The State of Georgia Has Created a Wife Trap called Unpaid Spousal Caregiving … despite it, some are escaping by getting help with …
The Wife Trap: Unpaid Spousal Caregiving in Georgia
I am resharing from my spousal caregiver blog because this is relevant for the women leaders I serve.
If you know someone looking for support like what I described in that article, feel free to reach out to learn more.
As of August 2021, I am starting my last two classes and will be eligible to receive my Masters of Arts degree in December 2021 (I will walk in May 2022). Can you feel my excitement! This journey, this very spiritual journey, has been extremely fruitful. I get so much further in my life when I surrender the details to God, and just focus on what I can do moment to moment and day by day. Perfectionism sucks and is unhealthy. That’s all for now.
What has your experience with perfectionism been?
I really want to know. For real.
Leave me a note in my contact form to share your story with me.
As of March 2021, I am 1/4 finished with my last two semesters of graduate school. I have been able to move forward in school with the help of the good Lord and my family, and have been able to maintain my promise to stay present in all of my relationships. It feels good. I am not super stressed out. I have to say no to some events, but it’s worth it. This has been giving me more practice with protecting my peace, my time, and my space so that I can maintain my focus on what I am doing and who I am with right now. How about you? Will you answer my questionnaire (scroll down)?
As I enter into a new season of my own personal and professional development (via my last two semesters of graduate school), I am making a critical spiritually-based promise to myself and my family that I wanted to share with you, my audience and clients, also.
Before I get into the details of this promise, let me also say that I included my family in this promise because, besides getting my own oxygen first (i.e., parents put on oxygen mask first on an airplane to prevent passing out before they can help their child), they are my first priority and deserve my best. My oxygen, spiritually speaking, is continuing to grow and transform in my own personal walk with God.
Ok, so, my promise follows.
I promise to gratefully and gracefully live with love and excellence in this moment right now and to do the same for each moment today and every day.
~ Donna Marie Johnson, @leadlikeaqueen
This is a simply stated and complex promise. What this complex promise means is that I will:
* Be content right here right now in this moment.
* Be grateful for the people, resources and money that I have right now in this moment.
* Focus all of my best positive energy full of love and grace to engage with and be a blessing to whoever I am with right now in this moment.
* Focus all of my excellence to complete all assignments that I need to work on right now in this moment (in whatever area needs to be addressed… chores, work, school, etc.).
* Trust God with guiding my steps so that I am where I need to be right now.
* Trust God with placing the people around me He has destined for me to be with right now.
I believe that the core of my being is to live each day with focused positive love and grace-filled energy and gratefulness. My core’s source is Christ Jesus himself. At my core, I am in the center of God’s will. And I believe that in times when I am tempted to step outside of the core of who I am, it’s usually when I am living in a place of fear, anxiety, anger, and/or spacing/vegging out. The great news at these times is that Father God always uses Holy Spirit within my core to guide me gracefully and lovingly as I wake up and step back into being present to who I am at my core. From the moment of that new choice, I am whole again and can keep moving forward.
In these times of great uncertainty and constant change, my promise helps me to keep walking in faith despite it all. It helps me remember who I am and whose I am. It supports me in getting back on track when I stumble and/or fail. I always know I can make a new choice in this moment right now, no matter the outcome of past choices. Because of God’s grace and mercy via Jesus’ shed blood, each moment for me is new, as I continue to be mindful of my promise and live from my core.
Ultimately, I am very aware that I cannot serve anyone God has called me to serve without keeping Him at the center of my heart, mind and life at all times because my calling is very complex. There is no humanly possible way I can do all of this without HIM. (All of This = schooling at home, supporting my disabled spouse, attending grad school, re-building my business, writing, and speaking… and all while taking care of my own ‘oxygen’ needs first)
I want to keep encouraging you by continuing to share my own journey. Would you like to share the story of your journey as an author and/or speaker with me?
How do you stay focused on your personal relationship with Christ Jesus even in the face of your own fear, anxiety or failures, especially during these uncertain times?
Also, see my most recent video updates via Instagram. (Link to IGTV, click here)
In taking my own advice about checking on your people, especially during this pandemic era, I have had to end my graduate school journey for now so I can support a family member who needs me to be fully present for them at this time. This was a truly tough choice, but as I looked back at my promise… and at the advice I’ve shared with others, I had to remember to live what I say. I am very sad about this choice, but I trust God to help me and my family despite my feelings and to help me get past my feelings.
![[UPDATED Research and Results] Survey for Authors and Speakers](https://leadlikeaqueen.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/blog-space-header.png?w=1024)
Thank you so much for reading my blog and for participating in my surveys and research interviews. I know it is not everyone’s cup of tea, but for those of you who are truly “feeling me” or resonating with me, I am here for you. I am here to encourage and support you, especially Christian Women who are authors and speakers. The best way for me to support you is for me to understand you, your goals and your needs better. This is why I am conducting ongoing research via surveys and interview calls.
