. Contact me for a complimentary consultation. If you sense a bit of coaching can help, there are sliding scale fees. I'm Jane Genova janegenova374@gmail.com. 

 

Not Only CAN You Change Your Life, At Your Age, It's Your Only Option to Keep Working

It's that fork in the road.

It may take the form of a layoff, forced retirement, collapse of the business you founded or the usual Chapter 11. 

Whatever.

You have to decide: Do you have what it takes to continue to bring in income from working. Or will you throw in the towel and just keep downsizing your expenses. 

In my experience as a coach I know one thing: Your ability to continue to earn (and learn) is all in your head. You decide whether you will keep moving on in your life or become stuck. 

If you opt to going on with your life, then you will probably have to change a lot of it. The good news, as Boston Magazine hammers, is that just about any human being is capable of setting in play personal disruption. That's not just for super people like Betty White who created a marketable professional identity based on being old.

From what I have observed, though, the majority wind up in a closed looping of regretting the past, not getting comfortable in the present and fearing the future (especially of running out of money). They are the kind of human beings executive coach Henry Cloud pines for in his iconic book "Necessary Endings." 

Here are the four major impediments which keep you stuck:

• People. More than anything, they can hold you hostage to the status quo. They don't want to change so they will pull out all stops so you don't change and leave them. The science of mirror neurons proves that we influence each other, cell by cell. 

 

• Memories of earlier success. Nothing fails like success. Believe you have other peak professional experiences ahead. They may be different from former ones. Instead of the high of earning the big big bucks I am deriving enormous satisfaction from helping entrepreneurs' startups get off the ground.

 

• Mandate to learn new skills. Those include the software necessary to apply for certain jobs. That training could cost peanuts online or even free. Research that. Most employers will only toss your application which claims you learn software fast. They want you to apply with certification that you have down cold that technology.

 

• Money. You don't take the necessary financial risks to get a new life off the ground. Relocating to Arizona, where there is less age bias in the labor market, involves spending money. You balk.

Full Disclosure: Next month I am pulling up roots, like the American pioneers, and heading west. That will set me back thousands of dollars. So?

The Future of Work is now. Ghostwriting on those issues and coaching for job search, transition, personal branding, re-entry after recovery and reputation restoration. Sliding scale fees. Complimentary consultation (janegenova374@gmail.com)

The Aging Megyn Kelly - Struggle to Put Together The Comeback

Sure, this mandate from California's Governor Gavin Newsom could make it to "SNL."

But already, knocked from the entertainment box (and former law firm Jones Day associate) Megyn Kelly is leveraging it as a platform for a comeback. Daily Mail features her vilification of those orders for how the residents of CA have to spend their Thanksgiving. 

Among the rules are:

• Dinner be outside (yes, you can go inside to use the bathroom but only if it has been sanitized)
• Guests limited to 3 households
• People must sit 6 feet apart
• Masks are a must, except when eating
• Duration of dinner not to exceed 2 hours.

No surprise, Kelly, who is operating her own podcast media, ridicules it. As if she couldn't find a more seminal issue. Her tragic flaw is that she can't engage, at least not beyond the brittle Fox News politico persona. And, I have a hunch she won't have much of sustained reach with this podcasting one. 

What's obvious is that the warm and fuzzy type of Normal Rockwell Thanksgiving isn't welcome in CA. Since that state is a trendsetter, Newsom's model can catch on.

So, there the nation will be, at the McDonald's drive-thru each person ordering up 2 turkey burgers, double french fries, small green salad, a sugary beverage and chocolate chip cookies.

And we can enjoy a good belly laugh as we share our horn of plenty with two other households outside in a Midwest winter. Things, as we head into the Winter of COVID-19, maybe won't get better than that. 

Meanwhile, Kelly might be betting her promotional chips on something we are too exhausted to care about. 

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Own It: "At Your Age" Your Abusive Childhood Is Still Getting You in Lots of Trouble (but, help is on the way)

The confluence of COVID-19 and a dicey economy is unleashing a tsunami of raw rage. That could reach from the client biting your head off to the murder down the block to parts of city going up in flames. 

But even in more tame times rage has cost society much. Also, individuals have lost their freedom. Jails and prison are packed with those who let their rage run its course.

In addition, my hunch is that frequently professionals with an abundance of potential get stuck because of rage under their internal floorboard.

Obviously, those anger management courses haven't been effective in reducing rage. 

However, help could be coming from a surprising source. That's Marlon Brandon. Last year, a new Brando biography- "The Contender" - was published by William J. Mann. 

The total dynamic of rage, from its source to simple ways to push it down (as Brando thought about it), is made so clear. No one needs to take Psychology 101 or tune into Dr. Phil. 

Here's what you will get from "The Contender":

• Rage can take shape because of an abusive childhood. The trauma of that may never go away. So much for the platitudes of healing. REPEAT: If you were an abused child, as Brando had been, you can be embedded with the kind of emotional setpoint that results in your throwing a punch after what others consider a minor assault on your dignity. 

