Posted by Jory on February 1, 2012 · 2 Comments
“Lynchburg?”
I well remember my reaction back in 1993 when my then-husband Phil Beeson told me he’d accepted a legal position with Ericsson Telecommunications and that we’d be moving our family from Northern to Central Virginia.
Back in 1993, all I knew about Lynchburg was that it was the home of the Rev. Dr. Jerry Falwell as well as a handful of small private colleges.
Back in 1993, I never dreamed I’d spend nearly two decades in this charming city so majestically encased by the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Back in 1993, I never imagined I’d help “Doc” (Jerry) fulfill his long-time dream by becoming a founding faculty member of Liberty University School of Law.
All I knew in 1993 was that Lynchburg would be a drastic contrast from the hustle and bustle of Fairfax County.
And it was. And it is. And now I’m leaving.
I’m leaving this fair city a different person from the one who arrived with 18-month-old twins and a “rising kindergartener.”
I’m leaving it with precious memories and soul-enriching experiences deeply embedded in my heart.
Thank you, Lynchburg Community, for gently guiding my family through the good times as well as the hard.
When Phil and I struggled through the pain of divorce, you comforted us. When each of us remarried, you rejoiced with us.
Through both your public and private school systems, you helped our daughters (Rebecca, Jana, and Brett Beeson) grow into amazing young women who are making lasting, meaningful contributions in bilingual education, theatre, and Semitic languages.
Through the News & Advance personal ads, you brought me my true love (Dave Fisher) and blessed me with four incredible stepchildren (Katherine, Amanda, Elizabeth, and Benjamin) who are making lasting, meaningful contributions in science, music, and Slavic languages.
You gave me ample career opportunities to serve others – the Child Abuse Prevention Center, the Virginia Legal Aid Society, the Office of the Public Defender, and Liberty University School of Law.
You blessed me with several Spirit-filled congregations – Rivermont and First Presbyterian, St. John’s and St. Paul’s Episcopal, and Court Street and Peakland United Methodist.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I can’t think of a better place to raise a family and enrich one’s soul.
Had my husband Dave not been offered a position at Johns Hopkins Hospital, we’d be here (God willing) for decades more. But on February 4th, the Fisher Caravan is pulling out to set up a new home in Bel Air, Maryland.
Lynchburg, we will miss you dearly.
May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. May the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.
With Gratitude, Fond Memories, and Joy,
P.S. Images of Lynchburg in the collage are courtesy of TripAdvisor.com.
Posted by Jory on November 28, 2011 · 2 Comments
As we transition from Thanksgiving to Advent, my goal is to maintain my sense of gratitude. Being clear about what we believe and, specifically, what we’re grateful for is a critical first step to leading lives of success, satisfaction, and significance. I’ll go first . . .
This I Know To Be True and For This I Am Truly Grateful
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Jesus was with God and Jesus is God. Through Him all things were made.- God made man—God made us—in His image.
- God is just. God is merciful. God is omnipotent.
- God is love.
- As an image-bearing child of the King, I am brilliant, loving, compassionate, just, creative, and more powerful than I can even imagine.
- Jesus is my Messiah, my Savior, my Lord. He is my Father’s one and only Son, conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.
- He was crucified, died, and was buried, and on the third day He rose from the dead.
- He ascended into heaven and will come again to judge the living and the dead.
- In Jesus is forgiveness. In Jesus is life. In Jesus is life everlasting. Hallelujah!
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- God’s desire is for us to live lives of love, joy, peace, prosperity, and purpose.
- To experience true joy, we must
- give thanks in all circumstances;
- love the Lord with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind;
- love our neighbor as our self;
- S E R V E others with a glad and cheerful spirit;
- grow beyond our self-imposed limitations;
- not be afraid to excel.
- We are here on earth to find, follow, and fulfill our divine calling.
- Many of us need to remind ourselves daily: It’s OK to Shine!!!!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As we transition from Thanksgiving to Advent, I am exceedingly grateful for my faith, calling, family, health, friends, country, home, business, community, colleagues, mentors, clients, pets, and life. Your turn. What are your core beliefs and for what are you most grateful?
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Posted by Jory on October 24, 2011 · 3 Comments
Those of you who know me, or who have spent any time reading my website or listening to my radio show, know that I am all about purpose and calling. It’s a subject that has fascinated and sometimes tormented me since high school.
Check this out from the Old and New Testaments:
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart
and with all your soul and with all your strength.”
[Deuteronomy 6:4-5]
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment
in the Law?” Jesus answered,
‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
This is the first and greatest commandment.
And the second is like it:
‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
All the Law and the Prophets hang on
these two commandments.”
[Matthew 22:36-40]
Then Jesus came to them [the eleven disciples] and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” [Matthew 28:18-20]
I had to smile when our pastor summed up our collective purpose as:
1) Love God.
2) Love Others.
3) Make Disciples.
There you have it. How easy is that?? So much angst over what we’re supposed to do with our lives and, voila, six simple words say it all.. Hmmm….simple?
Maybe not.
How do we love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our strength and with all our mind? How do we live for the Lord full-time?
Loving God with all my heart means wanting to be in full relationship with Him. Not part-time. Full-time. It means being eager to share my joys, my challenges, my ups, my downs, with my Lord and Savior. It means keeping our relationship fresh and vibrant and keeping our relationship my top priority. It means allowing God’s love and compassion to flow through me to others.
