A Wisdom Conversation with Dr. Jacquie Bowen
Most of us spend our lives looking ahead—to the next goal, the next responsibility, or the next season. But what if wisdom begins by giving our full attention to the moment we’re already living?
In this thoughtful conversation, Skip sits down with longtime optometrist, respected leader, wife, mother, and lifelong student of wisdom, Dr. Jacquie Bowen. Through stories of family, leadership, adversity, and personal reinvention, Jacquie reminds us that presence, grace, and faithful attention aren’t lofty ideals—they’re daily decisions.
She shares the deeply personal story of launching an optometry practice while navigating profound challenges as a young mother, reflects on decades of servant leadership, and offers practical wisdom for anyone stepping into a new season of life.
Why This Episode Matters
Whether you’re approaching retirement, changing careers, becoming an empty nester, caring for aging parents, or simply sensing that life is inviting you into a new season, this conversation offers steady companionship and practical wisdom. Jacquie reminds us that identities evolve without erasing who we’ve been, grace is often the wisest response, and the next chapter begins not someday—but in the ordinary choices we make today.
In This Conversation
- Why presence is a daily practice—not a personality trait
- Learning to release old identities without losing yourself
- Saying “yes” to opportunities that shape a meaningful life
- Extending grace to yourself and others during difficult seasons
- Habits that help us become more attentive, intentional, and fully present
More about Our Wise Guest – Dr. Jacquie Bowen
Jacquie Bowen is one of those rare people whose wisdom feels immediately livable. She calls Helena, MT her hometown but has been a Coloradan for well over 30 years. She is Doug’s wife of 36 years, Ryley and Jadyn’s mom, and “Grammy” to Phoebe and Daphne for a much shorter time.
As a practicing optometrist and Immediate Past President of the American Optometric Association, Dr. Bowen takes her professional role very seriously, and she’s enjoyed caring for her patients through many changes in health care. But she also takes her hobbies seriously as she anticipates and designs the “third third” of her life. She loves the ocean, history, singing, walking and traveling. A committed Christian, Jacquie looks forward to service and volunteerism outside her profession as well as prioritizing health and family.
She joined us from her home in Greeley, Colorado, about an hour north of Denver. Settle in for a 40-minute wisdom conversation that will make you feel just a bit more alive, more focused and perhaps even more hopeful.
Wisdom Resources
- Abide — Christian meditation and prayer app recommended by Jacquie
- American Optometric Association website
- Episode 142 featuring mutual friend Dr. Brad Lane
If this conversation encouraged you, consider sharing it with someone who’s navigating a new season of life. Wisdom grows when it’s shared.
Credits
Editor + Technical Advisor Bob Hotchkiss
Brand + Strategy Advisor Andy Malinoski
PR + Partnerships Advisor Rachel Bell
Marketing, Social Media and Graphic Design Chloe Lineberg
Brand Designer Emma Malinoski
Wisdom Episode Chapters
[0:00:00] – Welcome to the practice of living
[0:06:37] – When life doesn’t go according to plan
[0:15:57] – The life behind the person
[0:19:19] – Helping people see life
[0:24:05] – Jacquie reveals her main thing wisdom
[0:27:27] – The gift of an undistracted moment
[0:31:23] – Five seconds of presence
[0:32:36] – When one identity steps backstage
[0:35:15] – Just say yes
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Wisdom Episode Keywords
Wisdom, practical wisdom, living well, life transitions, next chapter, personal growth, intentional living, mindfulness, presence, identity, purpose, leadership, retirement, reinvention, resilience, grace, everyday wisdom, self-awareness, optometrist, American Optometric Association, Dr. Jacquie Bowen, podcast
Transcript of this Wisdom Conversation
Announcer
(0:00)
Wisdom. It’s an incredibly valuable asset. Some would say more precious than gold. It’s attractive, appealing, admirable. Conversely, a lack of wisdom is the basis of immaturity, blind spots, and bad decisions.
Wisdom. It can be gained over time, but it can’t be rushed. But wisdom can be shared. That’s precisely what we are here to do today. We are here to hack wisdom, to distill it, to understand it, and to process it.
Why? To get better at life.
Welcome to The Main Thing. This is your new wisdom podcast. I’m your host, Skip Lineberg, and I’ve set out to interview the wisest people I know.
