Joy Let Loose

April 11, 2022

7 Signs it’s Time to Hire a Life Coach (and Discover Your Purpose)

Why is it that some people seem so focused and purposeful, and that I feel so chaotic and overwhelmed? If I hire a life coach, how would it help me live with greater purpose?

I used to think that to hire a Life Coach was a dumb idea. Why in the world would I spend money to get someone to tell me how to do my life? “I am decent at living – don’t really need help with that, thank you very much.” Ha!

Well, hindsight is 20/20, isn’t it?

At some point along the way, sitting in the middle of a fog of depression, lack of motivation and clarity, I realized I probably could have used help sooner.

How did I even get here?

Well, my pride had gotten the best of me, making me think I could figure out my life and purpose on my own. I didn’t want anyone’s help.

Looking in the rearview mirror, I see that I missed the clues that could have shown me it was a good idea to hire a Life Coach.

Do you see any of these clues? Friend, don’t ignore them like I did, ok?

https://joyletloose.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/7-signs-its-time-to-hire-a-life-coach.mp4

1. You always answer the question, “How are you?” with “Sooo busy!”

Ooff. Anyone else realize how much we idolize busyness? Like full agendas and breathlessness are virtues or something. Almost like if we aren’t over-scheduled, we’re not doing it right.

When was the last time you looked at your calendar from a position of peace, and not from a place of perpetuity or pandemonium? (Do you like all the alliterations?)

Friend, ask yourself these honest questions:

  • Is there a void you are trying to fill with your busyness?
  • Are you afraid of quietness?
  • What exactly do you think that busyness says about you?

Get curious about those.

2. You live in a state of chaos or overwhelm

This relates to #1, but it’s not entirely the same. Chaos and overwhelm are regular companions.

Chaos: a state in which everything is out of order

Overwhelm: incapacitating emotional or mental stress

Do either (or both) of those sound familiar? Things out of order & disorganized? The inability to move because everything is tooo stressful?

This is not how you were created to live, friend. This does not reflect the peace and the joy that Christ offers to us in this life.

Your life coach can ask gentle, hard questions to help you to uncover what’s behind these things, and point you in a healthy direction forward. We don’t need to live in fight, freeze, or flight mode.

3. You can’t articulate your personal mission statement

You’re not alone in this one. I’ve actually found that far more businesses than individuals can articulate a mission statement.

A mission statement actually points us out of chaos. It helps us align our direction with our values. Developing one is honestly one of the most clarifying tools I have found in building a life of joy and purpose.

4. You feel like you’ve lost yourself in motherhood

Mamas. Motherhood is a beautiful gift. And with the number of friends I know who yearn for the opportunity, I sometimes struggle to call moms out of the crowd for fear of hurting someone else.

But mamas – we know that motherhood is a gift, and also so hard. And it’s so easy to get lost in the busyness and the mundane day-in-day-out of it. And when multiple kiddos rule our every moment, we sometimes forget to function as unique individuals. We can’t think, we can’t stay rested or tidy, and the goal of keeping everyone alive and fed so easily takes over every other thing.

It also often lures us into escape mode, which is definitely not ideal.

Because God created us even before He created our kids. And we have unique passions, gifts, and skills that are not only meant for our families, but for people outside of our families as well. We are made for community, and we have special roles to play in the community to bless others, and for advancement of the Kingdom.

If we limit ourselves to just our homes for the period of 18-25 years or so that we have our brood growing under our roofs, we will easily lose sight of the impact we can simultaneously have on people outside of our homes.

(PS This is not a SAHM vs Working Mom convo. This is a purposeful woman convo – and purposeful women can work outside the home or stay at home. It comes down to living with intentionality into the specific thing God calls us to.)

You just don’t have to put it off until the kids are grown.

5. You want to discover your unique radiance in the world

This relates closely to #4, but is definitely not only for moms.

Maybe you aren’t even sure what your unique value-add in the world would be. You haven’t necessarily clarified for yourself what it is about you that makes you you. You aren’t sure what it is that you could do, or how you could live on purpose to make a difference in someone else’s life. You have a sense that there is more, but you’re not sure what it is

A Life Coach is uniquely called and qualified to help you uncover these things about yourself so you can be set loose to radiate.

6. When you imagine yourself in 2, 5, or 10 years, the picture is fuzzy

Oh gosh, friend! We are invited to dream with clarity, with imagination, with vivid color! Our God is so creative. And if we are made in His image (spoiler alert: we ARE) then that means we get to dream about our future and joyfully plan for it; Not obscure, vague dreams, but clear, on-purpose ones.

