Expanding as Protection

In reading Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project, I was struck by the following:

One reason that challenge brings happiness is that it allows you to expand your self-definition.  You become larger.  Suddenly you can do yoga or make homemade beer or speak a decent amount of Spanish.  Research shows that the more elements make up your identity, the less threatening it is when any one element is threatened.

As I read this, I thought about the relatively easy transition (at least emotionally) I've had with going from full-on unschooling mom to doing my own thing and how comfortable I've been as my kids have gone off on their own.

Because I've continually added elements to who I am, it's been easy for me to let go of the bits and pieces that have made me who I am in the past.  Of course, one of the biggest bits (or piece?) was unschooling mom.  That was my main gig for over 12 years - my top priority all those years.

But as I've (sometimes selfishly) engaged in new bits and pieces, I've been able to fill in the cracks and holes that come from big changes.

Ramblings On Transitions

Thoughts swirling around in my head.  They are connected to me, and may not be to whoever might read this.

December is here once again.  In the business coaching world, this means that just about everyone is thinking about making NEXT year the best year ever.  Lots of programs are being offered and lots of buzz around year end and new year.

For me, I'm thinking about my upcoming 50th birthday and what I want to do - how I want to mark this point and celebrate my life transitions.

I've been in a pretty intense transition phase for the last two years or so.  Going from being a married, stay-at-home, unschooling mom (no - you are never NOT an unschooling mom, it just looks a whole lot different after the kids are off doing their thing!) to whatever my next thing is.  I've been reconstructing my entire life and I love it.

I've been training.  A lot.  I've become an energy healer, an essential oil expert, a business coach (and an expert in Book Yourself Solid), as well as lots of other, less official trainings.  I'm an unschooler - what can I say? I've been playing with starting a business and haven't been able to fully commit to what exactly I do yet.  So this past summer I pressed pause on my business(es).  I used my luxurious gift of time to fully explore my sexuality, coming out, falling in love, being in a relationship.  What a gift!

I recently started reading The Happiness Project.  It is inspiring me to think about my 50th birthday year in a new way.  Why not do an intentional Journey of Joy?  Why not blog about this journey?  Spend a year examining what makes me joyful...

My birthday isn't until February, but it feel big and soon and like I need to be through many of the planning stages by now...

There's something about new beginnings that make us all think that we will be better this time.  We will follow through.  We will have the discipline to eat right, the exercise, to blog regularly, to spend time with friends.  It is with this optimism that I contemplate my NEW Journey of Joy.

I Got a New Mac or How I Transfered iTunes

I got a new Mac!  Yea!

So excited - everything is supposed to work so much better on a Mac.  Right?

It comes with this fabulous automatic utility, Migration Assistant, that will move everything over for you.  Yea!

Beautiful - all my files seem to be here - they don't look as organized as they were, but I think it's just showing me that they weren't as organized as I thought they were because the folders are now mixed in alphabetically with the loose files.  Another task for another day.

So, I go to open iTunes - the ONE thing I'm NOT worried about because, after all, it's an Apple product.  But oh, where are my playlists?

You know those lists that can take days to put together?  I call AppleCare because that's why I bought it.  They don't seem concerned that I don't have playlists and go find out how I can manually bring them over.  I bring over a couple while I'm on the phone and it seems to work okay so I hang up.

As soon as I actually go into one of them I find all these exclamation points next to my songs.  Turns out only about a quarter of my music actually made it to the Mac.

I won't won't bore you with the two days and five AppleCare calls worth of gory details on all the things that didn't work.  Let's cut to the chase of what did finally work.  These instructions assume that you have updated iTunes on your PC.  These instructions are valid as of March of 2013.

Keep in mind that I'm not a tech blogger - this is just my personal blog and if this can help you great.  If not, feel free to move on to someone more qualified.

1. In iTunes on your PC, click edit -> preferences then select "advanced" and make sure both the "Keep iTunes Media folder organized" and "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library" are selected.
2. Next, still in iTunes on the PC, go to File -> Library -> Organize Library and check "Consolidate files" then click "OK".  This moves your files to the right places and makes sure iTunes knows where they all are.  If it allows you to also check "Reorganize files in the folder "iTunes Music"", do that as well.  This step could take a while depending on how jumbled up your library is (mine was a mess!).
3. Now you can close out of iTunes (and if you aren't going to be using it any more on this PC, make sure you go to Store -> Deauthorize This Computer first).
4. In your browser, go to http://www.copytrans.net/#copytrans-tuneswift to download TuneSwift for $15.  You will need this to back up your iTunes with playlists.  It is worth $15 to NOT spend two + days trying to get iTunes onto your new Mac, trust me!
5. When you have TuneSwift installed on your PC, select backup.  You'll need an external harddrive for this step.
6. Going to your shiny new Mac and, if you've already opened iTunes, go to Finder (just click anywhere on your desktop) ->Go -> Computer -> Music and then use two fingers to "right-click" on the iTunes folder and select "Move to trash".
7. Now open a browser window and go to http://www.copytrans.net/support/how-do-i-restore-my-itunes-library-backup-file-on-my-mac/.  You will have to download the Mac Restore App but once you do you can plug in your external harddrive and restore your iTunes library exactly as it was on your PC.
8. When you open iTunes, just hold down the "option" key (the icons will dance) as you click on iTunes and it will automatically install the library you just restored.

I hope this helps someone avoid the frustration I went through.  As I searched, I found some instructions, but none of them got me all the way there.  These steps did.  I'm sure there are little, common knowledge steps I didn't include here (like ejecting your external harddrive), so please do use your common sense!

Word for the Year

Instead of making resolutions, I prefer to set an intention for my year.  As I look back, I see that I failed to do that last year, but my word for 2011, "Develop" certainly continued to shine and deeply influence my year. 

And actually, if I set that word after the last day, I'd have to say that change was my word for 2012! I feel like I've changed just about everything in my life last year: becoming single after 25 years, buying my own house, learning to be an entrepreneur, changing my relationship with the people in my life, and more.  It was actually a pretty fantastic year!  I really don't think I've been happier.

With all the preparation I did in 2012, my intention for 2013 is to Be Bold - to be fully self-expressed and take what I know and what I continue to learn out into the world in a bigger, bolder way.  If you want to see what that looks like as it develops, I invite you to join the party at facebook.com/jonizander - it's my coaching page and is where I'll be sharing information that applies specifically to health coaches, but generally to any service professional.