We’ll see what we can learn from each one when they’re faced with an incredibly difficult, soul-piercing question.
Skip Lineberg
(0:58)
Before we begin, let me ask you a question.
When was the last time you paid attention to what you’re paying attention to?
Most of us move through our days convinced we’re seeing clearly. We manage our calendars, respond to messages, chase goals, and handle responsibilities. But what if the greatest threat to a meaningful life isn’t poor vision? It’s misplaced focus.
If you’ve ever wondered why it’s so easy to drift from what matters most, or how some people manage to stay grounded and purposeful despite the noise and distractions of modern life, I think you’ll find this conversation surprisingly relevant.
Welcome to The Main Thing Podcast. I’m your host, Skip Lineberg, coming to you today, as always, from Parkwood Studios.
Our mission here is simple: to help you get better at life by delivering practical wisdom from thoughtful people who’ve learned a thing or two along the way.
Today’s guest is Dr. Jacquie Bowen, and I know you’re going to really enjoy this conversation.
Dr. Bowen calls Helena, Montana, her hometown, though she’s proudly called Colorado home for more than 30 years. She’s the wife of Doug, a mom to two adult children, Ryley and Jadyn, and a proud grandmother to Phoebe and Daphne.
Professionally, Jacquie has enjoyed a distinguished career as a practicing optometrist, and she recently served as president of the American Optometric Association, one of the highest leadership positions in her profession.
Throughout decades of caring for patients, Jacquie has navigated enormous changes in health care while remaining committed to service, excellence, and helping people improve their quality of life.
Outside the office, she’s someone who takes life seriously but doesn’t take herself too seriously. She loves history, travel, long walks, and the ocean, with a special fondness for dolphins.
A committed Christian, Jacquie is also giving thoughtful attention to what she calls “the third third of life”—a season focused on purpose, health, family, service, and making a meaningful contribution beyond one’s career.
Over the next 30 minutes, settle in because you’ll hear wisdom that’s practical, relatable, and immediately applicable. You’ll also meet a leader whose humility, honesty, and generosity make her insights all the more powerful.
Here’s my wisdom conversation with Dr. Jacquie Bowen. Enjoy!
Skip
(3:20)
Dr. Jacquie Bowen, welcome to The Main Thing Podcast. It’s great to have you on this morning.
Jacquie Bowen
(3:29)
Thank you, Skip. I’m honored to be here, and I really mean that. As I’ve been reviewing your past guests, I have to say my little chronic impostor syndrome sort of crept in, wondering whether I might be one of the wise people worthy of being a guest on your show. So I really am looking forward to our chat.
Skip
(3:47)
Very kind—and very humble.
Speaking of prior guests, let’s talk about how you and I are connected, and that’s by way of a prior guest, Dr. Brad Lane. How do you and Brad know one another?
Jacquie Bowen
(3:58)
Brad and I are both optometrists, and we’re both heavily engaged in volunteerism for our profession. He is an officer of a large region of optometry organizations, and I am the president of our national association.
He and I have known each other for over ten years. We have a great many connections and commonalities as optometrists, but we’ve also found there are many things we agree on, enjoy talking about, and support each other through that extend well beyond our profession.
Skip
(4:30)
As we say here in West Virginia, he’s just good people.
Brad is a former guest who’s become a personal friend. We encourage each other in some of our creative pursuits, like journaling, publishing books, and that sort of thing.
He’s just a dear, dear friend and a great person.
Jacquie Bowen
(4:49)
I agree.
Skip
(4:52)
You’re an optometrist, and we’ll talk more about that in a moment. You help people see the outer world. Our study of wisdom often involves looking inward to arrive at insight. My thesis for today is that one can’t exist without the other.
I wanted to share that with you because I appreciate what you and Brad do. I wondered what thoughts came to mind as you hear my thesis this morning.
Jacquie Bowen
(5:22)
I love those thoughts.
My practice is called See Life Family Vision Center, spelled S-E-E Life.
We also have an ocean theme. In the middle of Colorado, that’s a pretty unique theme to have in your office. When you walk in, there are Adirondack chairs, a large saltwater aquarium, and beach décor throughout. So it’s certainly a double entendre.