• Own the rage. Through years and years of therapy and meditation Brand accepted that there was that force within him that it was his responsibility to control it.

• It's possible to create a DIY in your head to prevent the rage from rushing up to the surface - and getting you in trouble. As Mann notes, Brando was admired but not widely liked or loved. The tactic to manage the rage is analogous to what some anger-management courses teach: Find the midpoint in that powerful feeling. That is between being a doormat and exploding. Place the emotion at that safe midpoint. Then, stop. Think.  

If you are part of the post-book generation, however, the 624 pages could be too formidable to even order from Amazon or check out from the public library (they are open again).

That's the rub in this amazing resource for rage management. The author is a professor. Likely he leveraged researching and publishing this tome as a needed credential for his academic career. No surprise, although it's well-done and an engrossing read, it only ranks in the 200,000s on Amazon. It should rank higher.

Those with no intention of plowing through "The Contender" can grab onto this takeaway: Admit your childhood was that bad. Recognize when rage is building up. Push it down. Hold that position.

According to Mann, Brando finally did achieve peace of mind. That's what he chased. Not fame. Not even to create great art through his acting. 

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Aging and Magical Thinking - 4 Steps to Parachute into Reality (and independence)

A shocker, at least for America, the global headquarters for capitalism or rugged individualism.

The Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies found this: 

48% of women

56% of men 

who were surveyed indicated that they were depending on family and friends for what they needed as they aged. That ranges from money to the warm and fuzzies. 

Add onto that long-term care. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 70% of you over-65 will require some long-term care. 

The brutal term to apply to that expectation of sustained assistance from family and friends is "naive." Kinder language is "magical thinking."

The reality is that, for example, those family members will primarily be your children. They are already part of the squeezed (for time and money) and stressed Sandwich Generation. Sure, they may be pitching in a little now to fill the gaps in services you need. But as your needs grow, so could their reluctance to be all-in.

I bore witness to that kind of distancing at subsidized residential complex for those of a certain age and the disabled - Bella Vista, New Haven, Connecticut. As the residents deteriorated in mental and/or physical health over the years what was palpable was this: exhaustion on the faces and in the body language of the sandwich generation. They were preoccupied with dealing with their own children, their jobs and any emerging health problems.

As for friends, come on, they are experiencing much the same challenges you are. One day, they will tell you that they just can't do it. They can't drive you to the doctor's appointment or listen to your regrets about this or that. 

The good news is that there are proven ways to establish independence as you age - financial, emotional and social. Here are the 4 steps. 

That begins with letting go of the mindset that traditional networks will keep you going. Or, that you should be loyal to them. Instead, you probably have to purge much of the past - the assumptions, people, places and things which are preventing you from being able to be as independent as possible. A useful read on that is Henry Cloud's "Necessary Endings." 

Next, the money part, even for the disabled aging, can be manageable. There are jobs, for example, which can be done from home. Even the interviewing is done completely online. Here, free to read, is my book on how to land, hold and move on to better work Download Outwitting ageism. 

Simultaneously, you can embrace minimalism or radical frugality. In "Making Toast," a family memoir, Roger Rosenblatt observes how little we need as we age. It's even possible to sock away money for investing from a monthly Social Security check. The two most effective ways to downsize fixed costs are those associated with housing and transportation. After you tackle that, take an audit of what you are spending on eating and beverages. 

Three, the emotional part is to accept the reality that life is essentially an existential tragedy. Suffering is a part of the deal. 

No, it isn't the Disney ethos put in-place after the horrors of World War II. The human condition is rooted in pain. At the very least, those we love, be it our parents or our pets, die. The way to navigate that is to identify what can bring you satisfaction and even joy, amid the heartache. That's an inside job.

Think about this: Aging is a rite of passage, much like graduating from college. You have to take the leap into a whole new dimension. Otherwise you get stuck or frozen in place.

And, four, socially, there are plenty of touch points, ranging from senior citizen centers to 12-step programs to spiritual/religious organizations. Shop around for those that are a fit. For example, the Secular Humanists of Western Lake Erie, based in Toledo, Ohio, hosts free lectures and discussions by experts. The group is also social. 

In career coaching those who have lost big jobs, what I frequently encounter is their disbelief that they, long-term winners, could bump up against such a reversal of fortune.

When I ask them what stories they are telling themselves about their current situation, their answer is usually full of self-blame. The prerequisite for spotting future opportunity and seizing it is to adopt a narrative of self-love. The greats, ranging from Abraham Lincoln to Steve Jobs to Ruth Bader Ginsburg all had their dark times. But, they could transcend what was - as well as themselves. 

Small changes can have big impacts. Results-driven career coaching.  Affordable rates (sliding scale).  Make an appointment for complimentary consultation (janegenova374@gmail.com) Download UnleashingPossibilitywithJaneGenovaCareerCoaching