Half Dome Summit, Yosemite National Park, CA
Hey, I'm Jonelle
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I love to help people build the courage and freedom to find what's true to them and then cheer them on while they go and do it
As one friend put it, "Jonelle helps you explore the why of you" Quick facts
What I value
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Photo credit: Christina Sorensen @apparativ
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If we're not supposed to dance, why all this music?
– Gregory Orr
– Gregory Orr
The longer version
I grew up in a small Wisconsin town of maybe 600 folks. My dad owned a custom homebuilding company. My mom drove the bus I rode to school each day. They worked hard, and they taught my siblings and I the value of effort and a dollar. As a girl, I didn't know where life would take me, but I knew that I wouldn't stay in Wisconsin forever. I wanted to see more of the world. That time came when I moved to Philadelphia for college, and dipped in and out of Chicago, Seattle, and Maryland before landing in DC.
The work I do in the world continues to give back to me in bucket-fulls. As a life coach, workplace culture consultant, and community organizer of healing spaces, I find my work most meaningful when I get to connect with others on the real, raw, deep things in life—what's good, what's not so good, and what it all might mean.
Finding my way took some time. In college, I was driven toward a life that would mean something to a lot of other people. I felt pressure to get a "respectable" job, make a "high-enough" salary, move to a "good city," choose the "right person" to be with, and be a "happy person" to show others how well I was doing. I tried to build this kind of life, but it didn't mean a whole lot to me. I got tired of the act, so I began to let myself drop it.
Instead, I began to explore things that were more truly me, that honored my strengths, and that made me feel alive and purposeful. Because life is too damn short not to do these things, if we get the chance to try.
Reflecting on my experiences, I began to see the power of culture to shape who we are, what we value, and what we desire—the cultures of our workplaces, schools, families, communities, and more. In college, I noticed the gulf between how happy my college peers and I were supposed to be, and how unhappy we actually were (rates of depression and anxiety at elite schools help tell this story). And in my first full time job, I noticed that while I didn't share the convictions of my colleagues, an invisible thread tied them together and drove their mindsets, values, and behaviors.
I saw the capacity we have as human beings to shape each other for better things, for higher callings, for more meaningful and fulfilling ways to live.
All this led me to the work I do now in culture consulting, coaching, and organizing community events on loss, grief, and healing.
Dave Evans, founder of the popular Design Your Life course at Stanford, describes life as "wayfinding." This lovely word captures so much. That finding our things takes time, that we can experiment and fail, that we don't have to strive for perfection, that we can seek out the things that make us come most alive, and that those things can change with time.
May we all be brave enough to wayfind, and may we have supportive communities beside, before, and behind us as we go.
I grew up in a small Wisconsin town of maybe 600 folks. My dad owned a custom homebuilding company. My mom drove the bus I rode to school each day. They worked hard, and they taught my siblings and I the value of effort and a dollar. As a girl, I didn't know where life would take me, but I knew that I wouldn't stay in Wisconsin forever. I wanted to see more of the world. That time came when I moved to Philadelphia for college, and dipped in and out of Chicago, Seattle, and Maryland before landing in DC.
The work I do in the world continues to give back to me in bucket-fulls. As a life coach, workplace culture consultant, and community organizer of healing spaces, I find my work most meaningful when I get to connect with others on the real, raw, deep things in life—what's good, what's not so good, and what it all might mean.
Finding my way took some time. In college, I was driven toward a life that would mean something to a lot of other people. I felt pressure to get a "respectable" job, make a "high-enough" salary, move to a "good city," choose the "right person" to be with, and be a "happy person" to show others how well I was doing. I tried to build this kind of life, but it didn't mean a whole lot to me. I got tired of the act, so I began to let myself drop it.
Instead, I began to explore things that were more truly me, that honored my strengths, and that made me feel alive and purposeful. Because life is too damn short not to do these things, if we get the chance to try.
Reflecting on my experiences, I began to see the power of culture to shape who we are, what we value, and what we desire—the cultures of our workplaces, schools, families, communities, and more. In college, I noticed the gulf between how happy my college peers and I were supposed to be, and how unhappy we actually were (rates of depression and anxiety at elite schools help tell this story). And in my first full time job, I noticed that while I didn't share the convictions of my colleagues, an invisible thread tied them together and drove their mindsets, values, and behaviors.
I saw the capacity we have as human beings to shape each other for better things, for higher callings, for more meaningful and fulfilling ways to live.
All this led me to the work I do now in culture consulting, coaching, and organizing community events on loss, grief, and healing.
Dave Evans, founder of the popular Design Your Life course at Stanford, describes life as "wayfinding." This lovely word captures so much. That finding our things takes time, that we can experiment and fail, that we don't have to strive for perfection, that we can seek out the things that make us come most alive, and that those things can change with time.
May we all be brave enough to wayfind, and may we have supportive communities beside, before, and behind us as we go.
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"You can't navigate like a GPS would because you don't have a map. You have to wayfind.
And wayfinding means taking one step at a time knowing something about the direction you're going, trying a few things, tuning it up and then doing it again and doing it again. None of us knows the future – we're making it up as we go along – so let's get really good at making it up as we go along." – Dave Evans |
Influencers and favorites
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I have no answers, but I have a lot of questions, and those questions have helped me to live better than any answers I might find. – Rachel Naomi Remen |