by : lacylit10 Life Lessons

Changing Things Up.

Being unemployed, I’ve had a lot of time to think about things. It’s been hard to find the balance between thinking enough to process and not thinking too much. Too much is not so good.

Mostly, I’ve been trying to determine how I can monetize all the things I do for free. Blogging. Facts from Farmers. Good Ol’ Girls Club. And there’s all this shit on the internet that tells you how you can make money from these things, but first you must click here, purchase this, download that. Bleh. It’s so uninspiring. Besides, apparently, I prefer to do things in the most challenging of ways.

What dawned on me is that this website is my space and I can do whatever I want with it. I can make it whatever I want. Why this revelation only now came to me as a light bulb moment, I don’t know. But here we are. So I’m changing things up a bit.

I’ve written editorials that I post to the Facts from Farmers website, but I do not post here. I have political editorial drafts that I haven’t posted, because Facts from Farmers’ website isn’t necessarily the right platform. And I write all of these things about my leadership and self-awareness journey that I don’t share with anyone who isn’t subscribed here.

This could be a frustrated expression where nothing changes, or it could be the start of something really great. Either way, I have a lot of stuff going on in my head that I need to get out somehow. And if it’s not through paid employment at the moment, then I’ve gotta make the most of what I do have. This is it.

I’m not quite sure what it’s going to look like, so I might go through a few iterations before I find the process that works for me. I hope you’ll continue tagging along.

by : lacylit10 Life Lessons

Lull.

A lull is defined as a temporary interval of quiet or lack of activity. I’m in a writing lull. Not because I don’t have anything to write about, but because I have so many thoughts going through my head that I can’t pin them down into a single flowable post. 

I have a personality that has been described as having “a rich inner life.” I think some people would say I’m someone who over analyzes everything … In my defense, I do most of it quietly without anyone knowing, so it’s not like I’m annoying people with my constant questioning of who, what, when, where, why, and how everything in life happens. Okay…maybe I do annoy some people with it. 😬

Between a new job, working with new people, gaining new knowledge, and new experiences, my brain has been working overtime. There is so. much. to learn. 🤯 

Overall, life is good. And busy.

But I miss being here. Writing allows me to process deep thoughts. It seems that I’ve been so busy with the new that I don’t have much energy for the deep. As much as I miss it, I think, it’s for the best. New and deep processing may make me feel overwhelmed, where for the time being, I just feel…whelmed.

This has always been a place where I vulnerably write about things I discover about myself, about people, about leadership, and about life. Not being here has almost made me feel like I’m not improving in any of these areas, because I haven’t needed to take the time to write and sort my thoughts. 

But that’s not true at all. 

I’m in a phase of applying knowledge I’ve gained over the past few years, seeing it being implemented, and watching it play out IRL. This is exactly what I’ve been working so hard for.

This career is one that I never imagined I would have. When you’re in high school, advisors make you feel like college right after high school is the only answer to becoming successful. I was not ready for that. I never envisioned my career, let alone landing in the C-suite. I just fell into a job that I became increasingly passionate about. It was fun, challenging, rewarding, and I wanted to devote so much time and energy to it.

I worked so hard to climb so high that I’m feeling restless while settling in to enjoy the view. But this is a transitional period. Adjusting to something new is always at least a little uncomfortable. They say that great things don’t happen within your comfort zone … It seems like I am in nearly a constant state of discomfort. Which means that great things lie ahead. And I have no doubt that they do. ☺️

by : lacylit10 Life Lessons

Dreams.

I have so many unpublished post drafts in my dashboard, countless others in a Word document, and several others in a Google Drive folder. As always, I’ve been taking some time to reflect. When I read through these posts, it’s an insightful reminder of the emotions felt, lessons learned, and journey taken over the past year.

Many posts do not get published, because my thoughts feel incomplete or I feel the post will be read in standalone judgement rather than in the greater context of who I am and what I write about. I don’t want my thoughts on a specific topic to be taken the wrong way, especially when I am usually always open-minded, inquisitive, generally speaking, and most importantly: still learning.

I wanted to be a writer ever since I can remember. When I look at successful writers and how they got their start through blogging, the story is mostly the same: frequent publishing and sharing – neither of which I really do. They say that to be a professional writer, you need to have been published and paid for your work as a main occupation. Sounds stressful to me, honestly. I want to be comfortable with the words I publish. Topics are usually meaningful, and my thoughts cannot be rushed to reach a deadline.

Dreams change.

Sure, I would love to see my name atop a best seller list. But today, I am content. It’s not a dream I want to chase at this stage of my life, and I am pleased to publish what I want when I want to my handful of readers. (So thank you for stopping by. ☺️)

I’ve actually been feeling professional contentment for a few months now. And can I just tell you how freaking amazing it feels?

A master’s degree was something I kind of always wanted, but never really thought I would get. Done. ✅ And I recently started a new job at the level I had been working so hard to reach. ✅ The milestones I set for myself have been achieved, and at this point, I don’t have anything specific on the horizon. It feels so. incredibly. peaceful. to be able to just enjoy the view. 🌅

But that’s not to say I’m not working on other goals. At Facts from Farmers, we’ve been non-publicly working with growers in our community to do amazing things for our farmworkers. I’ve been spending intentional time with family and friends, and giving myself the grace to know when I won’t be bringing them my best self. And Kali and I have become BFFs while leisurely working on our roping partnership.

This is more for me than it is for you, but it’s okay to plateau. It’s okay to put dreams on hold. It’s also okay to scrap those dreams all together.

I’ve been hustling for 10+ years to get where I am. And truthfully, where I am, isn’t even a dream I knew I had until I started working toward it.

When I intentionally think about when people refer to life as a crazy ride, I can’t help but chuckle how true the statement is. It is full of unexpected twists and turns. There are uphill climbs that you anticipate, where the downward side may be an unexpected drop or a relatively smooth transition. It might be like the Haunted Mansion, where something jumps out and surprises you. It might be like Indiana Jones, when you’re focused on the giant rock coming toward you, but God has other plans and sweeps you away to something else.

I’ve said it time and time again, we learn, we grow, and we change. It would be silly of us to think that our dreams don’t evolve too. But more importantly, we need to recognize when those dreams do change, or diminish, or come true.