Notes from the middle miles.
I am Bonnie Jean Schaefer: author, athlete, builder, speaker, aunt, creative strategist, and follower of Jesus Christ.
I write, teach, build, run, publish, and experiment from the middle miles of an ordinary life with God.
I am interested in what happens when a person stops dividing life into “the meaningful part” and everything else and starts treating the whole thing as adventurous stewardship.
That question has taken me into books, trail races, business building, publishing, family life, insurance work, podcasting, teaching, and more experiments than I can reasonably list.
What governs me
I belong to Jesus Christ.
My deepest ambition is to
- know God,
- become like Christ,
- love people well,
- steward what He entrusts to me,
- and finish the race He gives me.
The character I am training
I am deliberately training toward seven qualities:
humble, wise, strong, courageous, loving, trustworthy, and adventurous.
I am still in training.
I bring a creative and strategic mind into that pursuit.
Creativity imagines what could be.
Strategy finds the path.
Innovation happens when the two are put to work faithfully.
The arenas I live in
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Physical
I train and challenge my body so I have the capacity to engage fully in the life God gives me.
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Contribution
I write, work, build, teach, solve, publish, steward, and create value.
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Relational
I love, serve, teach, invest, belong, forgive, laugh, and become a person people can trust.
The roles change. The assignments change.
The woman I am training to become should not.
50 by 50
One of my current experiments is 50 by 50: adventurize life for 50 people by the time I turn 50.
It started out as a grander goal:
- publish 50 books,
- complete 50 10Ks,
- and help adventurize 50 lives by age 50.
But God challenged me to surrender the spectacular publishing goal because it was keeping me from the more important people goal.
For me, publishing books is easier than reaching people with the books and the message they carry. That part is harder, scarier, and more important.
I am pursuing the people goal anyway.
Want to be one of the 50?