Joy + Change your mind
In the last 12 hours I connected with two magnificent lady humans who each shared something I think you’ll find raw, resonant, and inspiring.
Joy
Last night I reconnected with a friend-client who took my boot camp classes when I operated Body Inspired Fitness in Santa Monica California.
This woman is a boss: whip-smart, creative, driven, grounded, kind, soulful.
This year her business made over 1 million dollars.
Here’s how she told me…
“This year I hit the 7 figure mark in the business.”
She wavvy shaked her hands. Rolled her eyes. Then shrugged. 🤷
Then quickly stared at my face on the screen and said…
“I’m grateful. Please don’t get me wrong!
That’s been my goal for years and I’m proud of what I did.
But, I, well, I don’t feel the joy.”
Regardless if you make over 7 figures a year, or $7 an hour, it’s brutal when you work your ass off to achieve a goal and when you get there - it feels blah.
I know this feeling well.
I worked my cute biscuits off, day and night, to build BIF into the largest outdoor fitness program in Santa Monica. I had a clear vision for what I was creating and a plan to make it happen.
I was working towards stats, numbers, data, and doing “the right thing”.
Yet, I had not done the deeper, tougher, more tender work of getting clear with who I wanted to be and what I wanted to FEEL when I “achieved” my goals.
Which is why I’m zero percent surprised that when I got “there” I wasn’t just blah, I was a f*cking mess.
I felt lost, lonely, like an imposter. A loser.
What asshole achieves that level of self-made success, at such a young age, and is unhappy? (This is what I told myself.)
Turns out age, stats and figures have nothing to do with it.
Changing your mind
This morning I woke to an iMessage from another superhuman lady-creature in the Pacific Northwest.
“I just closed my business because all signs were pointing to that it’s not in alignment with my vision for the future.”
Then she dropped me an audio saying:
“You are a big part of why I made this choice.
Through our calls, I’d kept thinking where am I living my truth?
Where am I aligned? Where can I rest? Where am I most my authentic self?”
This brave little 🦄 changed her mind because she slowed down and felt into the sensations of the situation. She gave herself permission to change her mind because it made sense in her heart and it felt aligned with her values.
When we make changes to our lives and our businesses based on our values, that is when we start to look around and notice our lives make sense again.
Joy doesn’t come from achievements. Joy comes from getting clear on how you want to feel and what means more to you than anything in this world.
If you could change your mind right now, and rearrange your life, what would your new world look like?
I will be by your side for the whole journey. Holding your hand as I hold up the mirror.
Because I know what it’s like to look around your life and think “this doesn’t feel right”, then pick it up and shake the living sh*t out it.
Some may think you’re crazy. You may think you’re crazy.
But we only get one shot at our one beautiful life.
I encourage you to stop. Actually stop the movement of your physical body.
Grab a journal and use this prompt to write for 11+ minutes: "20 years from today I will look back at this season, where I picked up my life, shook it hard enough so all the shit that didn't belong fell out, then redesigned it so it would look like this...
If you'd like to share your words, I'd love to read them.
♥ AP
P.S. Want to commit to a journal practice? Join us in our community journal program. We meet every Tuesday to journal together and inspire ourselves to stay committed to a daily journal practice.