If you aren’t sure how to give yourself this kind of permission, it’s time to hire a life coach who can really help you get out of your head and into the world!

7. You really would love to redesign your life and vocation to be something you love, but you have no idea how.

You know those people who seem to thrive at life? Or who seem to be able to create the exact life that they want to live, blending vocation seamlessly with passion?

Maybe they are working from home or on the road, and it never seems like “work”.

Maybe they are visiting lots of fantastic places.

Maybe they are having a crazy meaningful impact on people, doing what really makes them thrive, and makes the people around them light up.

–> How do you think they got to build that kind of life? Not accidentally, I assure you.

Instead, they decided that their future self was worth investing in now.

They decided that fear and insecurity weren’t going keep them stuck anymore in a place of discontentment.

They got brave, challenged their uncertainties, became creative about resources, and dove in.

(And they aren’t looking back, are they?)

That kind of confident, vibrant, meaningful living isn’t just for a select few – in fact, I believe it’s really the way we are intended to live. God created us to be masterpieces, and He created good works for us to do.

With such a kind, vibrant, colorful, imaginative, and abundant God, I just can’t see that He meant for us to live in gray monotony. It doesn’t fit His character.

BONUS reason: You are at a point of transition in life, and transition feels scary.

You know what? Transition doesn’t have to be scary. It can actually be a thrilling gateway to something new.

But it does take wisdom and care to proceed. And it often takes another perspective to help us see past our blind spots. It takes the nudging and confidence boosting from a third party (or even a couple of third parties) to help us quell the limitations and do. the. thing.

Life Coaching and Purpose

I became a Life Coach because I truly believe that we are made to thrive at life, and that a purposeful, colorful life now is possible as we build a joyful & lasting legacy.

I love to come alongside women to ask the questions and help them move from chaos and overwhelm into simplicity and insane purpose.

I love to help women create the calendar that makes them light up, do the things that they love that most fully radiate who God created them to be.

If you are curious at all about what it would look like for you to get brave now to invest in your soon-to-be future self and hire a life coach, man alive, I’d LOVE to dream about that with you!

I’m easy to find right here, and it would be my JOY to talk about this with you!

Here for your JOY and PURPOSE!

January 1, 2022

Create Your Happy New Year

The New Year brings lots of hope for change, but often convinces us to make unreasonable promises to ourselves. This year, let’s simplify and commit to repeated small steps toward our ultimate purpose.

Happy New Year to you!

I pray that you had a wonderful Christmas with your family and friends, and that you have experienced the nearness of Emmanuel this season.

As we enter the New Year, we are often tempted to make huge (sometimes unreasonable) promises to ourselves, unwittingly setting ourselves up to fail.

I don’t want that for you.

Instead, I pray that you stay close to the heart of the Father, asking Him for guidance. I pray that you are intentional to simplify your activities. I pray that you are reasonable and purposeful in setting one daily and one weekly action step that help lead toward your goals, seeking accountability from someone who will help you stay on track.

I pray that in this next season you make the choice to invest in your wellness and your future by trusting a coach who hears from the Lord and desires to help you unlock your purpose.

You can find out more about how I help people with their life purpose right here.

7 helpful tasks for the first week of 2022

An Irish Blessing

May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of his hand.


May God be with you and bless you:
May you see your children’s children.
May you be poor in misfortune,
Rich in blessings.
May you know nothing but happiness
From this day forward.


May the road rise up to meet you
May the wind be always at your back
May the warm rays of sun fall upon your home
And may the hand of a friend always be near.


May green be the grass you walk on,
May blue be the skies above you,
May pure be the joys that surround you,
May true be the hearts that love you

For your joy,

Elizabeth Joy

October 17, 2021

Your True North Is Your Joyful Direction

Do you have a guide to help you find your true north? Or are you batting at the chaos of life without an intentional plan to build your joyful legacy? I’d love to help you write your purposeful story.

Have you ever studied the skies? Wondered how the North Star always points north? Have you ever longed for stability like that and a clearly charted course when the world all around you feels like a swirling chaos?

I have. For a really long time, if I’m honest.

And I’ve found out that my true north is ultimately my joyful direction.

Your true north is your joyful direction

I’ve been on a journey, kind of like an astronomer actually. I initially was looking way up and seeing thousands of stars in the darkest of nights. I couldn’t perceive any sort of rhyme or reason, pattern or perspective other than that I felt V-E-R-Y small and the universe seemed I-M-M-E-N-S-E-L-Y large.

No, I’m not actually an astronomer. I’m just a regular person with my feet planted on the earth.

But for many years, it felt to me like life was swirling around me. It seemed as though I couldn’t really make sense of what was coming at me, and I didn’t have the ability to focus on what mattered most and how I could be the most effective human I could.

