Not Starting Over.
Redecorating.

There is something about birthdays that makes us reflective. Every once in a while, one arrives like a marker—a quiet invitation to look backward and forward at the same time.

For one of those birthdays, I received an unexpected gift: a cake-decorating experience. My assignment? A mermaid cake.

This was definitely outside my wheelhouse. There was frosting everywhere, colors to mix, decorations to arrange, and more than one moment when my creation looked absolutely nothing like the picture I was following.

But somewhere in the middle of decorating that cake, I realized something:

This feels a lot like my life right now.

When the picture changes

For more than 22 years, corporate America was a significant part of my identity. I built a career, led people, developed teams, navigated change, solved problems, and learned how organizations work—and sometimes how they don’t.

Then that chapter ended. Job loss has a way of asking questions we may not be prepared to answer: Who am I without the role? What comes next? Do I rebuild what I had, or is this an opportunity to create something different?

At first, it can feel like starting over. But I am beginning to see it differently.

I’m not starting over.
I’m redecorating.

The foundation is still there

When you decorate a cake, you do not throw away the cake underneath. The foundation remains. You work with it—adding something, removing something, and allowing the original picture to change as you go.

My corporate career did not disappear when my position did. Neither did the leadership experience, relationships, lessons, skills, failures, successes, or wisdom accumulated over those years. They came with me.

The question became: What do I want to do with them now?

That question keeps leading me back to the four pillars shaping both my own transformation and the work I am building through JoyRestored:

Identity — Who am I becoming?

Transitions separate who we are from what we do. Titles change. Roles end. Careers shift. Life happens. Identity gives us permission not only to honor who we have been, but also to discover who we are becoming next.

Clarity — What matters most?

When everything feels possible, clarity matters. Not simply, What could I do? but: What deserves my energy? Where can I make a meaningful contribution? Clarity does not require every answer—only enough to take the next intentional step.

Resilience — How will I recover and grow?

I used to think resilience meant bouncing back. Now I believe it can mean moving forward—changed by what we have experienced and carrying new wisdom with us. We can honor what happened without allowing it to determine what happens next.

Influence — Where can I spread joy?

Eventually, our lessons can become something we use to help someone else. Influence begins not with position or authority, but with the decision to use what we have learned in service of others.

Becoming

Through JoyRestored, I am bringing together years of leadership and organizational experience with coaching, consulting, and the development of young athletes and their families. The audiences may look different, but the underlying work is the same: helping people reconnect with who they are, clarify what matters, move through change with resilience, and recognize the influence they can have on others.

Restoring joy from the inside out.

I do not know exactly what the finished picture will look like yet—and maybe that is okay. The mermaid cake did not turn out exactly as I imagined either. It was creative. It was imperfect. It was mine. And I loved making it.

We do not always need a completely new life. Sometimes we need the courage to look at the life we have already built and ask: What do I want to keep? What am I ready to release? What would I like to create next?

Reinvention isn’t always about starting over. Sometimes it’s about redecorating.