It's not perfect, this journey.Â
There are moments worthy of puffy eyes, release, pain, struggle, triumph, challenge, championship, figuring it out, and all the above combined into the span of 90 seconds sometimes.
But it is in those moments of crashing, burning, finding, releasing, allowing that allows for all the pieces to come together.Â
Breathe.Â
Keep going.
You got this, puffy eyes or not.Â
You don’t have to put it out in the world - but perfect doesn’t sell and it PAYS to be human.
As Captain Marvel shows us, the benefit of being human is that we have forged an unshakable resilience to get back up again...
And again...
And again...
And again...
And every time we stand up, FOR ourselves, FOR something greater than use, FOR love, FOR more...
You strengthen the resilience within us, which, when forged, exercised in the throws of "too much," stress, overwhelm, pain, struggle, choice, choosing, and redeciding, recommitting to that vision.Â
You see more of who you are beco...
“Once I get my degree, then I’ll start my Youtube channel and posting more on social media.”
Ah, the great If/Then Syndrome, oh I was ready to tackle this one with my Revolutionary Empire Builder head-on.
“I’m curious, how have you been able to get your degree?”
“Well...I studied and practiced.”
Putting content out there on the interwebs is the same thing - it too is a muscle the needs to be strengthened, toned, worked on.
All social media profiles were flabby, small, and weak at one point too.
Those that have grown have grown because the leader chose to strengthen them.”
All the things you want to create in this world take disciplined work.
Notice I didn’t say HARD.
I said DISCIPLINED.
It is a practice, like going to the gym.Â
And when you’re at the gym, as you go, more and more and more, it starts getting easier and easier.
But, the first practice yo...
Ever have that one thing that keeps recurring in your life every time you feel like you’re leveling up?Â
For me, it’s around rejection. I have had to do a lot of healing around people leaving.
I’d reject parts of me - the silly, the weird, the dramatic, the ultra-girly, the ballerina - or parts that I thought would allow me to fit in, only to be rejected.Â
I thought I was the weird kid growing up - that it was something I did.
But really, I was just mirroring my own rejection of myself in others.Â
Rejecting the shame of trying to fit in, when really, I’ve always known I was different.Â
Rejecting the guilt for not trusting that I was enough.
People are our mirrors.Â
When you try to hide from people, burying yourself in processes, or work or studies, or other stuff that it’s easy to hide insi...
I know pretty much nothing about art. Other than a half a semester of art history in high school, where basically my only takeaway was understanding the difference between Baroque and Rococo because of that joke Cogsworth makes in Beauty and the Beast, I am pretty much lost in the art world.Â
I love impressionists - yeah, all the stuff you don’t need contacts for and requires a hint of imagination and feeling, that’s my jam.
There’s a vibe you get when you stand a foot away from one, where you feel the passion in the brushstrokes. You can sense the feeling in the globs of color, and swipes of the brush.Â
Back in the Impressionist Era, there were a lot of people doing blurry paintings with pretty colors.
Van Gogh.
Monet.Â
Manet.Â
Degas.
It got me wondering…
How many impressionists thought their market was oversaturated?
How many painters didn’t believe in their art because someone else was “already doing it?”
Markets can easily fee...
“Why did you want to become an entrepreneur?” I asked.Â
“Freedom,” my client said to me.Â
I’ve been working with high-achieving entrepreneurs and creators for four years now, and there is one reason, bar none, why someone is crazy enough to venture into the world of entrepreneurship, to create a business and life on their terms.
FREEDOM.
Freedom financially.
Freedom to travel the world.
Freedom to have a business that supports that.
Then why is it that so many entrepreneurs box themselves into the very cages they looked to escape from?
They brag about barely sleeping.
They wear busyness like it’s a badge of honor.
Is that freedom?
To work away 10 hours a day behind your computer, suffering at doing all the things, and yet barely making traction?
To miss out on time with your kids so you c...
