Adulting – Page 3 – Melissa Schlies

To The Class of 2020, & The Lessons We’re All Learning

When the clock strikes Midnight on January 1, 2021, all of us are going to feel like the class of 2020. Collectively, we will feel like we survived the most widespread trial of our time—with all the politics and conspiracies that went with it. And, if we’re in a better place (Lord, we pray), we will feel like we’re graduating from one of the most challenging years of our lives. But right now, in May, academically speaking, the real Class of 2020 deserves their due. As many of you know by now, I was a youth pastor for over seven [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-05-13T23:50:41+00:00May 14th, 2020|Categories: Acceptance, Adulting, Change, Courage, Hope, Lead, Learn, Love, Love Learn Lead, Success|Comments Off

Two Questions to Ask as We Wait For The Return of “Normal”

I know you’ve said these six little words. I just wonder if when you say them, you get the same feeling I do each time they pass my lips. Because every time I say, “When things get back to normal…” There’s a heaviness in my chest. A question on whether I should replace the “when” with an “if.” A sense that we’ve passed the point of no return. That just as September 11th shifted so much about how we live our lives, COVID-19 has done the same. Only we don’t fully know what it looks like yet. Often, after this [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-04-26T13:07:37+00:00April 27th, 2020|Categories: Adulting, Anxiety, Balance, Calling, Courage, Habit Making, Making Decisions, Social Distancing|Comments Off

Social Distancing: Five Tips To Working From Home

It’s a strange thing to find oneself at home interminably, when so much of your life has been at your job. If you live alone, all of a sudden everything is very quiet and still. If you have kids, it’s the opposite. And, if your home has become your work place, it is all the stranger. To do work in the place you rest feels unnatural, and terribly distracting. Yet this is where most of us have found ourselves this past week: Working from home. As I decided to pursue writing and life coaching a few years ago, this reality [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-03-18T23:19:26+00:00March 19th, 2020|Categories: Adulting, Balance, Change, Creativity, Health, Lead, Learn, Love, Love Learn Lead, perseverance, Preparation, Routines, Social Distancing|Comments Off

Five Important Lessons I’m Learning About Friendship

Have you ever been to a school dance or wedding reception, where the DJ was really good? Where not only did they have a phenomenal playlist, but they also had fantastic transitions from song to song? When this happens, the music literally doesn’t stop, and neither does the dancing. Sometimes, I wish it was like this with friendships. Similar to the way a DJ smoothly changes from one song to the next, I wish our friends would move in and out of our lives just as seamlessly. Ok, truthfully: I wish some friendships would never end. Period. But because people [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-02-27T11:56:27+00:00February 27th, 2020|Categories: Adulting, Friendship, Lead, Leadership, Learn, Love, Love Learn Lead, Relationships, Self Care|Comments Off

Common Place Friends: Why Some of Our Friendships Don’t Last

A little over eight years ago, Tony and I left our church. It happens all the time. People leaving their church. A person, couple, or family decides they don’t fit, realizes they aren’t growing spiritually, or they get hurt by the leaders or other congregants, and they leave. Sometimes it’s messy, all the time it’s sad. For Tony and me, it was both. The fact that I’d worked at our church for over seven years, meant it came with its fair share of hurt and messiness. But then add in the fact that we each came to the church as [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-02-24T11:57:19+00:00February 24th, 2020|Categories: Acceptance, Adulting, Change, Friendship, grief, Habit Making, Relationships|2 Comments

Six Rules For Fighting Fair In Marriage

Here is the thing they don’t tell you when you get married: some of the rules of your relationship change along the way. Or rather, you and your spouse keep changing so how you handle crisis and times of stress isn’t always the same. Even if your marriage is good, you can hit a rough patch and be completely blindsided. It is kind of like being on a long road trip with each other. Sometimes, you or your spouse can handle getting lost and even losing a tire with complete patience and grace—for an entire stretch of your journey. But [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-02-18T16:04:59+00:00February 20th, 2020|Categories: Adulting, Change, Conflict, Lead, Leadership, Learn, Love, Love Learn Lead, Marriage, Relationships|Comments Off

The Unspoken Secret to a Successful Marriage

One of Tony’s favorite things to do is to watch romantic movies with me. And by favorite I mean least favorite. As in, he doesn’t like most movies where the main focus is a love story. He says romantic movies are predictable, cheesy, and always end the same way. Yet even when I completely agree (like when he’s talking about Hallmark Movies), I still love them. There is something about two people learning to love each other that gets me every time. And my favorite part of these movies is when the two people in love do this one thing: [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-02-16T14:09:09+00:00February 17th, 2020|Categories: Adulting, Conflict, Marriage, perseverance, Relationships|Comments Off

Confession: I’m a Bad Neighbor

Last week, while I was working in our apartment, I started to hear these loud noises coming from the down stairs unit. At first I heard the pounding of a hammer. Then it sounded like the cabinets in the kitchen were being ripped out of the walls. I peaked out the window to find two maintenance vehicles parked outside. I shrugged my shoulders, and figured something went wrong with one of our neighbor’s appliances. Then, I went back to work. The next morning, I got a text from Tony: “Did you know our neighbors downstairs moved out?” I told him [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-02-06T00:20:34+00:00February 6th, 2020|Categories: Adulting, Change, Conflict, Friendship, Hope, Lead, Learn, Love, Love Learn Lead, Relationships|Comments Off

Just What You (May) Need to Hear

It is the second to last day of January. How did that happen? I don’t know about you, but 2020 has already thrown me a few surprises. Some good, some really hard, and more than a few I am not ready for—yet here we are. And as much as my planner self hates to admit, there are only a few things we actually have control over in life. We can fill out our Start Here: Dream Planners, and come up with brilliant strategies for how we want to approach 2020. But that doesn’t mean everything is going to go to [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-03-26T16:40:25+00:00January 30th, 2020|Categories: Adulting, Balance, Change, Freedom, Health, Hope, Lead, Leadership, Learn, Love, Love Learn Lead, Mental Health, podcasts I love|Comments Off

In 2020, What If I Don’t Reach My Goal?

A few years ago, an author/influencer I follow was coming out with a new book. It would be her fourth or fifth one—yet the first of its kind. She had HIGH hopes for this book. She even told her followers that her dream was for it to make the New York Times Best Seller List. Only, when it released, Her book didn’t make it. She was crushed. And, as she had told all of her followers about her dream, she also had to tell them it didn’t come true. It’s almost like being a kid and telling your friends you’re [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-03-26T16:39:32+00:00January 27th, 2020|Categories: Adulting, Change, Courage, Failure, Fear, Habit Making, Hope, Making Decisions, perseverance, Start Here|Comments Off

To The Class of 2020, & The Lessons We’re All Learning

Five Important Lessons I’m Learning About Friendship

Common Place Friends: Why Some of Our Friendships Don’t Last

Six Rules For Fighting Fair In Marriage

The Unspoken Secret to a Successful Marriage

Confession: I’m a Bad Neighbor

Just What You (May) Need to Hear

In 2020, What If I Don’t Reach My Goal?

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