The Book That Found Her at the Right Time

"Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway" by Susan Jeffers. Entering college in my early fifties, this book gave me courage to step into uncertainty, overcoming fear of ageism, disability, and diversity on campus.

Leadership in Balance by Mike Lerario, page 91. My thoughts from my personal experience and from this book. The M60, Leadership, and Finding Balance In Leadership Imbalance, Mike Lerario uses the M60 machine gun and its traversing and elevating mechanism as an analogy for leadership. As someone who was an M60 machine gunner, I immediately understood the comparison. I was an M60 Gunner in the Air Force. The M60 wasn't simply about having a powerful weapon. You had to understand the tripod, the balancing mechanism, and the importance of being able to traverse and adjust your fire. You had to be steady, but you also had to be able to move swiftly and respond to whatever was coming your way. That balance was critical to providing effective supportive fire. Leadership is much the same. At work and in life, you must know when to stand firm and when to adjust. You must be able to traverse when circumstances change, elevate your perspective when necessary, and continually rebalance yourself as new challenges come your way. And that doesn't apply only to leadership at work. It applies to life itself. Finding work-life balance, making time for the people and things that matter, setting priorities, and staying focused on your goals all require constant adjustment. Sometimes life throws something at you that you never expected. You can't always control what happens, but you can control how you adjust and how you react. One of the most important lessons I've learned is the value of setting goals and writing them down. When you put your goals on paper, they become more than thoughts they become something you can see, measure, and work toward. They give you a direction and help keep you on the right path. As an M60 machine gunner, I had to understand my equipment, my position, my mission, and how to make the adjustments, just like we must do in our own mission in life. Stay balanced. Stay focused. Be willing to adjust. Keep moving towards the target. Because success isn't always about having a perfect plan. Sometimes it's about knowing when to traverse, when to elevate, when to hold steady and when to make the adjustment necessary to keep moving forward. Keep pounding!

I'll be honest: I'm not much of a reader, but the text that reached me at exactly the right moment wasn't a traditional book, it was a message from church: "God doesn't just prepare the next season for us; He prepares us for the next season." That idea stayed with me long after I first heard it. It completely changed how I look at life's transitions, challenges, and waiting periods. It reminded me that everything happens for a reason and that nothing we go through is wasted. Instead of just waiting for the circumstances around us to change, the real work is happening within us, building our strength, resilience, and character so we are actually ready to step into something better than what came before.

A book that I am recently reading is “ Start With Yourself “ by Emma Grede. One of the quotes that resonated with me is “ You get in life what you have courage to ask for.“ It resonated with me in that we have to get out of our comfort zone to create and see the change we want in life, even though it’s not instant.