You know that dish you love? The one you can always count on to taste yummy and make you feel yummy? One of mine (I’m X-tra so I have several!) is the Greek salad with shrimp, no feta from Taziki’s Mediterranean Cafe. The lettuce and vegetables are always fresh and crisp. The shrimp is always grilled to succulent perfection.

Mr. Washington picks up this salad for me at least once a week, and on a recent run, by the time I got it I wasn’t hungry and saved it for the next day. When I opened the box, the salad was covered with feta. I HATE feta!

Decision: do I scrape it out or take it back? I’m almost 60 and my ‘make-do’ button is getting weaker and weaker. I called them and went back to get the replacement. They apologized and gave me dessert for my trouble. WIN! Returned home, opened the box and NO SHRIMP! I burst out laughing. It’s 2:00, I’ve only eaten a handful of nuts and raisins early that morning, and I’m ready to eat!! I get back in my car, return, and we all crack up about it. I’ve been getting this salad for years so they have a lot of grace with me, and it also made me think about this:

Getting to your “good thing” can involve some twists, turns, roadblocks, frustration, kraziness… even some pain. And we need to remember that when we’re keeping ourselves stuck and stymied because the path is harrrrd. Because we may have to start again. And again. If what you want is truly worth the trouble…

Let that shxt go!

Get clear on what you want. (Hint: ‘who you are’ clarity helps tremendously with this.)

Create a plan for getting it.

Get IT!!

#ItsYourTime #MidlifeManifest

P.S. Ready to stop letting fear of hard keep you from your good thing?:

1. Sign up for the Midlife Manifest Sistermind. It’s the transformation that sticks program. If you’d like to learn how you can 180 your life in six months, shoot me an email with “I’m Ready” in the subject line.
2. Love to walk OR need motivation to get MOVING? Walk That Shxt Out! is your ticket! Get coaching messages perfectly curated for listening to walking, running, or cycling.
3. Come see me LIVE April 20th, along with the three other FAB women of Living Well Woman for our Self Love Explosion Tour…Where Passion and Power Meet! You don’t want to miss this!! Get ticket and sponsorship information here.

“I changed my mind. I’m not going.” I said this to my husband about an upcoming trip to NYC. It was a solo excursion to see a play, a Frida Kahlo exhibit, and to support one of favorite business coach’s big book launch. Fun! Fun! Fun!

But then, inexplicably, I stopped feeling excited. I thought my body compass was signaling that there was a reason for me to cancel. And I’ve learned (the hard way!) to not ignore my body compass. It wasn’t a definitive no go, though.

Body compass is our internal GPS that signals our truth even when our brains may be lying to us. The brain lies to protect us, not harm us. It’s our original coding that was needed to prevent imminent death from lurking lions, tigers, and bears (Oh my!). While most of us no longer live in that kind of ever-present danger, the brain still has that wiring and what happens now is that everyday stressors are magnified to Danger! Danger! Level. Did you know that we experience negative emotions at a rate of about five times that of positive emotions?? This is why insecurities and anxieties can derail us for no good reason, other than internal wiring.

And it hit me. I wasn’t being warned away from some potential ‘danger.’ I’d come down with a case of the ‘insecures!’ I was going to be in the room with a group of kick-ass million dollar business people (mostly women) and who was I to be in that room?

Oh, MYLANTA!! Who was I??? THIS is the kraziness we put ourselves through… even sometimes a kick ass coach like me!

We discount the totality of who we are: I’ve got over 30 years of coaching experience between corporate and running my business and have already earned over a million dollars.

We believe value = stuff: I have a MILLION DOLLAR PRESENCE. When someone engages with me, I leave them better than I found them. When you’re coached by me, your life improves exponentially.

Positively impacting the lives of others in whatever way you do is priceless. Choosing NOT to show up fully in your gift is a tragedy.

Soooo… I flipped my faulty script, took the trip, and had an incredible time! I gave and I received.

What faulty thinking is holding YOU back from showing up in your million dollar presence?

Let that shxt go!

P.S. The world needs your million dollar presence. Here are three paths to FULLY showing up in your gift and purpose: (Serious action-takers, go straight to #2!)

1. Join The Midlife Manifest Group and connect with other women who are in midlife transition. This is my Facebook community where successful retire-to-thrive women learn how to get more ‘who I am’ clarity, stop living hijacked lives, and live in purpose with passion. Click here to join.
2. Sign up for the Midlife Manifest Sistermind. I just kicked off my transformation that sticks program. If you’d like to learn what you need to do to make serious life changes in 2019, reply to this email with ‘I’m Ready’ in the subject line.

Work with my team and me privately. If you’d like to work directly with my team and me to help you live a more passionate and FREE life, simply reply to this message and put “Private” in the subject line. Tell me a little about your life and what you’d like to work on together and I’ll get you all the details!

This is always spoken in a tone of foreboding, right? Patience, more money, new love. Be careful, because the troubles will come in order for you to receive it. It’s a feast or famine mentality that keeps us living small and supposedly safe.

I chose ‘systems’ as my word for the year because I ended last year on fumes and needed better organization for the back-end of my business. Whew! I hired a kick-A online business management group (The Launch Guild), and while transferring everything over to them to set up new work structures hasn’t been fun, I can already tell a difference in HOW I work. Their structures are forcing me to be more structured.

