• December 1997 - graduation - BSc Physics.
• January 1998 - 40th birthday.
• Months-long job search - offering to use my math skills in financial industry—mutual funds, computer modeling, analysis, etc.—receiving plenty of rejection.
• Finally settled for a 9-to-5 bank job—credit risk analysis—ughhh!
• Misery—boring work, underpaid, underappreciated, homesick all day.
• After about four months of agony, I decided to quit the job and attend grad school for computer science.
• Tried to resign, was offered a chance to continue the bank job - as a part-time-telecommuter. I accepted.
• Life became Computer Intensive—both School & Work: Computer Science classes (Linux, C++, Lisp, Data Structures, OOP, Imperative, Functional, Recursion, Abstraction, Iteration) and Credit Risk Analysis (SAS, FoxPro, Excel, and ensuring data integrity for databases with millions of records)
• School and work continued like this for over a year, then old issues with chronic pain from horse-related injuries resurfaced, making concentration difficult.
• Quit computer classes to focus on new avenues of diagnosis and solving the pain problem.
• Continued the telecommuting, but work shifted from analysis to custom database and software development. Attended several intensive, professional trainings in database architecture.
• Found three very good doctors, a primary care physician, an osteopath/diagnostician, and a pain control specialist.
  Pain relief and a new life!
• 43rd birthday—sudden compelling desire to get out of the unfulfilling, low-paying job, and find a true career path.

Found three books that helped:

• The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron - by following the journaling advice for a while, I felt a new connection to my purpose.
• The Highly Sensitive Person by Elaine Aron - confirmed my life-long belief that my own sensitivity is a great asset in my work, and clarified my perspective on sensitivity in general.
• The Career Guide for Creative and Unconventional People by Carol Eikleberry - gave me hope that I could create my own career.

• Completed some career/temperament assessments. Instead of highlighting my logic and analytical side, the results suggested that I should investigate career paths that would make use of my helping/intuitive/artistic nature.
• Made an appointment with a career counselor at the university and she suggested that it might be useful to look into Personal Coaching as a possible career path. I had never even heard of the profession before this.
  Looked around the internet, found Coach University, and found Thomas Leonard's work. www.thomasleonard.com
• Coaching... an aha moment!!!
• Exploring some more and talking to several coaches—this feels like a professional community that is welcoming me for who I am.
• Enrolled at Coach University. www.coachu.com
• Assigned a "buddy" in the orientation teleclass, the buddy turns out to be my new friend and confidant, Richard T. Butler. www.richardtbutler.com
• Discover that when I am coaching people, I feel like I've "come home", every call leaves me with a feeling of having just been in the right place at the right time.
• Met my Mentor Coach, Harriett Simon Salinger. She shows me who I am in the present and lights the way to who I will become in the future. www.hssalinger.com
• Stepping into my true role as a professional. New terrain for me, but I know in my heart that it is right.
• Several times within the past couple of years, I had tried to sign up for an Animal Communication workshop with Anita Curtis, but each time something came up at the last minute to prevent my attending.
  www.anitacurtis.com Finally! This year I attend her two-day workshop. I have communicated with animals all of my life, but was usually unsure/unaware of the level of detail of the information I was receiving. During the workshop, with Anita's love and support, I suddenly recognize and trust those details. A profound breakthrough! By the end of the two days, I realize that this is a signifcant part of my work and my purpose. Sharing my experiences from the workshop with my husband, we both realize and acknowledge that, from this day forward, I am a professional telepathic interspecies communicator.
• I share the experience with a few friends, and immediately my phone starts ringing with people requesting appointments.
• Must now trust myself and my intuition and my inner guidance. I realize that my work is also part of my spiritual practice. A profound realization.

• Participated in Dave Buck's Brand Strategy Expedition, and along the way I realize that I have spent a lot of my life being invisible—on purpose. Now it is time to become visible! Another profound realization.
• Becoming visible means connecting with more people than ever before, and also requires me to begin exploring my relationship with money—and with earning money—in a new way.
• Find the intriguing philosophy of Napoleon Hill, and begin to think about the world—and money—differently. Learning to choose a Positive Mental Attitude.
• Find Robert Kiyosaki's books and tape series, Rich Dad, Poor Dad. A new way of thinking about how money will come into my life.
• Learning about passive revenue sources.
• I realize now that I can do what I love, while earning money to support my family.
• Now I know why working at a regular job for a regular paycheck never felt very good—it wasn’t right for me.
• Find Lynn Grabhorn’s audio book, Excuse Me, Your Life is Waiting. A new way of thinking and feeling. On purpose.
• Creating a new and better life every day...