Through those words—”See Life”—my staff, my colleagues, my partners, and I have always tried to remind ourselves that although what we’re doing every day is fairly repetitive, we’re not simply giving people clear vision or the best vision we can provide. We’re helping make possible the experiences they have every day.
Even for someone who doesn’t have perfect vision, what you do with your eyes and the neurological connection to your brain affects so much of what you process throughout the day. Vision involves both a literal optical standpoint and a perception standpoint. Those are great thoughts.
Skip
(6:37)
Jacquie, as you and I were getting acquainted for today’s podcast, you shared a really rich and enlightening story about the early years after opening your own optometry practice.
There was a great deal happening in your life during that season.
Would you tell that story?
Jacquie Bowen
(7:01)
I bought a practice shortly after finishing my residency in Denver.
I bought a practice in Greeley, about an hour north of Denver. It wasn’t necessarily a community we would have selected, but the opportunity presented itself.
We had some struggles. We had some blessings. But I became a practice owner.
As we established ourselves in the community, we decided to have children.
My first pregnancy was really quite good. I jokingly say I became a little pregnancy-arrogant because I was never sick.
I’m a tall woman, and I carried the pregnancy well.
Running and growing a business while networking in the community wasn’t a major challenge during my pregnancy.
So I naturally assumed everything would continue to go smoothly.
I was practicing by myself and didn’t have a partner at the time.
We had a plan.
I would stay home for a couple of weeks—and I mean a couple of weeks.
Then I’d bring the baby with me to the office. We’d have a crib, and I’d feed the baby at regular intervals.
We had it all figured out.
Toward the end of my pregnancy, though, we discovered the baby was breech.
Head up. Feet down. That’s not the way it’s supposed to be.
We discussed some options but ultimately decided on a C-section.
That really kind of rocked my world.
I thought, “Wait a minute. Everything has gone so perfectly. Why is this happening?”
I got pretty upset, talked with friends who’d been through the same thing, and eventually reached a place of grace where I thought, “Okay. This is no big deal.”
Abby was born.
She had a little breathing trouble, and they whisked her off to the nursery.
Jacquie Bowen
(8:44)
She had a little breathing trouble, and they whisked her off to the nursery.
A couple of hours later, when I saw her next, she was in an ambulance transport unit because it had been discovered that she had a pretty significant heart defect.
The aorta—the major blood vessel coming off the top of the heart—was constricted. She was in a situation where we couldn’t care for her at Greeley Hospital, so they had to transport her to Children’s Hospital in Denver.
You know, that was next-level devastating.
We prayed for her constantly. She was in good hands, but it was a couple of days before I was able to get down to Denver. My husband went down there.
Skip
(9:27)
Recovering from a C-section, which is no small thing.
Jacquie Bowen
(9:31)
My mom, who lived in Montana, came right away, much sooner than she had anticipated.
When we got down to Denver, we learned that Abby would have to have heart surgery.
She was three days old when they opened her up and went in to make the repair.
I remember thinking, “Oh my gosh. A breech baby—that was no big deal. A little breathing trouble—no big deal. My child has to have heart surgery.”
I thought, “This is as bad as it gets. I can’t believe this is happening to us.”
It was a frightening situation.
The surgery went well, but over the next couple of weeks she struggled with feeding. Her recovery was slow, and her surgical wound healed slowly.
Before surgery, they had drawn blood for genetic testing. Back then, it took a couple of weeks to receive those results.
When Abby was two weeks old, they brought us into one of those small private family conference rooms and told us she had a condition called trisomy 13.
Each parent contributes one chromosome in each numbered pair, one through twenty-three. Abby received two chromosome 13s from me and one from her dad. That’s why it’s called trisomy 13.
Skip
(10:59)
Okay.
Jacquie Bowen
(11:00)
There is a tremendous amount of genetic information on chromosome 13, so there were many things wrong.
The doctors told us the condition was not compatible with a long life.
They also said that, had they known beforehand, they would not have put her through the heart surgery. But she didn’t display many of the outward physical characteristics they normally look for.
Life changed at that point.
We were suddenly living day to day, not knowing how long she would live, while also receiving extensive medical training and making difficult medical decisions.
Skip
(11:36)
Here you are: new parents, your first child, and a brand-new optometry practice.
