The World Needs You Right Now!

Aloha !
 

What got you through your first half of your life, won't get you through your second...

That's a quote I heard in the book I've started listening to, Present Over Perfect: Leaving Behind Frantic for a Simpler, More Soulful Way of Living, by Shauna Niequest.

It's #109 in Amazon Books right now, with a forward from Brene Brown. 

So, there's obviously a hunger for precisely what she's talking about, this need for less rather than more.

And, it's the way that I'm moving forward with my business and my own life.... 

Discovering this quote, originally stated by American Friar Richard Rohr, "The skills that take you for the first half of your life are entirely unhelpful for the second" also invites a questioning, as Niequest muses, of whether those skills you learned in the first half did indeed serve you, or whether you were simply fumbling around to figure yourself out, and now you have an opportunity to get real like never before.

I've been having this feeling as of late, this utter need to redefine myself, because so much has happened in the latter half of my third decade on this planet, that I need this.

Perhaps it's also why I've been addicted to books about mental health lately, as I'm trying to figure out how to express what I went through during my postpartum depression.

As a writer, I find it a bit ungrounded not to have the words to really wrap my understanding around what I went through...

That's probably why I was also drawn to the book by ESPNw commentator, Kate Fagan, that I recently finished during my  trip to Cali: What Made Maddy Run: The Secret Struggles and Tragic Death of an All-American Teen.

The story details the suicide of a 19 year-old track athlete at Penn, and the rising and crushing consequences of living our lives on social media, like Instagram, as though we were a brand needing to cultivate a beautiful magazine over genuine connection.

The book came about after Fagan published an article in ESPNw, that became the most viewed article on the site, which was then made into a short video, that became the MOST WATCHED video EVER on ESPN.com. 

That's right, ESPN.com.

So again, there's a hunger there. 

A need to figure out what's happening to us, and how to be truly healthy in a world that's asking us to go faster, to go harder, to grow bigger, when perhaps, what some of us really want is to have those heartfelt conversations over wine with good friends, wishing the night would never end.

We NEED authenticity. More, than ever before. The problem is, so few of us are getting it.

Fagan expresses the fact that we have NO IDEA what impact social media is having on our psyche for the long-term. That already, we're all exhibiting signs of this crisis of consciousness, of feeling like we need to show up superficially to be accepted and comparing our inner lives to someone else's highlight reel on social media, that we're all falling into greater states of depression, anxiety, and possibly even hopelessness.

I'm passionate about all of this — being healthy mentally. Removing the shame from asking for help. 

Being authentic in a way where you're empowered to thrive, and knowing how to straddle that line between being open versus oversharing or worse, expecting someone else to fix your problems.

You've likely seen so many ads for coaches who are having five figure launches, who make success look so easy... 

But the truth is, and let me say it again, THE TRUTH IS, success takes commitment. 

It takes hard work. 

It takes moxie and a willingness to show up in a bigger way than you believe capable of.

And, it requires such REAL BRAVERY, because maybe you need to stand up and say, "Hey Society, your definition of success doesn't work for me. Success for me is living up in the mountains with a fresh cup of coffee and my children running naked through the meadows."

If you need encouragement with learning how to be more authentic, in your life, or in your business, just hit reply. This is my jam. It lights me UP to see you tap into your heroine's journey and your unique story.

Being authentic is the only way that you'll truly connect with others in a way that is meaningful and uplifting. 

It's the only way you can differentiate yourself in the online world or in anything you do, because there is only and ever will be, one of you

Go, be you.

Please, be you.

The world NEEDS YOU RIGHT NOW.

More than ever before.

Here's to being wild and free,

Judy