Jane Enright, Author of the Book “Butter Side Up” Talks About Navigating Catastrophic Life Changes
Meet Jane Enright, the author, thought leader, and speaker. In the span of 12 months, Jane endured three life-altering events and some incredible losses. Still, despite hitting a rock bottom, she decided to look on the bright side of life and turn her life around completely.
Deeming herself an ordinary person, who survived some extraordinary things, Jane Enright decided to channel all of her experiences into her new book, Butter Side Up™: How I Survived My Most Terrible Year and Created My Super Awesome Life (released November 15th, 2020). A creative non-fiction piece of work with stories and a healthy dose of humor. Butter Side Up describes a heroine’s real-life journey with a playbook approach and inspires readers to successfully embrace and navigate change so they can land butter side up in the game of life.
Jane’s My Super Awesome Life, Inc.™ platform provides a much-needed dose of inspiration and motivation to live the best life, even when it’s so hard to do so.
Keep on reading to learn more about Jane Enright’s book Butter Side Up, get advice on how to navigate life after a catastrophic change, and find clarity, strength, and encouragement to move forward as a GIRLBOSS in this world.
1. Hi Jane, tell us a little bit about yourself?
I’m a Canadian Girl Boss, mother, change management consultant, author of Butter Side Up, and founder of mysuperawesomelife.com. I am also an ordinary person who has survived some extraordinary life-changing experiences and come out the end better than I was before.
Making ideas happen successfully has always been what inspires me. However, my life has not always been super awesome. As a self-employed Corporate Strategist, I spent decades helping businesses, and business leaders, deal with and plan for change. Then, tragedy struck — not once, but three times. Over the course of twelve months, I experienced three life-altering, uncontrollable events, losing everything I once knew to be so.
First, a concussion forever altered the direction of my life. Then, my partner experienced a terrible accident and subsequent life-changing catastrophic brain injury. Shortly thereafter, my best friend of forty years was suddenly diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer, and passed away in 3 weeks. During those twelve months I spent over one hundred consecutive days in hospitals, and afterward, helping people I loved, and myself, through dramatic, and traumatic, unplanned change.
Throughout it all, I was able to look at the lighter side of life and understand that embracing change, staying positive, and having faith, are the difference between having a super rotten life, and a super awesome one.
2. What inspired you to write “Butter Side Up™: How I Survived My Most Terrible Year and Created My Super Awesome Life?”
I believe everything happens for a reason, and for me, there were so many hints of encouragement to write a book that I could not ignore it. There was also a great desire to share my knowledge about navigating change with others. Although my journey was extremely difficult at times, I had skills and know-how others did not that helped me successfully navigate change.
Afterward, I encountered many people who told me they could not believe I had landed butter-side up after all I had been through; they wanted to know my “secret” to successfully navigating change. I felt a push to share my knowledge with others so they could land butter-side up too.
3.How does one manage to remain so positive after experiencing such a catastrophic change, grief, and loss?
Acceptance is the first step towards navigating change of any kind, especially rapid unplanned change. This does not mean you have to be happy about a situation, and how it disrupted your life; it means to move forward, not backward, we have to try and accept change has happened, not resist or deny it. Regardless of the magnitude of the event, this helps us become a more flexible thinker and shift our minds to a more positive end of the spectrum.
To tone up your positive thinking try including affirmations in your daily routine. Affirmations are consciously choosing words to help us focus on what we can do, rather than what we can’t do when faced with a tough situation.
For example…I am choosing to think more positively about this situation….I am in charge of how I feel today…I am choosing happiness…I am choosing to act and react more positively in situations…I have the power to create positive change in my life. Affirmations are a powerful tool that can help us move towards acceptance and a more confident, positive frame of mind.
4. How can we find clarity of thought so that we can find answers when we most need them?
Fear of the unknown can be a big barrier to finding clarity of thought and navigating change. Most people are resistant to change because change takes us out of our comfort zone, that place good or bad, where we know things are predictable. In Butter Side Up I show readers how to use outside-in thinking to help overcome the fear of the unknown, find clarity of thought, and uncover answers as you navigate transitions and events in your life.
Outside-In Thinking is looking at a given scenario as an observer, rather than as a participant. An environmental scan is a tool we can use to help us do that. An environmental scan is something business leaders often use to successfully navigate change. It is essentially a review of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of a situation. Adopting an outside-in thinking approach in our personal lives can help us take the emotionality out of situations (fear, sadness, etc.), so we can look at the big picture, and not get caught in the weeds of decision-making. Outside-in thinking helps you visualize and plan the route so you can find answers when you need them and successfully navigate change.
5. What advice would you give to all GIRLBOSSES out there looking for some words of encouragement so that they can keep moving forward?
Envisioning what is next during uncertain times can be challenging. This is because when we go through unplanned change, it is hard not to be defined by it.
Stuff with four letters ending in a T at the end happens to all of us, it’s how you handle it that matters. I believe we are what we believe and that the majority of us have the ability to create a new reality for ourselves. I also understand that most people, either by circumstance, such as lack of know-how, or by choice, don’t take time to envision what they want, or need, to have a super awesome life. Nor do they recognize the importance of doing so.
One of my favorite quotes is from David Steindl-Rast which says, “it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but “gratefulness that makes us happy.” Practicing gratitude each day can illuminate the path forward. Research has shown that practicing gratitude can have a transformative effect on people’s lives because individuals with a more grateful disposition are more likely to bounce back and continue to move forward after times of great diversity. Gratitude helps us focus on what we do have, rather than what we don’t have.
If you accept and believe that all of us have choices and deserve to be happy, you begin to live your life more intentionally. You become more careful what you let in, and do not let into your life, and you become the quarterback, rather than the receiver of your experiences. This is when your past becomes a chapter, not the whole book. This approach can help you move forward with a new storyline and land butter-side up in the game of life.
Quick-fire questions:
💜 Early bird or night owl?
A little bit both. I always love a good party with great conversation into the wee hours of the morning– hence my super awesome day(s) begin at 12:01 am!
💜 Yoga or fitness?
Yoga, namaste.
💜 The city or the country?
A lovely place in the country where I can pop into the city when I like.
💜 Bohemian chic or classic style?
Bohemian Chic paired with a little Audrey Hepburn for good measure.
💜 Biking or roller skating?
Biking. However, but back in the day I did roller skate and I enjoyed that too.