Wow.
You were fighting a battle on so many fronts.
Jacquie Bowen
(11:45)
Right.
She lived for twenty months and eleven days.
She became a hospice patient fairly early on, so we had that support. Doug and I were well connected in our church and our community, so we had a tremendous amount of support.
People would often ask, “How do you do this? How can you handle this?”
When you’re living through it, you simply do.
Looking back now, though, I’ve asked myself that same question.
How did you do that?
It’s a lot of supernatural intervention.
The abilities you discover you have during a crisis are astounding.
Skip
(12:25)
I’m so sorry for your loss, and God rest her soul.
Do you feel like you grew from that experience? Do you think you developed a new appreciation for your own resilience?
Jacquie Bowen
(12:39)
I had no choice but to figure out how to be resilient if I wanted to be successful in my business and move forward into whatever life would look like after Abby.
It really became a season of coping. When you’re living in a coping season—and I know you have some experience with that—you have to learn how to stay in the moment and recognize when you’ve reached your capacity.
We had to figure some things out.
I worked three days a week. My husband worked three different days each week. Whoever had to work the next morning slept against the wall, and whoever was on duty with Abby through the night slept on the outside of the bed so they could get up more easily. Little practical things like that made a difference.
Because of her medical condition, she was on oxygen, had a feeding tube, and took multiple medications. You couldn’t just ask the fifteen-year-old down the street to babysit. Hospice was an absolute godsend because it gave us some respite care. The longest Abby ever slept during those twenty months was forty minutes.
So, as you can imagine, we both lived in a state of chronic exhaustion. It was all you could do to focus on Abby when you were with her, focus on work when you were at work, and then simply handle whatever else needed your attention in that moment.
Interestingly enough, I’ve drawn on that resilience many times since then, but I’ve also forgotten that I learned it. You think, “Wow… after going through something like that, you ought to be a rock star when it comes to resilience.”
But it’s discouraging how many times later in life you think, “Wait a minute. This isn’t anywhere near as difficult as what we went through back then. What’s wrong with me? Why can’t I seem to hold onto those lessons?”
Skip
(14:48)
Jacquie, I wonder if you could offer one recommendation. About a thousand people will eventually listen to this conversation. One or two of them are probably walking through a situation very much like the one you’ve described. What encouragement or advice would you offer them?
Jacquie Bowen
(15:01)
In very, very dark moments, people will say all kinds of things because they genuinely want to help. The truth is, they often have no idea what the right thing is to say. Honestly, you don’t know what the right thing is to hear, either. But I would encourage you to extend grace to those who are trying to help.
It’s pretty easy to get angry or indignant if somebody isn’t responding to your situation or says something like, “You’ll get through this,” or, “God won’t give you any more than you can handle.”
Lots of times people say things that are not only not helpful, but frankly irritating.
Recognize that they’re trying.
You know? At least they’re engaging with you.
It’s worse if you don’t hear from anybody. It’s worse to do this in a vacuum.
Try to be thankful for the efforts that people are making, and be brave enough to say, “Here’s what I do need,” if you can identify it.
Skip
(15:57)
We talked about your practice, your optometry practice, your eye care practice there in Greeley, which you’ve run successfully for a number of years. But the word “practice”—I also, in getting to know you, know that you have a really strong practice of self-care and spiritual care. Would you share a little bit about what your practice looks like?
Jacquie Bowen
(16:17)
Well, I’ll start by saying that it’s constantly evolving. A little bit, because there are so many things we should be doing. Right?
But I’ve come to realize what I can and can’t do, particularly early in the morning. I am not the person who can get up at four in the morning, in the dark, in the cold—or even in the warm—and exercise. I prefer to do that later in the day. So, long ago—I identified that, and I am a slow starter in the morning. I will get up early enough so that I can start slowly.
So it starts with coffee. I wake up most mornings with a headache, truly, which is mostly neck- and shoulder-pain related and stems from a whiplash injury from an ice-skating fall over twenty years ago. I know I’m a little bit of a caffeine addict. That’s part of my headache too. And, you know, I diagnose headaches for a living. I think a lot about these headaches.
So one thing I will ask your listeners: if you’ve got a great pillow for a side/back sleeper, please let me know, because I’ve spent so much time and money trying to find it.
