Are you someone who wants a full and fulfilling life, but sometimes you can’t get out of your own way?
In this week’s Spark Your Life podcast, I share three powerful learnings from a conference I attended last weekend with real strategies that work to live your best life.
Are you ready to look to the future with excitement and wonder?
Let’s dive in.
THE YELLOW CO CONFERENCE FOR ENTREPRENEURIAL WOMEN
Last weekend, I attended the Yellow Co conference, a community for entrepreneurial women to create meaningful work.
My dear friend Joanna Waterfall founded the community and has been hosting conferences for years.
I was an attendee and a panelist in a discussion about sustainability with three other people.
The interesting thing is…
Each of us came to the discussion from different angles.
Of course, my focus was on creating a sustainable life for yourself because, without that, you have no resources to do anything else.
It was a very inspiring conversation and experience.
You can learn more about Yellow Co. here.
Live your best life tip #1: There is no “right timing” for everything in your life.
I got married at 21 because I thought that if I was single at 21, I had failed.
Looking back now, I’m thinking, “Are you kidding me?”
I also knew I needed to go to college, find a corporate job, and give birth to my first child before I turned 30.
How often do we look at where somebody is at in life and feel like we are so far behind?
We see people going to college, starting businesses and families, and we tell ourselves we should be there.
But who’s to say?
No one gets to decide your timeline except for you.
It’s your life, after all.
You don’t owe anything to anybody, and each of us has our own unique timing.
The takeaways for this first tip for getting out of your own way…
- Stop comparing yourself to anybody else.
- Follow your own unique timeline, and things will happen when they happen.
- Stop putting pressure on yourself to hit some mythical deadline.
Enjoy the moment you’re in right now because that’s all you have.
Live your best life tip #2: Follow the three B’s.
Be curious. Be courageous. Be confident.
Another speaker talked about being “the man of the house” and a go-getter.
She talked about the concept of the three B’s, which is so close to the concept of personal strength.
And it’s powerful.
She told her story of overcoming challenges and leaning on those strengths — strength of curiosity, courage, and confidence.
We all have personal strengths and a driving force.
We just have to remember that we have them and how to lean into them.
Because when we do, we can achieve anything.
Not everything because it’s impossible to achieve everything, but you can achieve anything you truly want.
Another aspect of this “strength” is softness.
It’s hard to give up the image of being a strong woman, keeping up, and never feeling weak or being soft.
Being soft isn’t a sign of weakness. It’s a sign of being human.
We can all be strong women and still have moments of softness.
The key takeaways from tip number two on living by the 3 B’s include:
- You don’t always have to go-go-go.
- You can rest.
- You are two sides of the same coin — soft and strong.
When you start accepting both parts of yourself, you become more powerful.
You can’t really have one without the other.
Live your best life tip #3: Approach your life with wonder instead of control.
The truth is…
We always want to know what’s going to happen.
We want to be in control, and when we aren’t, it can feel like something is wrong.
Do you want to know a secret?
Things rarely ever go as planned.
So, fighting that concept and trying to make things go as planned won’t really help you.
Things go sideways, and as soon as we accept that fact, the sooner we are okay with the truth that things might never go exactly as we plan them.
Instead of trying to control or know everything — which is impossible, by the way — the sooner we can open our minds and world up to all the possibilities that might unfold before us!
Think about it…
When things don’t go as planned, something else happens that we didn’t predict.
And for some reason, we tend to think of that thing as a negative.
But what if we looked at sideways plans and the unpredictable as a new opportunity you didn’t know existed?
Now, you have the chance to embrace this opportunity and use it to improve your life.
Of course, sometimes things go sideways in a bad way.
Life is life, and we have many challenges to navigate. So, I’m not saying to pretend everything is okay when it isn’t.
I’m saying to be ready and open to change, knowing that change will 100% happen.
Make the most out of it!
You don’t have to get frustrated when you don’t receive the result you were hoping for — although that’s understandable.
But you can learn from it.
Someone once said, “In every situation, you either receive the results you want or the lesson you need.”
If you are open to wondering what is out there, you can make life much more beautiful and fulfilling.
The takeaways from approaching your life with wonder are:
- Be curious and excited about what’s waiting out there.
- Wake up every morning wondering what will happen instead of trying to control what will happen.
What’s the worst that could happen if you start wondering what exciting things await you just around the corner?
Now, it’s time to step into the rest of your day with an open mind and a wondering attitude.
If you have any questions or want to share any thoughts, please send me a message on Instagram or shoot me an email.
I’d love to hear from you!
Until next time,
Olena xx
