Patterns and Possibilities - Thriving in Uncertainty with Miss Handie

Have you ever heard a question that stopped you in your tracks? I have. It happened to me a few hours before I recorded this episode and inspired me to make it the main character. Connecting through a friend’s story and impact today felt like I was looking in the rear view mirror. What I saw, heard, and felt was so familiar that I could have told the story myself. I wonder how the question I heard will help you to examine your patterns? I’m curious if it will land right in the center of what makes a difference for you? Press play to learn more about the recent powerful inquiry I heard.

We heard a lot about pivoting during Covid. Many companies were forced to change their product lines from what they’ve always done well to PPE in order to remain afloat. Pivoting has always been described as an action taken when things aren’t going as planned, and a change in direction or focus is needed. There is another useful way to pivot when things are going well. This alternative version of pivoting is now a pattern in my career success. Just recently, I realized that our conventional perception of pivoting restricts the possibilities that help us thrive in uncertainty. Press play to hear how doing the new pivot added another rich layer of gratification to my seasoned career!

Can you believe it’s almost 2026? It’s seems like the past 12 months came and went like 12 days. A lot happened, a lot came and went and now we get to do it over again in a new way with new patterns.I’m curious how you navigated 2025? What were your highs and lows? What are you leaving behind from 2025 and what are you bringing with you for a safe, healthy and prosperous 2026? I’m answering those questions too in this episode. Press play and join the pod-versation.

We’ve all heard the phrase, “What you don’t know won’t hurt you.” It’s believed by some and has become a life philosophy of many. In the traditional sense, those seven words convey that ignorance of a problem or a misdeed can prevent you from being unhappy or harmed by worrying about it. I became curious about what else it could mean and explored how what I didn’t know was actually hurting me. Hurt doesn’t always signify something dangerous or life-altering. The hurt we face can be as simple as the hurt we do to ourselves through our assumptions, judgments, defensiveness and disagreements with others. I recently had questions about my future and realized that what I didn’t know could have led me to a decision I would have regretted. What I do know now is what we don’t know can definitely hurt our ability to thrive now and well into the future.

Romantic LOVE can be complex! Sometimes it expands, sometimes it shrinks, and sometimes it disappears altogether as if it never existed. Romantic love doesn’t have to struggle through complexity. It can navigate through the high and lows, if we human beings, give it a strong foundation to stand upon, and we remain committed to keeping that foundation strong TOGETHER as a couple. Listen to the revelation, I had recently, about the three foundations that keep love thriving. Think about your current and past romantic relationships and see if they embodied these foundational elements. Is your current romantic relationship built on a foundation that can weather the storms of complexity or do you and your partner have some work to do?

I celebrated my birthday three days ago and came to Chicago a couple days later to celebrate all that I’ve poured into myself and others over the past year. Coming to Chicago on or around my birthday has been my pattern for several years, but honoring the investments I’ve made in my growth and the growth of people around me is still somewhat new.I decided to take a look back at the past year of my life and focus on the time in between my birthday last year and this year. I did it in solitude and in a place and space that I’ve never visited alone. The time I spent there, looking back with gratitude, opened up a well in me that was yearning to be set free. What poured out reminded me that I am a channel of transformation, and I’ve got some big assignments ahead of me. No more excuses. I’m on a mission to be better, live better, do better and move beyond who I am and where I am between every birthday. Listen in to hear the epiphany I had about birthdays. It just might inspire you to see and understand them differently too and release an influential flow that starts with your own transformation.What’s your standard birthday behavior and what do you wish for yourself as you get one year older?

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to live in a world of human beings that only exhibit healthy patterns? Unfortunately, that’s not our current reality. Even when we decide to transform patterns that don’t serve us and others well, we may still encounter human beings who choose to live and operate in unhealthy pattern prisons. Sometimes these individuals consciously and unconsciously invite us to spar and dance with them inside those captive spaces. In order to avoid becoming a pattern prisoner, you’ve got to first see that’s it’s happening and quickly journey into the process of understanding it. Gaslighting happens to be a wicked pattern prison and I recently found myself standing at its’ front door. Listen in to see and understand how I processed and handled that experience and figure out what you would have done differently.

Familiarity is good. It helps us to feel comfortable and safe and in some ways may strengthen our confidence and self-esteem when the things we see, understand and influence become patterns that we know inside and out. In this episode, we’re taking a look at familiarity’s opposition - unfamiliarity. We’re talking about it in a Human Systems Dynamics kind of way, and I hope it helps you to feel better when you’re floating in unfamiliar territory.

With all of the extreme heat happening around the country, I can only imagine how much ice cream we’re consuming to help cool ourselves off…even temporarily. Sometimes these uncomfortable weather conditions cause us to get still and when we get still and get comfortable, the possibilities are endless.In this episode, I am exploring some other ice cream consumption possibilities for us to consider. You might be surprised! If you enjoy ice cream, what’s your favorite flavor? Mine is chocolate chip!

Human Systems Dynamics and its Adaptive Action is a proven method for transforming any wicked issue. Even though many people, around the world, can provide evidence of its impact, there are some human beings who will resist learning about it and using it for their own, personal reasons. It’s reasonable to want to share the richness of HSD with the people around us….people who may be stuck and suffering in a pattern of hopelessness and despair. What do we do when people we love, like, care about and lead , resist our support and encouragement during tough times? What do we do when they choose to isolate themselves and disconnect from us and our impactful advice and resources? How can Human Systems Dynamics help us to help them?

Are you facing life from a posture of fear or fearlessness? What haven’t you done yet simply because the thought of it scares you? How big is the fear you cling to and are the excuses that accompany it bigger than your goals and aspirations? If fear is a big pattern in your life, what is the simplest way to weaken its power? Let’s explore the pattern of fear and it’s impacts together.