The Yellow Envelope: A Memoir by Kim Dinan

How many of us find ourselves pondering our purpose in life?

The distractions of our daily lives can easily hinder us from recognizing and responding to our calling. @Nora Klaphake shares her review of The Yellow Envelope a Memoir by Kim Dinan and how Dinan’s journey mirrors many of ours. As you will see in Nora’s book review by all outside measures, Dinan is successful. She has a thriving professional life and a great personal life. However, for some reason, she still feels unhappy and dissatisfied. Nora does a beautiful job of outlining the key points of the memoir and how they apply to coaching. It is a short and sweet read to resource when working with others or in this quandary yourself of “what is my calling and how do I live it out?”

Reviewer: Nora Klaphake, Certified Life Coach Practitioner

Title: The Yellow Envelope: One Gift, Three Rules, and a Life-changing Journey Around the World

Author: Kim Dinan

Key Points:

Following our dreams can be a scary thing, but we shouldn’t let the fear stop us from achieving our purpose. To pursue her dreams, Kim has to overcome fears and obstacles, deal with doubters and critics (including her own inner critic), uncover her inner truth, and find her purpose. As Kim and her husband see opportunities to give out the yellow envelope money, they learn that it is much harder than they thought it would be. At first, they break one of the important rules and they overthink it. Over time it becomes easier and they find that giving of the money and more importantly of themselves, can be life-changing.

Application to life coaching and how I will apply the key messages in this book within coaching:

The yellow envelope gave the journey unexpected intention and purpose – giving and sharing kindness to others along the journey. In many ways, the yellow envelope is like a Committed Way of Being that gives a different lens to view the journey through. The yellow envelope made them much more conscious of their ability to give to others. It changed their level of awareness and made them pay more attention to themselves, those around them, and the world. As Kim, became more comfortable with true self, she also became more comfortable with giving from the envelope and giving of herself. Giving makes Kim listen to her inner champion. With each act of giving, she understands a little more about her true self and purpose.

Reading The Yellow Envelope reinforced my understanding of how intention and choosing a CWB acts as an invitation to expand awareness of how you are showing up for yourself, others, and the world. It helps to turn off autopilot or a default mindset and allows you to step out and witness a story from another perspective. It allows you to be an observer of your story and to see it in a different way. By shifting the way you are being in the world, profound changes can occur.

My Favorite passage:

"I'd upturned so many rocks, scavenged like the starving for the missing pieces of myself, just to learn that I'd held them all along." I love when Kim realizes that she had all of the pieces she needed all along and that her inner happiness didn’t come from running away, but instead from being honest with herself, identifying exactly what she wanted for her life, what her purpose is, and what she is willing to do to achieve it.