fbpx

Jen A. Miller Consulting

Category: Lessons Learned

  • The 5 Roles Principle

    The 5 Roles Principle

    One Simple Piece of Advice to Help You Find Life Balance

    life balance

    It’s no secret that the post-college graduation years can be a downright tough era to handle. When you think about it, for this moment in time, every aspect of our lives seems to be a paradox.
    • We are young but we are expected to be mature adults.
    • We are starting our careers yet we’re expected prove ourselves good enough to climb to the top.
    • We are figuring out who we are and want to be yet we are expected to be in serious relationships.
    The list of puzzles we are posed with ranges across every aspect of our young adult lives from personal questions, to professional challenges, to relationship hurdles. Speaking from firsthand experience, I know that trying to keep a sense of balance can nearly feel impossible at times.
    Juggling the many roles we are expected to play while maintaining our priorities, not to mention our sanity, is no easy feat. We want to prove to ourselves, and to the world, that we can take on more responsibility and be successful. Yet, in doing so, we often end up with too much on our plates and things begin to spin out of control.
    Personally, this is something that I’ve been struggling to master since I graduated two and a half years ago. It seems like I’m always trying to find the right balance between pushing myself forward and taking on too much. There is a constant struggle to keep the important things thriving while not letting the unimportant things take over.
    Admittedly, I can’t come to you with the answers for how to make sense of it all. Instead what I am offering up is some great advice that I have found very valuable—the 5 Roles Principle.
    (more…)
  • Spotlight on Jessica Sabogal’s “Women Are Perfect”

    Spotlight on Jessica Sabogal’s “Women Are Perfect”

    In August, Jessica Sabogal journeyed to Bogotá, Colombia with her best friend to carry out a larger-than-life mission: to paint a mural honoring the struggle of women in her parents’ native country. In her own words, she shares her experience with The Single Diaries, then Catherine gets the exclusive on her process, her inspiration and what’s next for this artist.

    other1

    “Women Are Perfect” begins in Bogotá, Colombia

    I am in Bogotá, Colombia, my father’s birthplace, with the intention of doing something I’ve never done before: creating a 50’ x 9′ mural honoring the group most affected by Colombia’s 49-year long civil war, las mujeres.

    When I learned that 18% of Colombian women—or 489,687 mujeres—were victims of sexual violence between 2001 and 2009, I immediately thought, “That’s half the population of San Francisco.” It was then that I envisioned a piece that would reflect my reality: a world in which women embrace their perfection, a world in which these crimes against humanity cannot exist.

    Over the course of ten days, I teamed up with local artists, figuring out how to collect the supplies I need to transform this vision into something real and somehow explain to my abuela why I’m spray-painting on the streets of this 613 x 613 mile city.
    (more…)

  • Unsung Rivalry

    Born in San Francisco, Catherine shares her struggle with calling Los Angeles “home”

    Sf vs LA
    PHOTO: Pretty Stems

    To some in L.A., the rivalry between San Francisco and Los Angeles is nonexistent. I think this rivalry stems from the deep-rooted rivalry between the Giants and the Dodgers in New York City. While only a handful of Angelenos are true fans of the Dodgers, everyone in San Francisco is a Giants fan. (That’s one point for S.F.)

    When I decided to move south for school, I began to discover the difference in the two cultures. L.A. felt cold (in demeanor, not in climate, obviously), and I counted down days until trips home to the Bay Area—the down-to-earth Californian cousin. In college, every time I visited home and returned to L.A. a feeling of dread came over me as the plane approached LAX. I swore I would move back upon graduation. Then I didn’t.
    (more…)

  • Single Girl Reads: Revenge Wears Prada

    The voice vibrated in her toes, and Andy knew it was Alex before she turned around. Her Alex. Her first love, the man she always thought she’d marry…

    Revenge-Red_final_image_982w

    As promised, I present The Single Diaries’ first book report. Released over the summer, Revenge Wears Prada is the sequel to novel-turned-film The Devil Wears Prada. I was number 30 on the waiting list at my local library and practically ran to the branch when it was ready for pick-up. (OK, so I drove… I do live in L.A.) 

    I am a fan of both the novel by Lauren Weisberger as well as the film starring Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway. I found the character of Andy to be more like her on-screen persona (i.e. Anne Hathaway’s portrayal of her) than what I remembered from the first book; that is to say she was whinier and a bit annoying. In typical screen-Andy fashion, of course she would make rash decisions based on one bump in the road. Regardless, I rather enjoyed this read for what it was: another chick-lit tale of the first year of marriage.

    (more…)

  • Life Lessons from Tinder

    One Single Girl shares what she’s learned about herself, others, and how not to date through popular dating app Tinder.

    Tinder
    Photo by Claire Folger – © 2011 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.

    As many of you online daters already know, there is an approximate 9:1 ratio of scary people to normal people in your pool of options. When my friend called me one evening, explaining the luscious and mysterious world that is Tinder, I denied that it would be the perfect fit for me. He was prepared for my skepticism, my remarks about the ratio, how it’s my worst fear, etc., so he simply said, “Think of all the people you can laugh at.”

    I was sold.
    (more…)