I didn’t know much about myself and I got myself involved in a thousand things, hoping that eventually something would stick and be important.

I was navigating the stars without any concept of direction, constellations, or galaxies.

I didn’t have a telescope to help me find my true north. So my life was hectic, exhausting, joyless, and discouraging.

Sound familiar?

Joy Let Loose: My True North

I’ve written quite a bit about discovering deeper purpose, and I’ve told you a lot about how Joy Let Loose came to be.

My personal mission statement is:

I exist to let joy loose in the people around me by helping them find holistic wellness and uncover their life purpose so they can leave a joyful legacy.

That mission statement took a long journey for me to craft, through seasons of self-discovery and prayer, tears and determination. I didn’t have a roadmap for it, but the Lord was a gentle guide.

I didn’t have a roadmap, so I’ve constructed one to help others through their own process with greater ease.

Your Purposeful Story

I’ve realized that I can be a more intentional participant in the authorship of my story on earth when I uncover what God created me for. It’s only when I’m truly open to who I was made to be that I can take purposeful steps to lean into His intentions for me. And when I live that way I find greater joy and I see more fruit grow.

And I’m here at launch week.

I’m nervous. Will anyone come?

Will anyone decide it’s worth their time to spend 90 minutes with me to walk through my signature roadmap so they can also uncover their purpose and craft their own mission statement?

I honestly don’t know how this will go.

I just know it’s the next step that I’m supposed to take. And I believe it could be powerful for others to take courage to join me.

My true north / Your true north

What about you? I

  • If you’ve been a faithful reader of this blog, has God been stirring anything in you?
  • Has He whispered into your heart that you were made for more?
  • If you have trusted my words on these pages, would you trust my words even more directly into your journey?

It’s my invitation to you, dear reader, to take courage and take another step with me deeper into your legacy. I know that legacy I want to leave – it’s reflected in my personal mission statement.

And part of that fleshes itself out in helping people like you take your next steps toward building yours.

Because building a legacy produces the fruit of joy both now and long after we are gone.

Would you check out my life coaching this week so we can begin to uncover your personal mission statement and start writing your purposeful story?

Let’s pick up the telescope together and find your true north.

https://elizabethrhyno.com/purpose-coachin

I hope to see you really soon!

Elizabeth Joy

February 3, 2021

How to Simplify in 2021

Joy Let Loose is an affiliate with Day Designer because they have really beautiful planners that I love. I am also an affiliate with Shipt and Amazon because they are super useful for simplifying life! If you click on any of my links and make a purchase, I will receive a small commission – thank you!

How to Simplify in 2021

I’ve been thinking a lot about how to simplify in 2021.

Are you a word-of-the-year kind of person? I am. I’ve actually shared about it several times on this blog, words like JOY, HAPPY, IMAGINE & PERSIST. Narrowing in on one or two words for the year has turned out to be a great way for me to focus and grow.

2020 became a year none of us expected, didn’t it? We all faced a lot of surprising and disappointing things. In our family that included the loss of our main source of income, my mom being sick and ultimately passing away from cancer, and my father-in-law rapidly declining with dementia. We still have many unknowns in front of us, like many others do. Our heads have been spinning a bit with the emotions, details, and decisions we need to make to move forward.

That was likely a big influence in my choice of words for 2021 – SIMPLIFY.

How to simplify in 2021

I’m writing this blog post for me. And you. I’ve decided on the word “simplify” for the year ahead, and now I need to walk it out. But I don’t want simplifying to be complicated because that would totally be counterproductive! I don’t have all the answers yet, but I have some things I’ve decided to do as I’ve been thinking about how to simplify in 2021. Here are a few. I’ll most likely be back in another post with some more.

Plan ahead

When I was in college, I got pretty good at juggling a schedule that included a ton of deadlines. Because my college experience included a ton of rehearsals, performances, and practice time, I really had to be on top of all the academic stuff. I used a system where I gave myself early deadlines so that I’d always be ahead of schedule. It worked.

Then life happened, with marriage, jobs, kids and volunteer stuff. And somehow I forgot how to use a planner. Maybe this is just me, but somehow I had a disconnect between school life and real life. I’m way in deep now to adulting, and I’m on the struggle bus trying to keep track of all the things now in my head. So I’m becoming a planner girl again. I found Day Designer, and love what they have, especially because some of their planners are undated so I can start partway into the year. I’ll keep you posted on how the transition back to a planned-out life goes.

Do you depend on a planner??

