Ellen aspired to be closer to her mother, family and friends in North Carolina. Yet, because of her job, she had been living two thousand miles away in Arizona for years. She and her 10-year old daughter had settled in there, developed their daily routines and made a happy life together. Through Ellen’s engagement in the Life by Design program, it became abundantly clear – despite the comfortability of her current life in Arizona — what she really wanted was to be with her family and friends back home in North Carolina. Sounds like a simple solution, right? There was a major challenge. She didn’t want to disrupt her daughter’s life. She was so focused on her daughter, she actually forgot about her own needs.

She had allowed herself to become a victim of her own guilt over moving her daughter back east.

Ellen was enlightened when she discovered that her true life vision was to be a caring daughter and provider to her mother, just as she would hope her daughter would be to her. She also learned that she could design a happy, healthy life for herself and daughter in North Carolina, just like in Arizona. And lastly, she re-examined her job and realized she would be able to fulfill her career passions and financial needs in North Carolina even better than she had in Arizona. In a way, she had allowed herself to become a victim of her own guilt over moving her daughter back east.

We helped Ellen rediscover her life vision, purpose and goals and we documented them in what we call the “My Life Story Workbook.” It gave her an objective look at where she was in life and how she got there. It gave her Hindsight, Insight and Foresight.
From there, we developed an initial roadmap covering the next 90 days. But it’s not quite that simple. Now it was time for Ellen to deal with a critical choice point.

Would Ellen have the courage to take the necessary steps to move back to North Carolina to fulfill her dream of being closer to her family and friends?

Her initial idea to relocate was an abstract theory that had never materialized for 10 years. We helped her put her ideas/thoughts/possibilities/challenges all together and form one picture. This resulted in helping her think about what she really wanted in the long run and to focus on what mattered and how to make it possible/achievable. She had the resources, ability, motivation, but the Life by Design program helped her see a new way of looking at how all the parts of her life were linked together. Her 90-day roadmap broke down into smaller achievable milestones, the activities she needed to focus on. She is now refreshing her life vision, purpose and goals as she looks out on her life for the next 10 years.

And, yes, she and her daughter are now living a happy life in North Carolina.