After spending years watching our business wither away, I would sit in the darkness of “failure” and ask myself over and over, how did I get here? I was not looking for an inspired answer, rather I was looking for reasons to blame myself. How could I have saved our 27-year-old business when I was feeling that I was lazy, stupid, blind, and weak? What I came to realize, was that 27 years before, I had $6,000 to my name, a new condo, a big mortgage, no job, and a new business. We were told we couldn’t do it. What I did have, was a passion for what I was doing, why I was doing it, and who I was doing it with and for. I put my passion first and abundance followed.

Twenty-seven years later, with a huge personal and business overhead, I was trying to find abundance from a place of fear and desperation. I somehow got lost in the process. It was more about saving the business for everyone else, because I loved and cared about them, then it was for me.
As Jan Gordon put it, PASSION is “the essence of commitment.” John Maxwell said that PASSION is “the fuel for will.” I had fear, worry, guilt, and desperation by the boat loads! Getting back to my roots, I realized that the passion was missing and it had been missing for a few years. I lost my WHY! I was doing it for everyone else…and it paid the bills. It kept me living in the means to which I had become accustomed. No wonder I was not inspired as I had been many times before when my passion was on fire.

I remember when I would spend 15 hours a day doing what I loved…aka PASSION, and then, all these years later, 15 minutes felt like stress beyond imagination.

When I was finally forced to let go and to decide what was next for me, the concept of PASSION popped back into my psyche. Passion was the instrument that fueled me for all of those years. I realized that whatever was next would be so much deeper if it sprung from my passion. Passion creates resilience. When things get tough, what’s better than passion to help one get through all of that sticky stuff.

Just like that—as if lightning struck again—an inspired friend helped set me on a new course of coaching. My passion for guiding people who find themselves stuck in an aspect of their lives was ignited. My desire was to help them come from a place of struggle to a place of clarity and flourishing. The Life Sherpa was born from that passion!