Publisher - August 2025

Photography by
Cassidy Dunn Photography

“How good are you
willing to let it get?”
— Dr. Kathy Murphy

I’m taking this month’s “Mind Your Business” theme and applying it to the business of living. In other words, let’s do an annual report on how you are operating and if it is profitable to your well-being. Let’s look at the big picture and get clear about who and what is important to you.

In my first real job after college, I was a salesman in the wine industry. My accounts were grocery stores, and in addition to managing the shelf sales, I sold wine displays to male grocery store managers who were usually 15 to 30 years older than me. I was 24 years old and scared to death. It took more than restocking what had sold for the week from the shelves to meet my quotas; I had to sell hundreds of cases up and above shelf orders to keep my job.

As a nervous newbie, I tried my best to follow my manager’s training. He told me after each sales call (they all were in-person back then) to sit in my car and make notes as follows:
1. What did I do well?
2. What did I do bad/wrong?
3. How can I do better next time?

I didn’t like this drill because usually I hadn’t done very many things well and had a lot of room for improvement. (In looking back, perhaps I was too hard on myself. Aren’t we all?) Though I haven’t thought about this analyzation drill in many years, it came to me when I started thinking about minding the business of daily living. Now that I’m more seasoned and wiser, I can’t think of a simpler way of breaking things down than into these three questions and getting clear about the good, the bad and the ugly. And most importantly, what to do with these things in order to live your best life.

My uptight boss also repeatedly said, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” This rubbed me wrong since I was more of a shoot-from-the-hip kind of person. (I mean, why did he think I was in sales? I didn’t sign up to be the accountant.) But, again, with age comes wisdom, and he was right. In order to get to where you want to be, you must have direction, which can be referred to as a plan. However, if you don’t care where your life ends up or the quality of the path you take on the way, you can exempt the planning part, but I don’t advise it.

I learned from a brilliant life coach (who actually had her doctorate in psychology and pivoted to life coaching because her very successful private practice was turning into a real-life What About Bob movie) about the wheel of life. The wheel of life breaks our lives into eight categories: 1. Health; 2. Money; 3. Family; 4. Relationships; 5. Fun and Recreation; 6. Personal Growth; 7. Career/Business; and 8. Spirituality. She would have me rate how well I thought I was doing in each category. It’s a revealing thought process that allows insight as to where you’re excelling and where you’re lacking. When I did this, I saw how out of balance my life was. But I never applied my sales call drill to it.

This is what merging the wheel of life with uptight sales manager looks like. I think it’s going to be quite eye-opening and effective. Write each category on a separate sheet of paper in a spiral notebook, skipping several pages between each, allowing room to grow. Go through the drill for each category. Here’s an example:

I’m choosing Spirituality (Haha—I know you wanted me to pick relationships!)
1. What am I doing well?
1. I attended the Joyce Meyer Battlefield of the Mind Conference in April and loved it.
2. My sweetheart, Holcombe, and I read devotions together over the phone about 20% of the mornings. (We talk every morning.)
3. I purchased an inspirational (and pretty) guide to help me read the Bible in a year.
4. I purchased a new Bible.
5. I give thanks to God for many things and situations every day.
6. I am grateful for everything—seriously.
7. I encourage my children to keep God in their lives and to pray.
8. I give God the glory for everything and recognize the blessings flowing in my life.
9. I love God with all my heart and soul.

What am I doing badly?
1. I’m not following my guide to read the Bible in a year, and I’m already a month behind.
2. I don’t have a church home right now, and I feel kind of lost because of this dilemma.
3. I’m not attending church when I’m home for the weekend.
4. Holcombe and I don’t read our devotions every day.
5. I don’t pray enough, many times not at all, because I feel I don’t do it right or stay focused.
6. I choose playing my daily NYT games in the morning over my Bible reading.
7. I waste time and squander talent God has given me. I could do so much more!

What can I change to do better?
1. Actively try to find a church where I feel I belong.
2. Holcombe and I can definitely read the Jesus Calling devotion every morning. It takes less than 10 minutes and adds so much to our days and our relationship.
3. Make the morning Bible reading time sacred—a non-negotiable.
4. Find a new time to play my NYT games.
5. Pray, even if done in 15 second increments.

So, there’s the process in 15 minutes, and yes, I could add more. However, when (or if) you do this, don’t break yourself down too hard. Just like Bob—take baby steps! Be gentle with yourself. The goal isn’t to beat yourself up or dwell on what you’re not doing so great, that question simply shows us the roads we are going down that are making life bumpy. Be sure to congratulate yourself on what you’re doing well. All of that is a win! And take on one improvement at a time, if need be. It’s never a good idea to overwhelm yourself; that’s a surefire way to throw in the towel.

This is not sink or swim. Let’s just “mind our business” and start gently flowing towards our most joyous selves.

Think Pink,
Elizabeth Millen