Embracing 50!

Well, I turned 50 this year -- how liberating! All these past years I have been trying to be someone special -- someone who is smart and talented, with friends and a great job. So last year I went on a long journey of self-discovery so that I could enter the next phase of my life with peace and feeling positive.

Here I am at 50, with daughter Makay at her Wedding.

I've made a list of things I accept and ways I have tried to change....

I am not “perfect” nor do I seek perfection. I simply:

• Wake up positive

• Try new thing, new foods, new places
• Trying to cultivate my relationship spiritually, take care of my emotional well being

• Quiet my life, learn to slow myself down, practice mindfullness

• Try not to let my work get to me, I focus on what energizes me
• Practice …

• Walk my dog daily

• Read for pleasure, and not the news

• Bring my creative whims to life.  Create one new thing each month


And the things I don’t do anymore:

• Over eat

• Use others to fill my needs

• Overwork, overspend, over-indulge, over-everything

• Instigate and chase drama

• Be with people who aren’t positive influences
• Gossip (Okay, I'm still working on this)

• Pretend I’m something I’m not

Your list may differ and that’s more than OK. You are you! We aren’t carbon copies of each other, thankfully, and after decades believing something’s wrong with me because I’m just different.

So I went on a year long study of myself as I prepared for the new changes in this the second act of my life.  I have read:


Books I read on my Journey:
The Mind-Beauty Connection: 9 Days to Less Stress, Gorgeous Skin, and a Whole New You.

by Amy Wechsler


Authentic Personal Branding: A New Blueprint for Building and Aligning a Powerful Leadership Brand

by Hubert K Rampersad

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

by Malcolm Gladwell
The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success: A Practical Guide to the Fulfillment of Your Dreams

by M.D. Deepak Chopra

How to Successfully Advertise, Publicize and Maximize Your Business or Professional Practice
by Marilyn Heimberg Ross

Wake Up, Take Charge, and Overcome Your Financial Fears Forever

by Jean Chatzky

The One Thing You Need to Know: ... About Great Managing, Great Leading, and Sustained Individual Success

by Marcus Buckingham
The Mindfulness and Acceptance Workbook for Anxiety: A Guide to Breaking Free from Anxiety, Phobias, and Worry Using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

by John P. Forsyth, Georg H. Eifert
Body-for-LIFE for Women: A Woman's Plan for Physical and Mental Transformation

by Dr. Pamela Peeke M.D. M.P.H. F.A.C.P.

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

by Malcolm Gladwell

The Fred Factor: How Passion in Your Work and Life Can Turn the Ordinary into the Extraordinary


by Mark Sanborn, John C. Maxwell

The Secret

by Rhonda Byrne

40 Things Every Woman Over 40 Needs to Know about Getting Dressed
by Brenda Kinsel, Jenny M. Phillips

Womenomics: Write Your Own Rules for Success

by Claire Shipman, Katty Kay

Image Power: Top Image Experts Share What to Know to Look Your Best

by Sonya Barnes, Wendy Buchanan, Helena Chenn, Heather Elrick, Judith Ann Graham, Deborah King, Kimberly Law, Dana Lynch, Kathy Pendleton, Bianca Stark-Falcone


Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia

by Elizabeth Gilbert

Be Your Own Life Coach: How to Take Control of Your Life and Achieve Your Wildest Dreams

by Fiona Harrold

What's Holding You Back? 30 Days to Having the Courage and Confidence to Do What You Want, Meet Whom You Want, and Go Where You Want
by Sam Horn