“I believe I am a queen in God’s kingdom and a selfless servant like Jesus. A queen impacts the world as a selfless servant and part of a community of sister queens, starting with her own family first, like how Ruth loyally served and supported Naomi.”
~ Manifesto Part 1 by Donna Marie Johnson
* I surveyed and interviewed mostly Christian Women Leaders who are authors and speakers.
* Most do not understand the metrics/numbers for their audiences.
* Most want to grow their audiences.
There are other questions that I asked during interviews where I cannot share the answers publicly. I will summarize by saying that my Sister Queens have surprised and blessed me with their diversity and with their passion to continue serving and supporting their audiences and clients. One of the most common questions they had for me were qualifiers around whether or not other types of writers besides book writers should take the survey, and I said yes. Also, most of those who do training or teaching as part of their job at work did consider themselves as speakers, although that term is also a little ambiguous or confusing, at times.
Check out testimonials from clients and colleagues who have worked with me in the past.
“I have had the pleasure of collaborating with Donna Marie Johnson over the past several years on several projects. Donna has offered her expertise and contributed to my education blog and podcast for business women. She is knowledgeable, patient, and thorough, and her expertise shines through every time! Donna was fun to interview and offered my audience valuable insights that prove beneficial in their business endeavors.”
~ Demetria Zinga, Web Designer, Content Marketing Strategist, Teacher
I look forward to continuing to more effectively listen to and learn from my Sister Queens so I can continue supporting them better over time. Here are some of the ways I support them:
If you want to chat with me briefly to share your goals and needs, send me a text to request an appointment. Since it is back to school time for me as a graduate student and for my family of 2 teens and one young adult going to college, I have to be more flexible with my scheduling. After I hear from you, I will text you back with a proposed time for a brief 10-15 minute phone chat. After you share your goals and needs, I will give you a specific recommended service and price quote based on your goals and immediate needs.
~ Donna Marie Johnson, Founder of Lead Like A Queen | Mobile Number: +1(678)861-8121
*Note: The free gift at the end of the survey is my interactive strengths journal. Learn more about it by clicking here to see my previous post about it.
![[FREE OFFER] 8th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION](https://leadlikeaqueen.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/gift-8th-anniversary.png?w=1024)
I started my business more than a decade ago, and started the official registered business eight years ago today. I am so grateful for all that I have learned during this time. I am also most grateful for the wonderful, beautiful-soul leaders, mostly authors and speakers, who I have been able to serve and support over the years.
My goal for the next 8 years and beyond is to make greater impact on even more micro / solo small business leaders, so I wrote a book that includes an assessment to help them understand their strengths and weaknesses as leaders of their solo / micro small businesses. I am super focused on continuing to support authors and speakers because that is mostly who I’ve been supporting since before I registered my business.
One example is Lucinda Cross-Otiti, who I was able to support with creating a workbook that she could use to accompany her existing book at that time, along with her coaching events and online community. She and several other colleagues and clients very graciously left LinkedIn recommendations for me.
I highly recommend Donna as a consultant and trusted advisor for executing your projects and expanding your brand visibility.
Lucinda Cross-Otiti, Author / Speaker / Coach
The reason why I wrote the book (Small Biz Big Impact But How?) is to help solo and micro small businesses understand (not just that they can but) HOW they can make big impact in the world. And the reason the assessment is in the book is to help you see where you already are doing well with these impactful actions, but to also see areas where you need to improve
Evenso, while working with clients over the years, I have seen the best and most meaningful impact for them came through understanding the areas where they are strongest so they can enhance those and make them even stronger. So, the free offer today, THE STRENGTHS INTERACTIVE JOURNAL, will help in this area.
This journal can support you as you continue serving your audience selflessly and help you be an even greater gift to them. Even though understanding your weaknesses has a place of importance, the focus of this journal is to help foster awareness of your strengths along with invoking gratefulness and motivating you to celebrate what works. When you focus on your strengths in this way, it is powerful to help you move forward with unparalleled momentum.
I would love to give you complimentary access so that you can see which strong areas you can enhance in your solo or micro small business leadership so that you can get even better results for making bigger impact on the world.
In addition to helping established authors and speakers look back and understand their strengths based on past results, the strengths journal and accompanying assessment can help newer leaders establish a starting point (a baseline) so that overtime they can track their progress as they keep enhancing their strengths. Periodically, they can look back at their previous journal entries and see what is the same or what has changed. This will help them to stay grateful and to keep celebrating their progress and building momentum.
How to Share? Just click on the sharing buttons on this website or just reshare from one of my social media posts.
Thank you for reading, and God bless you.
Lead Like A Queen Coaching and Consulting, LLC 