Jennifer Sparks's Blog

The calendar is about to flip into 2024, but you do not have to wait until the new year arrives to renew your focus or re-align yourself. I love spending the time in December to reflect on the year that has just passed, plan how to make the changes that can improve things, and pull out all that I have learned from my experiences … so I can celebrate my life and what I have accomplished! It never seems like much until you actually start writing things down.

10 Things I Do To Prepare For The New Y...

The story you tell yourself becomes the life you live, so you had better get your story right. 

No pressure, though, because you can re-write your story anytime you feel it is getting off track. You can always re-invent yourself. In fact, who you are becoming will likely determine what you are doing and as you move through the various seasons of life, what you are doing changes because of who you are becoming. 

Much of my coaching focuses on the stories we tell ourselves and how these stories im...

(From p. 180, 50 Shades of Happy: How to Master Your Thinking and Dominate Your Day)

Close your eyes, inhale deeply so your ribs expand, and begin that hard conversation. Push through everything that is uncomfortable. Hide your face under a pillow. Look the other way if it is so uncomfortable at first but HAVE THEM. Because these hard conversations may be exactly what you need to free yourself (and maybe even the other person) from everything that is unspoken, from assumptions, and from judgmen...

Summer holidays always remind me how much more I flourish when I have a little structure containing my energy and focus. Otherwise, I am like jello out of a container on a hot countertop. Eventually, I just melt and ooze and become fairly useless. That said, we all need a few weeks to unplug and reset. I came back to work inspired and energized for the projects and clients who are on my schedule. That’s good for me and good for them!

Let’s Talk Structure!

Is it time to liberate your life?

A few ...

As many of you know, my life has had a major hit. My mother passed suddenly in April and EVERYTHING shifted. My priorities shifted, my consideration of what others may need from me shifted, what I had to give to others shifted, my focus on moving through the days shifted, my tolerance of people complaining about things shifted … In my grief (which continues to evolve), I surrendered to my need to just rest. And, when you rest and no one is around you to pick up the slack … environmental chaos ca...

When we talked focusing on growth in a post a few days ago, I suggested you look back in your forgiveness journal and see just how much you’ve grown as a person. I thought it was only fitting that we wrap up this 30 Day Forgiveness Challenge by taking a look back and reflecting on how far we’ve all come over the course of a month. We covered a lot of different topics. We dug deep to find out what’s keeping us from embracing forgiveness. We made a daily effort to forgive and make it a habit we’ll...

When we chose to ignore forgiveness and hold on to anger and grudges, we end up living in the past. Our everyday life, how we feel, and what we think is colored by what happened weeks, months, or even years ago and that’s no way to live. It can be a  part of what makes you feel so trapped. It’s time to stop being stuck in the past and learn to live in the present.

Once you embrace that idea of living in the here and now, it becomes much easier to forgive and move on. Here’s how that’s going to h...

So far much of what we talked about has been very negative. Yes, the end goal has been increased peace of mind and happiness, but to get there, we had to wade through all the ugly stuff first and work hard at forgiving it. While that’s certainly a big part of the story, it isn’t all of it. In any situation, no matter how ugly or sad, there’s also something good, or something good is coming out of it. If nothing else, our negative experiences help us grow and shape us into the good people we are ...

In yesterday’s post we talked about being kind instead of right. At one point I shared how it’s possible for both parties to be “right”. You just have to see things from their perspective. Today I want to take it a step further and suggest that you start to take responsible for your part in whatever it is that has to be forgiven.

I’m not suggestion that you are to blame, even partially, for everything bad that happens – far from it. But I am saying that quite often there are two parties involved...

Today’s Journal Prompt: Is it more important for you to be right or kind? Explain.

We like to be right, don’t we? Being able to tell someone “I told you so” makes us feel important and powerful. Hearing it on the other hand isn’t so nice, is it? While we all like to be right, we don’t appreciate being told we’re wrong.

Insisting on being right, even if you only think you are, can quickly turn you into a bully. I’m sure that’s the last thing you want to be. Yet for some reason, it seems to come m...