Will You Know It When It’s Time For Something Big, Beautiful and New?
It’s an incredibly liberating experience to intuitively know when one chapter may be coming to a close and another is opening up. That’s literally what I experienced this morning. Here’s what happened:
I sat down in my usual chair to write. I do this every morning as part of a very intentional routine. Get up, Take care of the dog. Run or bike. Breakfast. Reading. Writing.
It’s a good habit and one I’m proud of. It’s how I’ve ended up writing a decent number of articles on my website www.yournonprofitnow.com, medium and even self-published a book about nonprofit work during the pandemic.
I pulled up an article I had worked on last week titled ``Creating A Great Nonprofit Organization — Don’t Do These 3 Things!“ I was in the home stretch. I had come up with three solid takeaways for the reader. I’ve also made it a habit that I won’t publish an article if I don’t have something meaningful or helpful for the reader: tips or suggestions for being better, doing something better or living a better life.
For me, the takeaways can be the hardest part and I think of them as critical. Given my work as a coach as well as my diverse hobbies and interests, I have no shortage of stories, anecdotes, and ideas But it has to attach to something like I’ve described above; tips, takeaways or recommendations. Perhaps in the hands of a more seasoned writer, this might not be the case. Perhaps the stories would be the end in itself. That might be a confidence thing. I’m working on it. I happily acknowledge that I’m a work in progress.
I started the article by sharing my experience of attending a benefit for a nonprofit where I’m a member of the board. Right up through last Friday, the post was coming together rather well and I was happy about that. I haven’t published anything on my website or medium, the other place I share my posts, since mid-August. While that’s not terrible, I was feeling some self-imposed pressure to say “hey, I’m still out here with my writing and all…”
Yet today, as I reviewed my takeaways, they seemed stale. Like leftovers from an extremely average meal. Who knows, you might have read them and thought “hmm — good ideas.” But I knew better. As I read them, I recognized them as re-wordings of suggestions I’ve made in other articles. I thought that perhaps if I changed up the beginning, it would add something fresher. Instead of the introduction being about attending a benefit, I’d create a story of starting a nonprofit based coaching conversations I”ve had with various founders (different names of course for confidentiality!). That could be the lead in. I ultimately stopped myself realizing how uninspired I was to be doing something so inauthentic.
Then I realized: I’m done. It’s time for a change.
This doesn’t mean I’m done working with nonprofits and their leaders. Not by a long shot. I love helping these generous organizations and the folks who lead them. But this moment of clarity helped me profoundly see my need to find a new way of helping people and creating new results in the world. Over the past few months, a new idea of how I want to do this has been stirring. It’s time to give that idea some breathing space and some life.
Numerous times as I’ve worked with my clients, they’ve spoken of what they want to do later in life. Notice, I didn’t say “when they retired. Rather, they spoke of dreams that were yet to be fulfilled. One fundraising pro talked about wanting to score his last big development role with a major university or hospital. This would enable him to save enough to serve as the Executive Director of his childhood summer camp; a beautiful way to give back to his community. Another nonprofit CEO in her 50’s was eager to transition back to direct service. She realized what inspired her to start her career — working directly with clients — is what still motivated her even having achieved executive status. Beyond nonprofit clients, I worked with a CPA in her late 50’s who kept switching firms because she was miserable. She finally realized it wasn’t the firms she hated, it was accounting. It was time to find something new.
And it wasn’t just my clients. I realized I had a new dream for myself. I’ve been fortunate to work in three distinct yet related fields all involving helping people live richer more fulfilling lives. I started to wonder: Would it be possible to offer elements of all three — financial planning, fundraising/ philanthropy and coaching — as one comprehensive way of serving?
My thinking and inspiration to look at this as an opportunity was further driven by reading Michael Clinton’s book ROAR into the Second Half of Your Life. In his book, the former magazine publisher highlights his own story of continual growth and learning as well as those of others that have gone on to do amazing things in the second half of their life. ROAR is an acronym for:
Reimagine yourself
Own who you are
Act on what’s next
Reassess your relationships
My initial reaction to whether there was a place for what I wanted to offer was a well-reasoned “No Way” No opportunity existed as a job title. No one company seemed to offer a package for this. And while there were a number of other books, fields and jobs like financial coaching and retirement coaching that touched on some of it, none provided the wrap-around approach I believe could serve people in a transformative way.
This is my vision — at least the first iteration of it:
I help clients realize their BIG DREAM through a combination of coaching for clarity, ensuring financial security through proper planning and giving back to their community in alignment with their values.
If you’ve read this far, thank you! If you have an interest in helping me develop this practice, I’d love to hear from you. I will continue creating from here. Looking forward to the journey.