Anyway, I started using an app during COVID, so about six years ago. I recognized that spirituality is very important to me. I’m a Christian. I want to start my mornings with Jesus. And with the incredible busyness and fullness of my life, it’s self-defeating for me to think I’m going to sit down and do a pretty intense intellectual Bible study. So at this point in my life, I use an app. It’s called Abide, and it’s a guided meditation app that lets you choose anywhere from two to fifteen minutes.
It does encourage breathing. Here in Colorado, we’ve got to take in as much oxygen as we can, so there’s some breathing.
There’s some neck and shoulder stretching and making that effort to try to focus on what the app is guiding me through. There’s usually one Bible verse that is repeated in many translations.
Skip
(18:29)
Reflect on it.
Jacquie Bowen
(18:30)
Yeah.
It has several different voices that are used. Some I like, some I don’t.
But it’s an exercise not only in the obvious—what the app is trying to help me do—but also in trying to maintain focus and not be distracted by the tone of a voice or whatever else is going on. The other part of that hack is that I have to do it first. Before my brain goes off on a tangent, I really have to concentrate on doing that.
Skip
(19:04)
I love that. I’ll put a link to that in the show notes for listeners who might want to check out the Abide app. Thank you for sharing a bit about your self-care practice.
Slow mornings. Start the day slow.
Jacquie Bowen
(19:14)
It’s what’s working for me now.
Skip
(19:19)
Jacquie, I do want to ask you about your profession, your practice of optometry, and being in the care and service of others—helping to heal others, helping to optimize their health.
Tell us just what you love about what you do and maybe how that has changed over the years.
Jacquie Bowen
(19:38)
Optometry is a unique health care profession in that we evolved from horology, which is the study of time and timekeeping.
Skip
(19:48)
Oh my gosh.
Jacquie Bowen
(19:49)
Because watchmakers were the first to grind a lens to make it clear and to magnify the surface of the watch.
So optics—the art of making lenses—was born out of jewelry, basically.
We did not evolve as a health care profession.
Skip
(20:08)
That’s fascinating.
Jacquie Bowen
(20:09)
Yeah.
Just a trade.
It was, you know, we’re the ones who determine the refraction, grind the lens accordingly, and put it in a pair of glasses.
It’s very mechanical.
But in the seventies and eighties, we recognized that an eye exam is something many people will do when they won’t go to other kinds of doctors.
So often, we are the only touchpoint for health care.
As our abilities improved and technology improved so that we could see deeper and more detail in the eye—first through magnification, then through photography, and now through all kinds of imaging technology, even augmenting those images using AI—it’s really fascinating how much information you can learn about the health of a person by looking at the eye.
The eye is the window to the soul, but in some ways, it’s also the window to the body.
It’s the only place we can look at blood vessels and nerve tissue without peeling your skin back or sticking a scope inside you.
For example, diabetes is a blood disease. We look at the blood vessels directly all day, every day.
Endocrinologists depend on us to report back and say, “Here’s what’s going on in the eye. That probably means something similar is happening in the brain and kidneys too.”
So all that to say, what I’ve appreciated as I’ve seen it evolve over three-plus decades is that eye care is truly part of health care management and preventative care.
I’m very interested in neurology.
I do a lot of reading about how the eyes and the brain work. I kind of alluded to that earlier.
There is so much about the things we perceive all day, every day that is impacted by your vision and by this organ that is technically part of the brain.
The retina is very similar to brain tissue.
Skip
(22:07)
Wow.
Jacquie Bowen
(22:08)
As we’re looking at cognitive decline and neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, Lewy body disease—
Skip
(22:16)
Mm-hmm.
Jacquie Bowen
(22:18)
—along with glaucoma and macular degeneration, all of those systems are part of the same metabolism and process that we can observe in the retina.
So I’m very excited about those next steps for our profession as we become even further enmeshed in the overall health care team.
I’m probably not going to be the one who says, “Hey, Skip. You’ve got Alzheimer’s disease.”
But I really hope that in the near future I’m the one who says, “Hey, based on what I’m seeing in your retina, I think a baseline exam with a neurologist is a good idea.”
If we can help people get access to care and discover these diseases much earlier than we do now, I think that’s just a win-win.
