Dolphin Trainers and Dreams

Well I actually wrote this post late last night in Word but the blog website has been down so just now able to post. I think the repairs they had to make deleted some of your comments from my last post as well so I'll try to get those back but if not, hopefully whatever happened won't happen again! Here's my post...

As a CPA, I have to earn continuing professional education (CPE) credits every year. Most of these are BORING – plain and simple. You get through it to get your credit and that’s about all you get out of it. Today was a pleasant exception. I could hardly wait to get home and write about today, get all my thoughts out about it, tell you about it. By far the best CPE credits I’ve ever earned but it was so much more than just that.

It was the Women’s Summit conference at the Wynfrey hotel here in Birmingham. ALL women, which meant lots of women stuff – door prizes, coupons to go shopping at lunchtime, great healthy lunch, merchants set up outside the conference room, and tons more – and did I mention this was for Women CPA’s…aka accountants…so like I said, a PLEASANT surprise. The speakers and topics were amazing. We didn’t talk about accounting at all. We talked about our careers and our personal lives and listened to fabulous stories and thoughts and advice from the speakers. I honestly don’t even know where to begin or even how to spew my thoughts from the day. It’s probably going to be one of those “you had to be there” days but nonetheless, writing is therapeutic for me so I will attempt to give you what I learned today anyways.

The speakers gave us some basic questions to think about and answer. They started off with a humorous one.

“What did you want to be when you grew up?”

At first I couldn’t really remember so just kind of assumed that I had wanted to be a soccer player and a teacher most likely, but as I was writing I remembered that I always wanted to be a dolphin trainer! I mean I loved water and I loved dolphins so why not. That gave me a good giggle when I remembered that. But as women told everyone their dreams from younger days, I realized no one was doing that now. I have to admit it made me a little sad. Almost like we had realized we couldn’t do what we dreamed of and had fallen into something else and settled. But as I write this now, I don’t think it’s really that - at least I hope not. I think it’s just the fact that dreams change and we go through different seasons, but the important thing I pulled out
from it is that our dreams we have in our minds now can really happen. It’s never too late. If you aren’t where you want to be, you can change it or add to it or take away from it. Now don't worry, I have no intentions of pursuing my childhood dream of becoming a dolphin trainer but it was freeing to actually take time to dream again yesterday. And maybe it’s not necessarily that you want to change jobs but pursue new interests or new areas at work or in your personal life. DO IT. Don't say, "one day..." And don't brush away your dream like it's nothing. Easier said than done, I know, but it's at least good to be encouraged in this every now and then.

Some other questions we answered were,

“What have you been told you are good at?”
“When have you felt a sense of real joy and accomplishment at work?”
“What activities are you involved in when you find yourself the happiest and most satisfied
at work?”

You’d be surprised how much harder these questions are to answer when you actually try to answer them and write your answers down. It was actually hard to come up with times that I’ve felt a joy and accomplishment at work. I have a fantastic job that I am truly grateful for and enjoy, so it was a little surprising that the question stumped me like it did. The speaker focused on finding the stuff you do that you are passionate about – at work and in your personal life - and pursuing it more. What do you lose yourself in doing? What are you doing where hours could go by without you even noticing it? Once again these seem like silly questions but when you actually start to answer them, it gets your mind going. I will share 3 that I could think of for my personal life (in no particular order) – running, writing, and spending time with my family and friends. The one that surprised me was writing. Until I took time to really answer this question, I knew I liked to blog and journal but I didn’t realize that I lose myself in it. Like I said before, it’s therapeutic to me. I love getting my thoughts on paper. A lot of the times I will pray on paper – write notes and questions to the Lord in writing. I recently got into blogging so I could share my life in writing with my friends and family but I’ve always kept a journal anyways for myself. I also lose myself in running. I love the feeling of being away from everything when running. No one can contact you (and vice versa) and your mind is free to think and dream. A lot of times I come up with so many ideas after a good long run. Other times I can’t tell you a single thought I had. It’s refreshing not to mention physically good for you. Of course spending time with friends and family is a no brainer. I love the relationships in my life and could spend all day with them. I can think of many other things I love doing but these are the 3 that stuck out to me that I can truly lose myself in doing. And my take-away from realizing these is to do them more! And to also be asking the Lord how to use them more for His glory. What are yours?

The last speaker of the day was incredible. Her name is Martha Lanier. She told us the story of her life in the most captivating way. You could hear a pin drop in that room it was so quiet waiting for her next word. This older lady (but very young in spirit and heart) has been through a lot - breast cancer, heart attack, sky-diving, triathlon - to name just a few…and that was all 50 years of age and later in her life. Her outlook on life is amazing though. Her energy is amazing. She has a published book called “Pink Lemonade.” I have no idea why it's called that but I guess I will see when I read it.

I went to Barnes and Noble to buy it right after the conference. Unfortunately they didn’t have it so I’ll have to order it on Amazon. If her book is even close to how she spoke today, it’s going to be an amazing read and I can’t wait. One of my key take-aways from her was her “sweet” lists that she makes. She makes lists where she pulls the positives out of a situation. For example, she had breast cancer so her “sweet” list included things like, “I don’t have to vacuum for weeks!” and “I get to have larger breasts and basically a tummy tuck at the same time!” (when they took tissue from her abdomen to reconstruct her breasts). She took a horrible situation and pulled out the positives. I know I can do a better job at this. The other night I was reading Philippians 4:19 which says, “And my God will supply all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” God gave Paul courage when he was facing death. I would have thought Paul “needed” to get out of jail, but the Lord gave him courage to face death while he was still in that situation. Obviously the Lord is not for death and disease and unemployment and similar situations but if we have to go through situations like that, He will give us what we need during them. I’m trying myself to not necessarily get hung up on changing a situation or just praying that it will be fixed but rather, pray for God to give me what I need while I’m going through the situation. And He will, I’m sure of it.

I apologize for the random and messy thoughts but in a large nutshell, that was my day. I really encourage ya’ll to take time and really answer some of these questions and think about them. Your life may not change. You may already know all about yourself. But if you are anything like me, I bet there are some things that will come up and some things you’ll start pondering and maybe some changes might result. But it’s now 11:30pm and I’ve lost myself in writing and am now way past my bedtime :)