Teen Mom To World Traveler | LAYC 76

Hi, I recently declared I am the Encore Explorer, in addition to the many

other titles that I've had on business cards and given myself over the years.

This time, the Encore Explorer is the caption for the adventure

that I'm about to embark on.

On the eve of my 69th birthday, I am taking off to travel

and work around the world.

Now, that got me reflecting on other times in my life where

I have embarked on adventures.

Some of them were of my own choosing, and others had circumstances that were

the catalyst for what I learned about, grew through survived from, and became

more of me because this time I'm thinking back to a young girl graduating from a

small town high school in a rural area.

And shortly thereafter, packing up one suitcase and with $75 in her

pocket, walked down the highway, itching to ride to her future.

That, of course, was me.

I was 16 and I was so over ready to leave home and leave behind a

place that I just didn't feel like I belonged and didn't feel happy.

Off I went, like a brave little camper, into the great big world, and it really

was so much bigger than what I grew up in.

Surprise, a few weeks after that courageous march out of home,

I discovered I was pregnant,

and I thought about it.

And then I decided, there's no turning back, Isabel.

You just gotta hitch up your big girl panties, and figure out how

you're going to continue to support yourself, and now an impending family.

Fortunately for me, because I did grow up in a rural area in a farming community

and with fairly entrepreneurial parents, I had learned a lot about work ethic,

reliability, dependability resilience.

Commitment and figure it out as you go ness, and that's exactly what I did.

All of those experiences were the catalyst for me growing up faster and

transitioning from teen girl to adult to head of a family to CEO of my own life.

This was also the beginning of the seeding of the Lift As You Climb philosophy in

my life, and to this day, ultimately my lifetime legacy goal is to have

the Lift As You Climb Foundation exist worldwide to help young women like

myself with a hand up, And a warm, kind environment in which to grow and thrive.

The fabulous thing about growing up in a farming community is I had a lot of

opportunities to witness and prove to myself that people really do better.

They thrive when they're helping each other.

And that everyone has something to offer in terms of supporting and lifting others.

And in doing so, I witnessed that they also grew themselves, grew in

their own competency and their own confidence and their own capacity.

To share and give more and to want to grow themselves.

That was Lift as You Climb's origin.

And I was so fortunate to, and I must say I was open to, the opportunity

to meet people who had more skills, experience, savvy resources than I did.

And to get employment with them and to learn and to grow along the way.

All of this is.

Probably what's giving me, the confidence to do it again and know that there's

so much I don't know about heading out with a backpack and a portable

office and traveling around the world.

But I'm going to do it and I'd like to share all of this with you so that if you

are at all curious about what it would be like to step out of your comfort zone

and step into possibilities then you can take a look through my eyes and see what

that does for you, and how you would do what I'm doing, or do something different.

But The same in that we are expanding and stretching and growing, and we're

choosing, we're making decisions to choose where to allocate our resources

and the relationships that we can, we choose to maintain when we are together

with them, or when we're in another time zone or a different part of the world

. Over the years, I think so many things have happened for me and I've had the

privilege because of my own business.

So being exposed to quite a lot of the world.

Certainly.

There's so much more that I haven't yet, but I have been going to.

I plan to continue to seek out those opportunities and move forward

with getting to know other people and Thank you Experiencing other

cultures and food and languages.

I thought we can start today.

If you're thinking about this, if you're thinking about your encore and just

give you a couple of takeaways from my experience, or shall I say, from that

young farm girl who became a mom at a young age, and that was the catalyst

and the impetus for me to dive in.

And figure out how to lift myself and build my own success ladders

as we do when we left us recline.

So my takeaways from that early adventure were that embrace where you're starting

from, and I was starting from a what I thought was a very humble ignorant farmer.

So I'd like to share some takeaways that young 16 year old farm girl

would share with you herself and did with others along the way.

And that is Embrace exactly who you are and where you came from, because

that's the foundation of who you become.

And out of that, embrace what you've learned and the strengths and

the skills and the relationships.

And of course, as in my case, you also get to choose not to do some of the

things that you experienced yourself.

Also, that lift as you climb means that lifting yourself enables you to support

others, and the more that you refine your strengths and you grow, the more

you have to give and share with others.

And that doesn't mean that you have to have a lot of money or credentials.

It means a willingness to be open and look and listen to what others

need that you have, and to give that generously and without conditions also

that through life now and then seeking a really holistic view of living between

personal relationships and growth and career is very important for those

of you that raised children and work.

Do you know what I mean?

There's always this constant struggle to keep up with everything and

often criticizing ourselves that we aren't keeping it all in balance

because you know what my friends, I don't believe that it is possible

to live a perfectly balanced life.

Because if that's the case, it's just flat, and your teeter totter is not

going anywhere, and there is no movement.

So knowing that there are some times the energy that you have is going into

your career, or your business, and other times it's going into your own

personal restoration and relationships.

And be okay with that.

And know that one supports the other without movement in your work

life, there can be no reciprocating energy in your personal life.

And I learned that the hard way as a failing superwoman many times.

So the final part of this message is I invite you to come along

with me on this adventure.

And Be part of my orbit, part of my community, whether it's through the blogs,

the podcasts, the YouTube channel, social media, because without a doubt, this

is just the beginning of one adventure, which will flow into many others.

And I would very much like to hear from you about what you'd like to

know about the Encore Explorer, and maybe give me some suggestions about

what to get out there and explore.

I gotta get back to downsizing, packing, figuring out how I can get those suitcases

under the airline's limits, and to make sure that I have all my technology figured

out so that you and all the people I serve will be able to be in touch with me.

Thank you for this time.

Bye for now.