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(23:03)
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(24:05) – Skip
Doctor Jacquie Bowen, what’s the main thing you’ve learned in your lifetime so far?
Jacquie Bowen
(24:10)
Skip, the main thing I’ve learned in my lifetime so far is to do what you’re doing while you’re doing it.
Skip
(24:19)
Do what you’re doing while you’re doing it.
I love that.
My mind is going in about ten different places.
I’d love it if you would just kind of lead us through and unpack that.
I know there are layers of meaning and nuance packaged into that simple sentence.
Jacquie Bowen
(24:35)
Sure.
Skip
(24:36)
Yep.
Jacquie Bowen
(24:38)
It could be phrased much more eloquently and intelligently. I realize those are very basic words.
But as we’ve talked about earlier, there have been times in my life where all I can eke out is a very basic mantra.
Yeah.
When you and I first started talking, I didn’t have to think about my main thing.
As a Christian, I’ve really appreciated the main things that some of your previous guests have said. And as a woman, I’ve appreciated it. As a professional, I’ve appreciated them.
And for me, this one main thing has truly been with me for a long, long time.
It is more than just focus.
Some might say, “Well, that’s just a way of saying, ‘Focus on what you’re doing.'”
What you’re doing at the time may not require focus.
Sometimes the things that I need to do right now require me to defocus and blur the scene a little bit for healing and recovery or just to pay better attention to what I’m engaging in.
So I spoke about being in a phase of coping.
If I was at work and I was thinking about my daughter at home with a hospice worker or whatever, I was not an effective optometrist. I was not listening to my patient.
I was thinking about, “When do I get out of here? Have they given her her medications?”
Likewise, when I was at home with her, it was too overwhelming to think about what might be happening to my struggling business while I’m sitting here at home.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
I learned that I don’t have the capacity to do anything more than what I’m doing right now effectively.
And if I do, that’s going to send me over the edge.
I’m very distractible.
I probably have some undiagnosed attention-disorder-ish thing going on.
But multitasking is so encouraged.
We brag about our ability to multitask, and we kind of proudly say, “I can’t just do one thing at a time.”
If I’m sitting at a restaurant by myself and you look around, very few people sit at a restaurant by themselves without their phone.
The phone is a distraction.
Other thoughts are a distraction.
And I have recognized, as I’m aging, that I’m not as good.
I can’t drive and do as many things as I was able to do and still feel safe as a driver.
So all the way from deep thought to driving to work—
Mm-hmm.
—I have to frequently tell myself, “Tune in to what I’m doing right now.”
Skip
(27:25)
Do what you’re doing while you’re doing it.
Jacquie Bowen
(27:27)
Last weekend, I have a year-and-a-half-old granddaughter, and she became a big sister a week ago today.
Phoebe is my granddaughter—
Skip
(27:38)
Mm-hmm.
Jacquie Bowen
(27:38)
—who is a year and a half old.
Daphne is the one who’s one week old.
So my duty, when Mama went into labor, was that I was in charge of Phoebe—my husband and I—but he had to go out of town, out of state, for a family funeral.
So we were pretty spread out in different directions.
He was gone.
I had Phoebe.
We went to the hospital and visited the baby, had a lovely day playing, and she stayed with me that night at my house.
She woke up throwing up in the middle of the night.
Toddlers don’t think to run to the bathroom. They just throw up wherever, on whatever.
The pediatrician would not allow her to go home when they took the baby home.
So I had Phoebe for three days straight.
Her fever was 103½ a lot of the time.
She was tired.
She was very snuggly.
Anyone who has had children secretly knows we like it when they’re sick because they’re so calm and affectionate.
But anyway, I had three days quarantined, just the two of us in our house.
She fell asleep a lot, and she just needed comforting.
So we’d be sitting there, and she would just be on my shoulder, and she’d fall asleep.
Yeah.
And I wanted her to stay asleep.
Guess what you can do while you have a sleeping toddler in your arms?
Nothing.
Not much.
Sitting there thinking, “Well, my phone’s over there. The TV remote control is over there.”
And I just had to do what I was doing right then.
My job was to sit there in that chair for over an hour and hold her and sing to her and shift her and rock her and then try to give her an ice chip.
It was so rudimentary.
