A Creator-based® Life

Our podcast this week was the story of Grit and Grace with  coach and hypnotherapist Jennifer DeReus- so good! It’s time for the Grit and Grace Wrap up!  It’s been a great month, hasn’t it? We’ve learned much about hanging in there and expecting more to come to us.  Do Less and Expect More is the mantra of a Creator-based® Life.  It means Grace in Grit. Margaret Perlis lists five characteristics of grit as: Courage Conscientiousness: Achievement-oriented versus dependable Long-term goals and endurance: Follow through Resilience: Optimism, confidence, and creativity Excellence versus Perfection That’s all good and fine, but grit is nothing without grace.  Grace is what lets you rinse off the mud when you fall.  It’s the encouraging smile of understanding from a stranger as you dust off and stand back up. Grace is a vital component in our lives, and there is more than enough of it to go around.  Grace is showing favor or goodwill to others, and often the recipient of grace

It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither knows victory nor defeat. Theodore Roosevelt, The Man in the Arena. "Citizenship In A Republic", delivered at the Sorbonne, in Paris, France, on 23 April 1910 Jaycine interviewed me on the podcast this week.  She asked me four questions: What is one defin

Grit, Grace, Resilience and the wise, Modern Woman Now that you have learned about valor (courage in the face of battle) and persistence (keeping on keeping on), let’s talk about the impact of resilience on a gritty, grace-filled life. What is resilience, and more particularly, what is emotional resilience? Emotional resilience is the ability to adapt to emotional challenges with courage and faith centered in our Creator.  Did you notice that emotional resilience involves courage- we’re back to valor, aren’t we? It also involves our core principle of faith in our Creator.  With faith in our Creator, we find ourselves considerably more resilient, and moving forward becomes much easier. Emotional Resilience is helping yourself and others the best you can. One of my favorite phrases is “B- is good enough.” As a recovering perfectionist myself, I was aghast the first time I heard that phrase. B- was simply unacceptable to this A student! But as I embraced and continued practicing that comp

 The basic characteristics of grit are valor, persistence, resilience, excellence (instead of perfection), and compassion. We’ve talked a little about valor.  Remember, standing up to that thing in your life that is so hard that it feels like it might crush you? Yeah, that’s Valor.  And you have it.   I know you have faced up to hard things in the past. This week let's talk about persistence and its role in your life.  Persistence is pretty simple.  It’s just ‘keeping on keeping on,’ right?  But what makes us persist as venerable women? Why not just pop some popcorn and watch Netflix or scroll Facebook? Remember, a venerable woman has been around long enough to know stuff.  She has had life experiences that have taught her an element of wisdom.  She may even have been gifted to know her why.  In short- she has perspective. Persistence is born of perspective and understanding.  Think of the inventors, creators, world leaders, and great teachers.   They didn’t have anythin