Written by Dorothy Martin-Neville, PhD 

Now that my birthday weekend is over and my thanksgiving for another year is ever-present, it is time to flourish as I look forward to what this year brings and to what I am inspired to create.

What I am discovering is that as time goes on, I am more determined to simplify where my company and I are going. I have the most amazing team with me and feel immensely blessed for what last year brought. However, after stepping back, my vision has been realigned yet again, and I am so excited about what is coming.

How often do you step back to see if where your life is heading is exactly where you want it to go?  Or where your business, if you have one, is going? For me, I had focused so much on my private clients, who are certainly a complete joy, yet as I looked at my 10-month program for Women in Transition, I realized the changes unfolding are massive for these women and my joy is so palpable that I decided to make it my signature program and do it quarterly. If you know anyone who needs support, send them my way.

In addition, I am now completing the prep work, with my team leading the effort, in creating a private membership community of spiritual-based folks who want to step back daily to see the meaning, purpose, and focus of the life they are living. Inspiration, education, and reframing or providing a spiritual perspective to so many things that are happening in our lives is really the focus within the community for me.

We are called to follow our purpose, not solely our purse. Who said we can’t have both? We are called to grow in ways that make us so much more of who we are truly meant to be rather than becoming everything we feel we need to be to bring others in. Self-betrayal and forgetting to listen to our own inner knowing, our own intuition, leads us to a life of survival rather than living even if everything we are doing is for others. So much of the current massive growth in loneliness and depression is because we have lost ourselves. We have forgotten our own passion and joy. How can others support us when we don’t even know what we need?

As I watch my small group of women support each other through community, I can’t help but wonder, “Why not open up a much larger community for men and women who can be inspired as well as supported by myself and each other in times of questioning and/or difficulty, whether in the physical, emotional, or spiritual realm?” I see this as creating a community and a call to greatness simply because that is what the world needs of us. It will be a community I want to support and inspire through videos, free webinars, and whatever else I am inspired to create, according to their needs since I am always open to suggestions or requests. 

I listened to a dear, dear, friend, Rev. Dr. Terrlyn L. Curry-Avery, (called my twin on many an occasion), who is also a psychologist and a minister, give a sermon yesterday. Although she was speaking about eliminating racism, a much-needed cause to work for as a way of life, she emphasized frequently (and I paraphrase a bit) that “during such a time as this we are each called to work for change.” I have been working to combat racism since middle school and that work in many ways is ever evolving while sadly staying the same in so many ways. This is her full-time work whereas for me it is a full-time cause.

My prayer is that serving this community becomes almost full-time work for me. We need each other and to be reminded weekly, or more, of ways in which we can do that within ourselves and within community is a gift I want to give all those who are open to walking a path of peace, joy, purpose, and passion, with more than a wee bit of humor thrown in.

Take a few moments to see if you are following what you came here to do. Realizing that your dreams and your purpose are ever-evolving, just like you!!!!