For years, I was good at the "responsible" life: work hard, hit the targets, move up, repeat. After 18+ years in retail management — including my current role as General Manager at JCPenney — I had the career. On the outside it looked like success. On the inside I felt stuck — drained, restless, and quietly wondering, Is this really it?
That's when an old question started following me around: "What do you want to be when you grow up?" As kids, it's playful. In midlife, it can feel dangerous — because it forces honesty. I realized the real problem wasn't a lack of discipline. It was a lack of clarity about what I actually valued and wanted my life to stand for.
For 20 years after earning my bachelor's degree, I resisted going back to school. I floundered. Then I started doing the unglamorous work: journaling, experimenting, stripping things back, paying attention to what gave me energy (and what constantly took it). Little by little, I built momentum — not through a massive reinvention, but through small, consistent steps in the right direction. Eventually, I enrolled in the Master of Science program in Mental Health Clinical Counseling at Grand Canyon University.
I turned what worked into an 8-step framework built around values, fear, and action. It's the same process I share in my book — designed for people who want a real reset without blowing up their life or waiting for rock bottom.