Every so often I find it relaxing to watch the Food Network. I’m currently fascinated with the Barefoot Contessa, a show featuring Ina Garten cooking in her kitchen in The Hamptons. There’s something about her that lulls me, perhaps a combination of her mellow attitude and soothing voice. And I love how we occasionally see her even more mellow husband, Jeffrey.

So during the holidays the subject of Ina came up and someone mentioned that she used to have some brainiac job. I’m thinking, huh? Ina? And as I watched her today I decided to check it out on the Food Network website.

Lo and behold, in 1978 Ina was working in the White House on nuclear energy policy and found herself thinking there must be more to life. She had never been to The Hamptons, but saw there was a food store for sale there. She and her husband bought the Barefoot Contessa, grew it, sold it and have settled in nicely in The Hamptons, to say the least. Jeffrey, by the way, is Dean of the Yale School of Management.

The life coach in me adores this story. Change is possible. Change is invigorating. Change rocks.

So you went to school to become XYZ. Does that mean you have to do it for the rest of your life? So you work among the high-powered set. Does that mean you can’t take it down five notches? So you’re used to a certain lifestyle. Does that mean there is no alternative? No, no and no.

Ina has a TV show, briskly selling books, and has contributed to Martha Stewart’s and Oprah’s magazines. And she lives in the freakin’ Hamptons.

So fascinating.