Centerline
At Soul Force Strategies, we believe the most powerful life is one lived in alignment—with your values, your purpose, and your deeper self. Centerline is where strategic insight meets soulful reflection. Here, you'll find thoughtful articles, personal reflections, and practical tools to help you lead with clarity, live with intention, and grow from the inside out. Whether you’re navigating change, refining your identity, or reaching for your next level, Centerline is your space to recalibrate, realign, and rise.
Living the Both/And: Where Being and Becoming Finally Become One
We're conditioned to think in binaries: Stability OR growth. Being OR becoming. Roots OR wings. Pick one. Commit. Stay there. But life doesn't work that way. You need both. Not sequentially, but simultaneously. At the same time. In the same breath. This is Soul Force—where being and becoming finally become one. Not the elimination of tension, but the integration of paradox.
What You Keep, What You Release
I'm standing at the back of the church, watching my youngest son and his bride walk out into their new life together, and I feel two things at once: A sweet, aching release—the caregiving relationship I've treasured for so long is shifting. And an unexpected surge of freedom—Now, more than ever before, it's time to follow my own dreams.
In just a few weeks, my husband retires from the military after three decades. We don't know yet if we're staying or moving—that depends on what opportunities emerge. But I'm not just asking where we're going. I'm asking who I'm becoming—and what I need to carry with me into whatever comes next.
Here's what I'm learning: Some things we carry aren't actually part of us. They're scaffolding—temporary supports we needed to build something, but not the thing itself. The problem is, we hold onto them so long they start to feel essential. And then when circumstances change, we can't tell the difference between losing scaffolding and losing ourselves.
The art of knowing what to carry forward and what to leave behind—that's the work of authentic growth.
The Growth Trap: When the Pursuit of Becoming Becomes Exhausting Performance
In my last blog, I wrote about how protocols saved me. And that’s true. But here’s what I’m learning—the hard way, in real time: The same discipline that grounds you can also trap you when you forget to ask if you’re pursuing the right kind of growth. Not all movement is progress. Not all optimization is healthy. Sometimes the pursuit of growth becomes its own form of imprisonment.
The Stability Paradox: When Staying is Risk and Growth is Safety
For years, I had a perfectly reasonable excuse for not dreaming too big: "I can't because we'll have to move." "I can't because the kids need me." And some of that was true. But I was also using those real constraints as cover for fear. Staying felt safe. Dreaming felt dangerous. But here's the paradox I didn't see: staying small was the riskiest thing I could have done. Because while I was "safely" avoiding risk, resentment was building. Then came India—terrifying with four kids, but the most stable choice I could make for my soul.
Roots and Wings: Building a Portable Identity
Three weeks ago, I unpacked my life for the twentieth time. But I wasn't starting over—because I've learned to build an identity that travels. This isn't about choosing between roots and wings. It's about cultivating practices, values, and truths that anchor you anywhere, while keeping the courage to spread your wings in new territory. Here's how to build a portable identity that's both deeply grounded and completely free.
The Tension We All Live: Introduction to the Stability-Growth Paradox
At a recent workshop, two successful businessmen said they struggled to set goals because they were satisfied with their lives—they felt like they'd "arrived." Part of me thought, good for them. But another part wondered: Is that contentment or complacency? This tension between stability and growth lives in all of us. What if we don't have to choose? What if the most powerful life is one that honors both?
