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Jen A. Miller Consulting

Category: Inspiration

  • How Do You Define Your Identity?

    How Do You Define Your Identity?

    GirlTalkHQ Founder Asha Dahya opens up about the journey to find her identity

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    “Don’t apologize for who you are… true happiness comes from knowing your individual worth and identity”

    I have been in a relationship for 31 years, which, coincidentally, is also my age. That life-long relationship has been with no one other than my identity. Sounds weird, but hear me out!

    For most of my life, I’ve struggled to uncover who I am and how I want to be perceived.  Though you’d image this struggle would get easier with time, my experience has been quite the opposite. As I’ve grown older, extraneous circumstances – peer pressure, family pressure, the media, relationships with boys, my career- have threatened to break up my longest relationship and have even managed to hijack my identity at times.

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  • 12 Months a Single Girl | Our Manifesto Revealed

    12 Months a Single Girl | Our Manifesto Revealed

    Happy 1st Anniversary to The Single Diaries!

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    A year ago, Jen and I launched The Single Diaries. We first tested the idea on our closest circle of friends several months before that. When we saw that our message resonated with them we knew we had the support to keep reaching.

    As we commit to year 2, we unveil our manifesto… the words we live by, the summary of our work, the mission we strive to carry out post by post. Twelve months flew by, so we simply want to say Thank You. Thank you for reading, for supporting our stories, and for inspiring us to leap. Every. Single. Day.

    We have big plans for our second year and can’t wait to share them with you as they unfold. Until then, read on for a look back at our favorite moments from the first year of living our mission, and share your favorites with us too.

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  • Single Girl Reads | The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything

    9 reasons you need to read James Martin, S.J.’s Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Anything

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    When Jen and I were developing the idea for The Single Diaries, we agreed that our main focus would be on relationships: romantic, platonic, familial, but most importantly the one with self. One major life influence for each of us is spirituality, and it may be for many of you as well. Regardless of your self-described religion or spirituality, I highly recommend The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything as a way to incorporate that part of your identity into real life. This book is applicable to anyone looking to deepen their spirituality, regardless of their main belief system. As Martin S.J. states, “Just as there are insights from Zen Buddhism that are useful to me as a Christian, so there are practices and techniques from Ignatian spirituality that can help the Zen Buddhist. And the person who is Jewish or Muslim, too. Anyone can use these practices to better his or her life” (393). 

    In Twenty-Seven | What I’ve Learned This Far, I cited this particular book as a wonderful starting point for anyone looking to reflect and deepen their knowledge of themselves on this level. I tend to read books with a pencil in hand, but this one is impossible to get through without one. It took me a really long time to get through it, not because it was uninteresting… on the contrary, while the material James Martin S.J. covers is dense and requires a lot of reflection and processing, he writes in true Jesuit fashion making the teachings of St. Ignatius accessible for all with more than a few moments of real laugh-out-loud humor. Whether your goal is to get to deepen your sense of self, learn more about St. Ignatius and his friends, or get a better understanding of Jesuit teachings, here are 9 points that Martin, S.J. makes… and my arguments for why you should pick up a copy and start the trek through this book today, if not sooner.

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  • The Timeline Project

    The Timeline Project

    A New Tool To Help You Reach Your Goals

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    “Whatever you want to be or be a part of, you know that leaving it to luck, to chance, to fate, probably isn’t going to get you there. You’ll need to plan and focus and work really hard. That’s where The Timeline Project™ comes in to help. It’s all about capturing your dreams, zooming them into focus, prioritizing and making them actually happen. It’s an online tool that’s part journal, part mood board, part info-rich resource. And it’s all yours to play with, get inspired, update, and share as often as you want.” 

    I hadn’t planned to post about The Timeline Project this week. Actually, the truth is quite the opposite. Until just a few days ago I had never even heard  of it. Like many things that are simply meant to be, The Timeline Project inexplicably fell into my path. During my daily ritual of browsing through my favorite blogs, I came across a headline announcing the arrival of this newly formed platform for millennial women. Needless to I was intrigued enough to read more.

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  • Career Lessons From On-Screen Leading Ladies

    Career Lessons From On-Screen Leading Ladies

    7 lessons in building a career from favorite on-screen characters

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    We are encouraged at an early age to declare what we want to be when we grow up. Some of us followed that path through college: we picked a corresponding major and a post-graduate career goal. If you were a liberal arts major, chances are you ended up doing something you had no idea you could or wanted to do. I am a big supporter of self-discovery as long as you are progressing with direction. In an era when young people average 2 years at a company, many are unsure of what’s next. Whether or not you’re at that crossroads, these 7 on-screen characters inspire career lessons that may push you to take your next step.

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