Schedules. Structures. Routines. I ran from these words because they didn’t represent freedom to me. I left the corporate grind to do what I want, when I want. As with most things, it’s the happy middle that wins the day! Yes, in corporate, I was under someone else’s dictates. Now, CHOOSING the schedules, structures, and routines that work for the way I opt to live my life IS the path to freedom. I didn’t hire a new hammer. I hired accountability to help me get what I want.

So, yes … I’m careful in what I ask for, not out of fear of the path to getting it, but in the assurance that it’s truly what I want. It’s this same kind of accountability that gets my clients what THEY want.

#LetThatShxtGo! #ItsYourTime #MidlifeManifest

P.S. Ready for what you’re asking for? Here are three paths to getting it: (Serious action-takers, go straight to #2!)

1. Join The Midlife Manifest Group and connect with other women who are in midlife transition. This is my Facebook community where successful retire-to-thrive women learn how to get more ‘who I am’ clarity, stop living hijacked lives, and live in purpose with passion. Click here to join.
2. Sign up for the Midlife Manifest Sistermind. I just kicked off my transformation that sticks program. If you’d like to learn what you need to do to make serious life changes in 2019, reply to this email with ‘I’m Ready’ in the subject line.
3. Work with my team and me privately. If you’d like to work directly with my team and me to help you live a more passionate and FREE life, simply reply to this message and put “Private” in the subject line. Tell me a little about your life and what you’d like to work on together and I’ll get you all the details!

Recently, my back was giving me fits. A simple turn on a flight pulled a muscle that threw me into tremendous pain. After rest, home remedies, and even a muscle relaxer from the doctor didn’t completely rid me of the pain, I decided to try one more thing: more movement. I returned to my strength training sessions and went to a new class called POUND.

POUND is “the world’s first cardio jam session inspired by the infectious, energizing and sweat-dripping fun of playing the drums.” Had a blast! The instructor warned us that we’d be really sore the next day, which only slightly registered with me because beating sticks to movement didn’t seem that intense. WRONG!! The next morning, places in my body that I didn’t know existed hurt like hell! And it was strength class day! I made it to class that day and the life metaphor was clear to me:

Good pain squashes bad pain.

By the end of that week, I was still exercise-sore, but the pull in my back was gone. Yessss!! And this is what I also experience … what my clients experience with life change.

Deciding to leave that long (and ‘safe’) career, eliminating toxic relationships, starting a business, drawing strong boundaries, taking a chance on new love … these are HARD decisions and transitions. And when I say good, I don’t mean feel good, I mean necessary pain. Because on the other side of good pain…

FREEDOM!

When my clients struggle with making the tough moves, I ask, “Are you suffering now?” The response is always, “Yes!” And my response is always, “Then stop suffering for more suffering and make your suffering count for your good.” Creating a strategy for living life on YOUR terms is the best thing you can do for yourself. This quote from an 86-year old trapeze artist I saw featured on the news keeps bubbling up: “I do what I love and I do it TOTALLY.”

For me … for my clients, it’s TOTALLY from here on out! What about you??

#LetThatShxtGo! #ItsYourTime #MidlifeManifest

P.S. If you know the value of good pain, here are three ways I can help you get you to your TOTALLY:

1. Join The Midlife Manifest Group and connect with other women who are in midlife transition. This is my Facebook community where successful retire-to-thrive women learn how to get more ‘who I am’ clarity, stop living hijacked lives, and live in purpose with passion. Click here to join.
2. Sign up for the Midlife Manifest Sistermind. I just kicked off my transformation that sticks program. If you’d like to learn what you need to do to make serious life changes in 2019, reply to this email with ‘I’m Ready’ in the subject line.
3. Work with my team and me privately. If you’d like to work directly with my team and me to help you live a more passionate and FREE life, simply reply to this message and put “Private” in the subject line. Tell me a little about your life and what you’d like to work on together and I’ll get you all the details!

A lot of people have mixed opinions on dating profiles and I’ve admittedly been on the ‘not for me’ side of the equation. Recently, my opinion evolved … not to start dating. I’m married to the incomparable Mr. Washington, so that’s out. LOL! A dating profile is all about distilling your amazingness into a few questions to attract the right one for you. It can feel like a lot of pressure, but after seeing some friends experience success with it, I now find the process can be a cool way to get clarity on what you want. For fun, I decided to create a little dating profile here but with a twist. It’s my “dating profile” for the type of women I LOVE working with the most. I guess it’s my “business profile.”  

Here we go:

Name: c.Rene Washington aka The Mindset Maven

Occupation: Life Coach

Self-Summary: I help successful midlife career women let their shxt go and rock their retirement years by living in their purpose and passion!

I’m a kick-ass master certified life coach who helps women flip their ‘everybody else’ script to one that prioritizes their dreams and desires because I believe midlife years are the best years for women to fully step into their power and passion.

I’m Really Good At: Giving premium support to women who want to maximize their post-career years by getting rock solid certainty on who they are, what they want, the plan to get it … and keep it.

Interests: Broadway FAN-atic. Hubby road trips. Girlfriend excursions. Books. ALL the arts(dance, great t.v., movies, art exhibits). Coaching retreats. Jigsaw puzzles. Shaking my groove thing. Dessert.

What I’m looking for: Midlife women near the end of successful careers who are ready to focus on themselves and want more than a financial plan, you want a life plan OR you’re already retired and need a pivot plan

Favorite quote:  Let that shxt go!

You should message me if… you want to create a life strategy that frees you from living other people’s priorities and lets you FINALLY live that life you’ve been craving.

(P.S. — You really can message me here or here)

#LetThatShxtGo! #ItsYourTime #MidlifeManifest