ALIGN & CULTIVATE
aligning your mission and values by cultivating the life you want to live
ABOUT
To cultivate means to prepare and use soil for fruitful crops. Cultivation requires a process of churning, uprooting, fertilizing, and planting. Each person is responsible for cultivating the soil of their lives. We firmly believe that people have greatness inside and agency to do what is needed. We also believe that we were never meant to take on this life alone. With those two core beliefs, we know that coaching life planning will help you increases your perspective and personal insight and produce fruit in your life.
Alignment means arrange in correct and/or appropriate relative positions. Our desire since we have been married is to help others align their lives with deep meaning and purpose with the potential that has been given them.
So as you take the step to learn more about us, our desire is to help you align and cultivate a rich and meaningful life.
Jeff loves helping people find their purpose, while helping them be the best they can be.
Julie lives to equip and empower people to boldly step into their purpose.
BLOG
Photo by Dave Goudreau on Unsplash
We will all experience things that rattle us to the core. We all have moments, months, or even years of great hardship. But how we face the shaking and how we view it can make a big difference.
I was talking to a friend a while back who’s 15-year-old son was NOT studying for his permit test. He didn’t want to keep taking practice tests because “he knew everything already!” That is of course if “knowing everything,” means that he could get all 10 answers right on the aforementioned practice test after checking 5 with Google and a few with Dad, then yes, he knew everything! Especially since driving is summed up in 10 simple questions.
The interaction between logic and emotion is a twisted web within each culture. Some people and or cultures see emotion as weakness while others see it as passion and spirit. Some try to detach from emotion in the workplace for a variety of different reasons while others strive to bring “the whole person” to work each day. I think that we are much more powerful and purposeful when our emotions are engaged with the work we are doing.
Photo by David Travison Unsplash
Have you noticed that in both athletics and business, the highest functioning groups have a clear and shared vision and goal?
The truth is, growth hurts ALL the time, and then- only after the pain- it feels invigorating.
This is a simple phrase I find myself saying a lot. Sometimes it comes out as a stern parental reminder when I finish a conversation with my young boys after stopping them (or failing to stop them) from pummeling each other. Sometimes it comes out as a lighthearted, yet serious reminder to my athletes on a Friday going into a competition free weekend or a vacation period. Sometimes I just say it to remind myself and others that our choices matter.
A Lament is “a passionate expression of grief or sorrow.” In both classical and modern culture they are often penned as poems or sung to melodies. However, true lament is felt in every fiber of our flesh, every expression of our emotion, and often communicated in incomprehensible utterances.
Years ago my husband walked into the hospital moments before our friend’s elementary age son was pronounced dead. From down the hall, the sound of a mother's true lament echoed off the cold, bare walls.
There are many wounds- physical, emotional and spiritual- that fester, worsen, and spread if not dealt with appropriately.
A boil is a minor physical wound known to fester. In the technical sense, a boil is a painful infection of a hair follicle and the surrounding skin. It begins as a red lump, then fills with pus as white blood cells rush in to fight the infection (I asked Google). But even minor wounds ignored or inappropriately treated can have major consequences. The longer we go without proper treatment, the larger the risk for further damage.
If we were in a climbing group up Everest together and I fell into a real icy crevasse, I hope you would not say, “serves her right,” or shrug it off with an, “She must have not taken the right precautions.” I hope you would approach the gap and see if I was OK, “Are you there? Are you breathing? Bleeding? Can you move?” All of these questions are much more helpful starting points. Would I have a chance to survive? Would you offer help? Through me a line? Would you climb down there with me attached to your safety harness in order to pull me out? Would you sit at the top and cheer me on and tell me I could do it if I just kept working hard enough? Would you expect me to get myself out since I fell in there all on my own?
Learning is living and I like living, so I admit I will always be in process. Here is a little something I am learning this week.