{"id":523,"date":"2018-04-17T10:30:38","date_gmt":"2018-04-17T15:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.jeanbaur.com\/?p=523"},"modified":"2018-04-17T10:30:38","modified_gmt":"2018-04-17T15:30:38","slug":"finding-your-compass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jeanbaur.com\/wordpress\/?p=523","title":{"rendered":"FINDING YOUR COMPASS"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"COMPASS\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I hate getting lost. Whether I’m on my way to a business meeting, or just out doing errands, I like to know where I am. But sometimes, getting lost is a really good thing. Sometimes it leads us to possibilities in our lives that we hadn’t considered. But here’s the thing:\u00a0 you’ve got to be able to tolerate being a beginner. You’ve got to not panic when you’re lost.<\/p>\n

Last year, I worked extensively as a speaker, and I not only spoke on topics that I’ve given before, but I was also invited to help associations with issues such as customer service, and I went back to my college to give a presentation on careers for English majors. I was flying. Busy. It was fun.<\/p>\n

Then December came and I didn’t notice how quiet my work had become because I was recovering from all the travel and talks I had given, and I was focused on the holidays. But when January hit, I was like a hiker out in the middle of nowhere without a compass. It was really quiet. And my wonderful dog, Bella, my therapy dog died.<\/p>\n

As I worked through my grief, I saw that I could either shake the bushes and look for more speaking engagements, or I could use this time to think about what I really want to do. It seemed important not to be too busy. Having worked as a writer throughout my career, it gradually dawned on me that this was where I wanted to put my energy.<\/p>\n

There were bumps in the road, but having written for children years ago, I joined an association of children’s book writers and illustrators, and I signed up for their retreat. Now I have traveling companions and support. And one of the picture books I’m working on is “Bella and the Scaredy Cat”–a fun reversal where the cat saves the dog.<\/p>\n

I can’t tell you how you’ll find your compass, but I hope my example helps, and that you’ll be less afraid when there are no road signs.<\/p>\n

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I hate getting lost. Whether I’m on my way to a business meeting, or just out doing errands, I like to know where I am. But...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jean"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2j73q-8r","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeanbaur.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeanbaur.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeanbaur.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeanbaur.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeanbaur.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=523"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jeanbaur.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":525,"href":"https:\/\/jeanbaur.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523\/revisions\/525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeanbaur.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeanbaur.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeanbaur.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}