Simplified shopping

The only things I enjoy shopping for are clothes and gifts. Beyond that, I’m not a huge fan. So I’ve been working at simplifying how to shop for the necessities in life. I’ve combined a ton of my normal items into my monthly subscription box from Young Living, and I’ve started to LOVE using Shipt to get my groceries delivered. There is something sooooo freeing about creating an order in the evening, and having it on the doorstep first thing in the morning. (I really love practical packages on my doorstep, friends!) I save time and money by using a subscription box and a grocery delivery service…simple!

Time to pare down

It’s time for me to start to pare down on some things. The truth is, we will likely be selling our house in the next few months, either to move elsewhere or simply downsize – who knows? (the super long transition, right?) And downsizing in square footage means downsizing in stuff too. One of our sons will soon get his own place, so I’m setting aside things for him to take with him. After that, I’m going to create sections of “stuff” to sell, donate, or discard. These things include:

  • Furniture
  • Clothes and shoes
  • Home decor items
  • Books, books, books

I could use some suggestions in this arena. Do you have a tried and true method for paring down in “stuff”? Please tell me in the comments.

Focus on Purpose and Legacy

This is a big one for me right now, partly because we are facing so much unknown as far as where we will end up, but also partly because of the journey I was on with my mother in 2020. Legacy and purpose have become so much more important to me

I have narrowed down several things that I love:

  • I love helping people pursue health and wellness
  • Writing my story and sharing joy is my jam
  • I want people to know that freedom and joy are reality
  • It matters to me that people feel valuable and at home
  • I love helping people turn around and multiply

So, as I think about how to simplify in 2021 while we stare into the unknown, I know this: I will continue to invest in people’s joy and wellness by sharing Young Living, I will write strategic things to help people move toward lasting joy, and I will take steps toward my dream of hosting people at a Joy Let Loose lakehouse.

What about you?

Are you in a “simplify” mode? I’d love to hear how you plan to go about it! Share in the comments!

Elizabeth Joy

February 2, 2017

12 Family Traditions for Holidays or Regular Days

No matter what shape or form they take, or how they came to be, families are special. I believe they are a primary place where God intends for us to experience His  joy in our lives. In a culture where there are so many breakdowns to the family unit, having Family Traditions is one helpful way to foster unity, create special memories and build legacy.

Sometimes traditions begin on purpose, and sometimes they grow almost by happenstance. Some are tied to holidays, and some to the regular days, to create interest or to instil values. The traditions we have created in our family have been a source of joy for us as our crew has grown and changed. 

12 Family Traditions for Holidays or Regular Days

I’ve collected together 12 Family Traditions for Holidays or Regular Days that I hope you find inspiring for your family. You can use these ideas just as they are, or perhaps your family will put its own spin on some of them. Share in the comments below if you try out any of these ideas!

Birthday Pancakes

My husband and I both had the flu on the day our first son celebrated his first birthday. Though we needed to postpone his birthday gathering by a day or two, we still wanted to acknowledge the milestone on the actual day, though we didn’t have the energy to do very much.

A few things were certain: the baby didn’t know it was his birthday, he wasn’t sick, and he still needed to eat! In true super-dad form, my husband Scott took one for the team and went to make breakfast. He wanted to make something special, and relatively new for our little guy, and decided upon pancakes. Long before ‘pancake art’ was even a thing, Scott made one pancake in the simple shape of a “1”, which he then served the baby, snapping a picture to keep for posterity. That was about the extent of the celebrations for that day.

When the next birthday rolled around, Scott remembered the previous year and poured a “2” with his pancake batter. Voilà, the first of our Family Traditions was born! As crazy as it seems, just this week, our oldest son will receive his 18th birthday pancake from his dad! In addition, we have served 28 others, between our second son and our daughter. It has become an enjoyable thing for each of them to look forward to on their big day. And, by virtue of our pictures heading out on the internet, we have seen the Birthday Pancake tradition spread from family to family over the years.

*If you have adopted the tradition of making birthday pancakes somewhere along the way, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below!

 

Tea Parties

Sometimes Family Traditions might be carried out in smaller groups (like Mother/Daughter, or Father/Son traditions). One tradition my daughter and  I  maintained with good regularity for many years was having Tea Parties.

 

When Grace was very small, I got the book Just Mom and Me Having Tea: A Fun Bible Study for Mothers and Daughters. It suited her perfectly, and gave us activities, craft ideas and launchpads for spiritual conversations while we had our tea parties. Our menu varied (rarely including tea!), and moved location almost every time (sometimes the dining room, other times a picnic on her bedroom floor). These times together were special, helping us to bond tightly. As she grew, our topics of conversation changed, and our activities modified to fit her stage of life, but our enjoyment of intentional time together never wanes.

 

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