Loving God with all my soul means continually listening to God’s voice. It means wanting my purpose to be His purpose—wanting His plan to be my plan. It means connecting through my soul to my Source on a regular basis to discern God’s will for my life.
Loving God with all my mind means loving God consciously, intentionally, with full and continual awareness. It means seeking to conform my thoughts to God’s thoughts and ridding my mind of all negativity:
“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” [Philippians 4:7-9]
Loving God with all my strength means pouring every ounce of energy into my relationship with God. It means loving God with my whole being, not merely with bits and pieces of who I am or who I think I am.
Loving others as ourselves
is a natural and logical outgrowth of loving God
with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength.
So is fulfilling the Great Commission.
Take a moment to ask yourself: Are you living for God (that is, are you living out your God-given purpose) part-time or full-time?
If you want to get crystal clear on whom to serve and how to serve them (part of your unique/particular/specific call), focus first on getting to know the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind. Live your corporate/collective/general call with joy and confidence.
Love God. Love Others. Make Disciples.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Find Your Purpose. Fulfill Your Calling.
“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy path.”
[Proverbs 3:5-6]
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Posted by Jory on October 17, 2011 · Leave a Comment
Last week I led a group of coaches in a discussion of “How to Build a Profitable, Purpose-Guided Business.” Not surprisingly, we focused on the topic, “Choosing Your Target Market.”
I know many service-based business owners who agonize over this decision. I did too, at first. “Just choose three to five groups of people you like to work with,” I was advised. Hence, my first mega-website was divided into three major categories — Coaching for Women, Coaching for Lawyers, and Coaching for Clergy. (My husband joked that I included everybody but male engineers.)
NOT a good idea! When you’re “targeting” more than one group, you’re spreading your resources too thin. Your time, your energy, your hard-earned dollars, your focus. You’ll confuse and maybe even scare away the people who are meant to work with you! My current business mentors have ingrained in me the mantra, “A confused mind always says no.”
Fo’ sho.
[
Take the pressure off. If you make a decision, try it on for size; and if your target market is not a good fit, guess what . . . you can change! Just don’t invest a fortune in marketing materials or websites until you’ll pretty darn sure you’re going to stick with that particular group for a while. And guess what else. Declaring a target market doesn’t mean you can’t work with somebody who doesn't fit that particular profile--as long as you resonate with each other and it’s a good fit for both of you. Feelin' the freedom?]
So, besides liking the people you intend to serve, what are some other factors to consider when identifying your target market? Try these:
- Do they have specific problems you can help them solve?
- Are they likely to pay someone to help solve their problems?
- Are they motivated and passionate?
- Do they gather in places where you can easily find them?
- Can you relate to them . . . really well?
If several groups come to mind when using those criteria, ask yourself the killer question: Who Needs You Most? There’s only so much “you” to go around!
We True Purpose™ Coaches are highly skilled in helping people get crystal clear on whom they’re meant to serve and how they’re meant to serve them. Reach out to us if you think you need some help.
To your success!
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Posted by Jory on October 10, 2011 · Leave a Comment
A friend of mine, a 2010 guest on Heart & Soul, asks: Why is it that two equally ambitious and hard-working entrepreneurs end up with different results—one experiencing amazing business growth while the other goes out of business? Sheila Savar answers her question in The Power of Networking. Success is all about networking and building relationships.Toward that end . . .
My goal is to attend at least one major event a quarter and at least one smaller local event a week. If you have already identified your target market (the people you’re meant to serve), then look for functions where “your peeps” hang out. Time is valuable so spend it wisely.
If you’ve not yet identified your target market, networking is a perfect opportunity to experiment. Observe: to whom do you naturally gravitate and who naturally gravitates to you? You want to work with people you like! Try various groups on for size and see how you feel being with them. Do they inspire you? Uplift you? Get your creative juices flowing?
Sheila’s book is full of networking dos and don’ts and strategies, which I wholeheartedly recommend. My favorite tip of all time is a little jewel I learned decades ago from my father. Whenever I would head off to the Naval Academy for a Sunday afternoon dance (referred to as “Tea Fights” before USNA went co-ed), Dad would remind me to have three questions tucked away in my brain—three questions to get the midshipman talking about himself. It worked like a charm!!!! I never had to fret over a lull in the conversation. Never.
When you focus on being interested rather than interesting, you have the opportunity to learn all about your new acquaintance. Her struggles, challenges, victories, interests—valuable information as you assess how you might be able to serve her now or down the road. Perhaps you’ll unearth a wonderful joint venture opportunity for the two of you or discover you’d be great referral partners. Listen and learn with genuine curiosity and a servant’s heart. It will change your perspective on networking, believe me.
My friend Bryn Johnson, a 2011 guest on Heart & Soul, is another staunch advocate of networking. She lays out a plan before attending each event to make sure she meets the people she needs and wants to meet . . . and has something to talk about when she tracks them down!
By the way, my introverted colleagues insist you don’t have to be an extrovert to enjoy networking. Just be strategic about which events you choose to attend and, as Bryn suggests, make a plan. (Follow my father’s advice and you’ll never have to worry about keeping the conversation going!)
May you build a powerful network of meaningful, heart-centered connections.
I’d love to know — what’s yourfavorite networking strategy? Share your comment with us here on the blog.
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