I was watching a documentary on Freud as I had my lunch. It was a day when Decky was in Pre-K and Spike was at the gym, so I could watch what others would call in my house “boring docuseries” or things that aren’t really appropriate for a three-year-old.Â
Freud’s influence on modern culture is undeniable - from how we think about sex to how we think about ourselves.Â
And while I’m more of a Jungian gal myself, when you think of psychoanalysis, it’s Freud who culturally first comes to mind.Â
But, on the show, it was hypothesized Freud’s work was in part the catalyst to spark our current culture of narcissism filled with selfies, look-at-me-posting, and pictures of lunches.Â
As someone who uses selfies in much of my work and my business, and who shares regularly, openly about my life...
It got me thinking...
What makes a personal brand (aka a business) different than a narcissist?
And suddenly, it became very clear.Â
Again, as always, it comes down ...
I used to hide from the parts of myself I hated - the hypocrite, the negative, the jealous bitch, the victim, the whiny brat.Â
Typically, I’m a pretty positive person.Â
And usually, there is a thought - just one on repeat that’s like “It’s a small world,” where now you can’t get it out of your head, can you?
And it’s there. And it sucks.
Problem is…
Ignoring it.
Trying to “think positive” your way out of it.
Yeah, that doesn’t work.Â
Having coached high-achieving personal development junkies for the past four years, I’ve seen this fear. It’s practically a version of having any feelings that don’t match the “high positive vibes” we typically live in day to today.Â
Because what happens when you, for a moment, get stabbed with your own kryptonite? You feel the inner pangs of your own fear, doubt, frustration, shame...
I took a french fry from Declan’s plate. He looked at me with a combination of determination and fear, “No mama. That’s my fry.”
I smiled. He’s been going through this “my” phase. He thinks me sharing with him is him sharing with me.Â
Is three the age that the ego comes into play?
Anyway...
I looked at him and smiled, waving the fry in the air, “We can always get more,” I said as I bit into the crispy warm exterior and felt the soothing steam of potato.
Maybe that french fry was magical?
Maybe it was in my delivery?
But something clicked.Â
Decky smiled, “We can always get more,” he said, practically throwing the line away, claiming it as his own.
Now anytime he shares with me, or I share with him, he says…
It got me thinking -Â
Is a scarcity mindset born or bred?
Or both.Â
Scientists studied three generations of mice. In the first generation, the mouse would go through a maze, and at one point inside the maze, the mouse would receive an electrica...
Are you completely shoe-obsessed like me? The moment I go into a shoe store, especially a fancy-schmancy one, gives me a rush, kind of like, I’ve arrived. A new pair of well-made, usually designer shoes, feel like a possibility.
Dolce, Manolo, Choo, Ferragamo - they call me. Give me sweet Italian leather every day of the week (sorry, vegans), wrapping around my feet, binding me to possible
Your shoes are a part of that.Â
I used to judge guys I was interested in, by the shoes they wore. I would like to say that I’m not proud of that - but actually, I’m not.
Were they falling apart? Did they have holes in them? We’re the laces frayed? Did they look polished and well-kept, or thrown around carelessly?
You can learn a lot about a person by looking at their feet.Â
This strategy served me well to weed out
...I’m going to level with you here…
Ownership sometimes sucks.
It’s no fun to be wrong.
To make a mistake.
To f*up.
To fight fires...that YOU created.Â
And I do it...daily.Â
But…
You've gotta OWN IT.
Growth requires challenge, stress, and pushing past your perception of what is possible.
Sometimes that means that you won’t know what it means to go too far or to do too much until you’ve done it.
Because you’re heading into the unknown and that means you won’t know something until you know it, you know?
Just like with the body, sometimes you don’t know how sore you’re going to be in the middle of working out...but tomorrow or the next day, boy! Do you know.Â
You feel the soreness from having pushed beyond your edge.Â
Maybe that means you hold off on going back to the gym for a couple of days because your hamstrings are just shredded.Â
Or maybe it just means you do a really light gentle stretch workout the next day.Â
Or maybe you just get a massage...well, if you’re in the G...
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