I was caring for a toddler for three days.
That was an example of the most important thing for me to do right now: sit here with no technology, no music playing, just with Phoebe.
The phone has become such a huge distractor in our life.
That little dopamine hit that we get when somebody likes something we’ve posted—or even the dopamine hit we get when our push notifications tell us we have an email or a text message—that sort of thing…
Truly neurologically addictive.
It also has opened up so much more opportunity.
We never used to think about the things that we think about now. We didn’t think about what was going on in other countries or even other states. Or worry about our high school friends’ daily experiences at this age.
So it has really cluttered up your brain.
I have always used—and I have trouble falling asleep because of my rapidly moving brain—but the imagery I fall back on is the old-school TV screen when it went to that snow pattern—
Skip
(30:48)
Yeah.
Jacquie Bowen
(30:49)
—you know, when you had the rabbit-ear antenna and you couldn’t get a picture and there was snow all over the TV screen.
Yeah.
It was just what we call white noise now.
But I imagine that.
I visualize that in my head, and any distraction is a little character marching in from the edge of the screen.
I have to visually push that character out of the screen.
There are so many bombardments from the edges.
It is a lot of visualization and keeping that away.
Skip
(31:23)
The listener says, “You know what Jacquie said is really lighting up for me. I just realized that this is something I need to be more mindful of. I need to do what I’m doing while I’m doing it.”
What might be an action step they could take today or tomorrow to start down that path?
Jacquie Bowen
(31:42)
A small increment of time to focus on something.
If you are a prayer, if you are a meditator, if you are planning a trip, if you have a job to do, make yourself focus on it for five seconds.
Because, truly, in that short amount of time, my brain will go in another direction.
As we’re sitting here talking, you’ve probably had a million different thoughts about your day or tomorrow or what’s going on elsewhere in the house.
Rather than chastising yourself for losing focus, say, “I’m going to sit and focus on this for thirty seconds.”
If that’s too long and you’ve lost it, don’t beat yourself up.
It gives you another opportunity to refresh.
Skip
(32:36)
So, Jacquie, you’re ending your presidency of AOA, and you and I are both in the final chapters of our current career. How are you planning for that transition? What is that looking and feeling like in your heart and in your mind?
Jacquie Bowen
(32:49)
I’m having a million conversations with myself and with other people about it, I’ll tell you first of all. My family has loosely engaged in a New Year’s tradition of picking a word for the year. My word for this year was release.
Skip
(33:05)
Oh my gosh.
Jacquie Bowen
(33:08)
I really value my identity, not only as an optometrist, but as a leader in the community, certainly as a leader in the AOA.
You know, it’s important for me to come off this way or that way.
But releasing some of those identities and recognizing that that was a great accomplishment, an important phase of my life, but the next phase is gonna include some different identities.
I don’t have to ditch those or lose them, but they’re gonna step backstage a little bit more.
And what is gonna emerge as on stage?
So frequently, I get asked, “When are you gonna retire?” Or, “Who do I need to see next?”
Yeah.
Now, I don’t engage all of those people in these conversations, but it’s interesting to me, you know, when I do have time to talk about it, what different things come out of my mouth.
It’s different from day to day.
Some days, it’s like, “I don’t wanna talk about macular degeneration and dry eye one more time ever in my life after the end of this year.”
And other times, it’s like, “I am scared of being bored. I am confident in my expertise as an eye doctor. If I don’t get to do that, I’m gonna go crazy.”
You know?
So right now, there’s just a whole lot of swings.
I like art. I’m a singer, and my husband is too.
And so there’s been that opportunity to sing over the years.
But I kind of like to explore some other things.
These two little granddaughters are, that’s opportunity.
I don’t intend to be their daycare, but I intend to be fun and take opportunities.
You know, in life, usually in the first part of your life, you have time, and in the second part, you don’t have any time, but you might have some more money.
And so I’m looking forward to a time when I have time and money to do some things, travel, you know, that I didn’t have to do.
So, you know, it’s not without fear too because I’m turning 60 this year.
So it’s just a big year of finality.
Skip
(35:15)
Jacquie, this has been just dynamite.
It’s just been a fabulous wisdom conversation.
What would be your parting thought for our audience?
