Personal Narrative: Gaining Life

The first ACTSage awareness step was enough for me to know I needed to make changes and to get started doing it. It’s that way for everyone and, just as I experienced, most people find that taking even simple steps can make life better. If you are like me and others, by now, you may be clearing out some of the dysfunctional support or transactional connections wearing you down. You may have set better boundaries and no longer tolerate poor service. You may be taking time to care for yourself. You might already be making more money and having more free time. In Carl’s case, the attorney you met earlier, it took him only two months to pare down the size of his client list, see an increase in both his income and get time for golf. He had more energy, felt better about life and his wife was happier, something that pleased him all the more.

If you’ve already

This is the kind of clarity exercise that spurred a college sophomore to engage his father’s networks to help him find high-quality summer internships, a full-ride to law school and, eventually, placement in a top law firm. Contemplating unplanned wildcards can help you prepare and may even prevent them. This contemplation helped Kevin decide against creating a vacation mountain-house timeshare with friends, seeing that not only would it add to his workload at the time, but could eventually create complicated legal entanglements.

Planned Events Are you planning a major life transition like a marriage, a family, a divorce, a home purchase or relocation, or a retirement? How will that change your networks? Do connections in your current networks have the expertise to support you, or do you need the help of others? If you need other advisors, who are trustworthy sources of good referrals? Among those in your networks, who has experienced a similar life event and might they have advice that will benefit