A woman for all seasons

When she retired as a television writer, Misty Taggart thought her life after Hollywood was over.

The Surprise resident felt depressed for months because she wasn’t around the hustle and bustle of Hollywood. She hired a life coach to help her “discover that life is seasons, so I have to move forward.”

“I found out that I had my whole life ahead of me,” she said.

Taggart decided to spread her newfound message to others by becoming life coach. The writer helps women in the area, across the country and even in Australia find out about the next stages of their lives.

“I want to help target their real goals and priorities,” she said.

Taggart talks with most of her clients using the phone and e-mail to help them understand their life isn’t over. She said too often, women reach a certain peak in their careers, then it’s time “to do something else.”

“They don’t realize they can move on, because there are other things in life you can achieve,” she said. “You just have to learn to be present in the moment.”

She had to learn it for herself.

“I spent five years miserable here because I was still living in Los Angeles, even though I have a home here,” she said.

For years, Taggart had the life many people dream of having. She wrote a number of scripts for television cartoons such as “The Smurfs,” “He-Man,” “She-Ra,” “The Jetsons,” “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” and “Scooby Doo.”

“Writing dialogue for a dog wasn’t easy, let me tell you,” she said with a laugh.

Her mentor was William Hanna, who with Joseph Barbera, created the pop culture icons “The Flintstones.” Taggart became one of the first women to work in animation in the 1960s and ’70s.

Her talents soon spread into live-action television, where she wrote for “Another World,” “Knots Landing” and “The Incredible Hulk.”

In the ’80s, she wrote two plays and met her husband during one of them. He works in production at Sony Pictures in Los Angeles, where they also have an apartment.

After two decades, Taggart retired from the business.

“Hollywood feels when you get old that you can’t write anymore,” she said.

She and her husband moved to Arizona, close enough for him to commute.

“I was so stuck in a rut when I moved out here, because I missed what I was doing,” she said.

Her life coach, however, helped her decide on her priorities and put her writing skills to use in other areas. She wrote a series of children books titled “The Angel Academy,” as well as a number of mystery novels.

Most importantly, she learned how to help other women realize their potential through life coach appointments and her Web site, www.ordinarywoman.com.

She teaches online classes with such topics as “I Was This Close to My Goal,” “Is Your Schedule Running You?” and “Regain Your Sanity, Come Back to the Party.”

“You can have an incredible and fulfilling life, you just have to want it,” she said.