What If The Detour Is The Path?
Have you ever looked back and realized that what felt like a detour changed the direction of your life?
Not because you planned it.
Because it led you somewhere you never expected to go.
For a long time, I believed changing my mind meant I had made a mistake.
Now I believe it's often the first sign we're growing.
I spent my career in executive assistant roles. When my final position was eliminated, I found myself asking the question so many of us ask when life suddenly changes.
What's next?
I became a REALTOR® with Keller Williams Preferred.
Wanting to better serve older adults, I earned my Seniors Real Estate Specialist® (SRES®) designation.
That's when I realized something that completely changed my direction.
Most seniors don't want to move.
They want to continue living the life they've built in the home they love.
That led me to a different question.
How could I help people on the path they wanted to be on?
Trust me, there are many!
That question led me to become a Certified Aging in Place Specialist (CAPS).
A few months later, I became a Founding Member of Senior Home Coach™.
I explored becoming a Probate Specialist because I thought it might be another way to help families.
It wasn't the right fit for me.
Then I became a Certified Decluttering Coach because I realized clutter is often one of the first obstacles preventing people from living safely and comfortably in their homes.
Each step answered one question...
...and uncovered another.
Eventually I realized something I hadn't seen at the beginning.
My passion wasn't real estate.
It wasn't decluttering.
It wasn't home modifications.
It was helping people understand what was changing in everyday life before those changes quietly limited their choices.
I realized the best way I could do that wasn't one family at a time.
I wanted to reach people before they found themselves in a crisis.
Before they felt overwhelmed.
Before their choices became limited.
That's what led me to speaking.
Not to tell people what they should do.
But to help them recognize what they hadn't noticed before.
To understand their options while they still had time to choose.
My message isn't about staying.
It isn't about moving.
It's about understanding, deciding, and moving forward.
Because when we understand what's changing, we make better decisions.
And better decisions give us more choices about how we want to live.
Those ideas became CALM Method Living™, the foundation of the book I'm writing and a companion workbook designed to help others apply it to their own lives.
Looking back, I did change directions several times.
I don't see those changes as starting over.
I see each one as bringing me closer to the work I was meant to do.
Sometimes what feels like a wrong turn is actually the path that's preparing us for what's next.