Jacquie Bowen
(35:25)
When we first started talking, I mentioned this impostor syndrome, which I think a lot of professionals, a lot of leaders, especially a lot of women leaders, struggle with on a regular basis.
I never would have dreamed if you had asked me at age 25 what life would look like now, or what I hope it will look like.
I would have listed most of the things that I’ve got going on right now.
But I could not be at this place had I not said yes when asked to step out of my comfort zone.
AOA presidency, it’s a big deal in our profession.
I am the hundred and fifth AOA president, but I’m the fourth female.
There have been four Coloradans who’ve been AOA president.
So it’s not something that a lot of people get to do, and I’m deeply appreciative of the opportunity to do this.
But it came by, you know, when someone says to you, “Will you serve on this committee?” or, “Will you call this legislator?” “Will you write a check to this campaign contribution?” You know? “Will you volunteer at this health fair?”
And you never wanna do that.
You’re never gonna have the time and the money to serve in that way.
Do it anyway.
Just say yes.
And that reward—you know, we talk about community service. That makes you feel good that you’re serving others, but honestly, the networking opportunities and the experiences that you’re gonna get to have are so far beyond anything you have sacrificed to say yes to that.
Skip
(37:05)
Couldn’t agree more.
That’s a great place to leave it, Jacquie.
Thank you so much for your time, for sharing your wisdom, your beautiful stories.
It’s just been a real pleasure.
So long for now.
Jacquie Bowen
(37:16)
So long for now, Skip.
Skip
(37:19)
Hey, it’s Skip here, and I wanted to hop back on for just a moment to share a final reflection or two with you about my wisdom conversation with Dr. Jacquie Bowen.
There was something about this conversation that stayed with me, and the more I thought about it afterward, the more I realized it wasn’t any one particular story or insight she shared.
It was how she showed up.
Here in Jacquie is someone who has had a successful career. She’s a business owner, highly educated. She has raised a family, and she’s the president of her professional organization. She’s at the highest level of leadership and has earned the respect of her colleagues across the country.
And yet, if you listen closely, there wasn’t an ounce of self-importance in Jacquie Bowen.
Instead, there was genuine humility, honesty, and generosity of spirit.
There was a willingness to openly acknowledge her limitations, her fears, her doubts, her uncertainty, her challenges.
I just love that.
Interestingly, those things didn’t diminish her credibility at all. They strengthened it.
The people we trust most, you see, are rarely the ones who pretend to have all the answers, the ones who pretend to have everything figured out in their life together.
No, the ones we trust the most are the ones who are secure enough to open up and tell the truth about themselves.
We live in a culture that often confuses expertise with authority.
The more someone knows, the more we expect them to speak from a pedestal.
“I’m up here. You’re down here.”
But Jacquie reminded us of a different model.
Real expertise doesn’t create distance.
It creates understanding, and it reduces that distance.
That’s why her main thing resonated so very deeply with me.
It wasn’t because it was complicated, but instead because it was beautifully simple.
Do what you’re doing while you’re doing it.
It’s about being fully present with the person across from you, fully present with the work right in front of you, and fully present with the life you’re actually living today instead of the one you’re worrying about next.
Maybe that’s why Jacquie, with her humility, honesty, and generosity, felt so refreshing.
(39:29) – Announcer
That goes by incredibly fast, doesn’t it? Time flies when you’re hacking wisdom. Thank you for listening to this wisdom conversation.
Let’s give a big hearty thank you to the crew of The Main Thing Podcast. These are the folks who truly keep the wisdom pipeline flowing:
- Audio engineer, Bob Hotchkiss.
- Strategy adviser, Andy Malinoski.
- Public relations and partnership guru, Rachel Bell.
- Social media and digital marketing expert, Chloe Lineberg.
- Graphic designer, Emma Malinoski.
And, of course, our patrons. Those generous folks who provide monthly funding support to help underwrite our cost of production. I couldn’t do it without you, nor would I want to.
Your feedback matters a lot. If you have a question, a suggestion, maybe an idea, or even a nomination of a future show guest, I’d love to hear from you.
Email me at info@themainthingpodcast.com.
Well, that’s a wrap for this show. I’m your host, Skip Lineberg, signing off for now and inviting you to join us again next time for another special delivery of wisdom.
