A true teacher won’t tell you what to do. They know they don’t know what you should do because only you can know.

A true teacher will give you the tools, ask the questions, and create the environments that help you learn from your Self what to do. Leading is not about having the answers. It is about discovering, demonstrating, and teaching how to navigate the unknown.

No one else can create what you are meant to create with your life, and the process and practice of creating are essential to your fulfillment. To create, you must be present, and one of the greatest threats to your creative power and your fulfillment is comparison.

Comparison is a form of going to the future and going to the future can be an inspiring, wisdom-generating place to rest, or it can be a place to hide inside the fear of what could go wrong. When we compare what we are creating with our lives now with what other people have already made with their lives in the past, we are abdicating our responsibility and therefore giving away our power. We are meant to uplift and inspire one another, not create shoulds and shouldnt’s to box ourselves and others inside of.

Comparison is a cop-out. We need you to be fully yourself and bring your perspective and presence. Your journey is unique. You can learn from someone else without comparing yourself to them or copying them. It takes courage to be in the present moment and create; courage is your essence.

What might it feel like to get go of trying to measure your outcomes based on comparison and shift to generating the feeling of creating in the present moment?

Transformation happens in intensity; it doesn’t happen in “meh.”

If you are waiting to experience something new, yet it’s not happening, you likely need more intensity. However, intensity doesn’t always mean discomfort. Intensity can also be felt in the form of Love, often found through surrender, ease, and letting go.

What do you need today to continue down your transformational path? The intensity of discomfort that comes with new levels of effort? Or the intensity of Love that comes with new levels of letting go?

The ripple effect of your life only happens when you dive in.

Your inner truth, passion, creativity, and gifts will only be felt by others when you are willing to trust yourself and dive into the depths of what lies within you. Contribution is an inward journey, not an outward one. As you continue to discover and delve more deeply into what is most resonant with you and create your actions and expression from it, what you give to the world will happen naturally.

It may feel scary to go for it, as this requires you to let go of what others might say, think, or expect. However, you have no control over those things anyway, so letting go is how you shift from struggling to serving.

Where are you waiting on the edge instead of diving in?

Love, or anything else worth devoting your life to, is incredibly simple, yet it is not necessarily easy to stay connected to and embody with the distractions around us. While keeping our focus on the most important thing might not feel easy, when we are willing to practice, it makes the rest of our lives simpler and more profound.

Instead of seeking the easy way, seek the simple way. The simple way requires us to let go of what we know and how everyone else does it. It requires surrendering to the mystery of the unknown. If it were easy, everyone else would already be doing it, and we would be living in a different world. By having the courage to keep things simple, you create a new possibility for others, which eventually makes things easier.

What would be possible if you were willing to seek the simple path instead of the easy path?

Everything you need to “let in” is already within you.

Peace, support, abundance, wisdom, or anything else you are hoping to receive or allow already exists within you. There is no big project to embark on around opening yourself up to be able to receive. All you need to do is practice allowing yourself to be present and turning your focus to noticing those things in your body and field, here and now.

Inevitably your focus will start to turn outward towards things that your mind thinks are missing. When this happens, simply bring your attention back to the present moment and practice sensing and feeling what is already within. This continued practice will help you receive all the gifts you’ve already been given and are just waiting to be activated with your focus.

What have you been waiting for that’s actually waiting for you?

We are in a collective learning process, yet we forget that we don’t need to know everything already.

When we find ourselves stressed because we don’t know the answer to something, we can do one of three things:

1. Find someone who does know and learn from them. You get to grow through the growth of others.

2. Surrender to the fact that you are the one to discover the answer, and no one else can have the answer for you. As you learn, you help others grow.

3. Embrace that no one may ever know. We can all be courageous together.

The more we are willing to learn and share with one another, the more we will be able to withstand the discomfort of the unknown. It’s one thing not to know, and it’s another to feel lonely. What if we could remember we are in an 8-billion-person learning process and let our experiences compound for the collective good?

There is a big difference between knowing you can and actually doing it.

Choice matters the most when we use it to do the hard thing. If we always choose the easy way out, we aren’t harnessing the power of our free will.

You are capable of using your life to create something extraordinary if you are willing to figure out how to do things that your circumstances make seem impossible. The practice of creating your own path rather than waiting for the path to be created for you will show you how many of your “limitations” are simply habits, patterns, and ways of relating to the world. When you experience the power of doing the impossible, your life inside your body changes. This comes from doing the thing, not knowing you can do it.

What is it time for you to choose to do so you can have the embodied experience?

The creative process is really a learning process.

If you think of yourself as someone who “isn’t creative,” you are labeling yourself as someone who isn’t a learner. The point of creating something isn’t to be “good at it”; it is to learn about yourself along the way. And as you learn about yourself, you know about others.

We are all creators at our essence, and when we spend time creating, whether it is a piece of art, a business, or a gathering, we tap into our internal teacher, the source of our wisdom.

Self-worth is a feeling that comes from deep fulfillment. Fulfillment comes from focusing on what interests you rather than what makes you attractive.

Many of us were trained to source our self-worth from the approval of others, namely those who control the systems we are trying to “succeed” in. This has led us to try and fail at finding fulfillment through managing the way we look, the way we are perceived, or how much we produce. While our lower personalities may find satisfaction from “controlling” these uncontrollable things, they never lead to long-term Self-love.

The high practice then, is to notice the pull to place our focus outward and shift it inward. We were designed to experience Self-worth when we focus on what we are uniquely meant to do. Some of us may know we are meant to write, sculpt, code, teach, or be an athlete. Some of us are still discovering what we are passionate about. However, if we follow the path step-by-step of what interests us at a soul level, we will discover a relationship with ourselves that no one else can take away, change, or even compete with. Our internal experience of deep curiosity and wonder trumps our search for external, fleeting validation any day.

What would life feel like if you shifted from focusing on approval to discovery?

We were given authority over our lives, but we must use it. Our authoritative power exists in our willingness to decide. Many of us will not make a decision we are meant to make because we are avoiding the discomfort on the other side of the decision.

Deciding to do something is different from hoping to or trying to. Often, we lean towards something without truly deciding so that when it gets intense, we can back off and return to what feels comfortable and familiar. A proper decision cuts off the other alternatives, including the old familiar ways, and puts us on the hook. Because of personal responsibility, a.k.a. being “on the hook,” holds the most extraordinary spiritual rewards, it also holds the most significant resistance. When we become fully willing to move through intense discomfort and resistance, we can become the authors of our lives.

There is the discomfort that comes from stagnating, and then there is the discomfort that comes from growing. What if the latter was the sign that we are tapping into our authoritative, creative power, which is, therefore, the most thrilling part of being alive?

There is no one else who can decide for you. Only you can decide.

Most people will never apologize because they are too scared or too ashamed. The best way to get complete with people who have not come to do you with an apology is to assume that since they are human, there is a part of them that knows that they did was harmful. Yet, they don’t have the emotional intelligence or capacity to ask for forgiveness.

We can have empathy for this experience if we choose to, and choose to forgive. Forgiveness is never for the other person; it is so you don’t have to spend your energy resenting anyone. When you choose empathy and accept the apology you haven’t explicitly received, you get your life back.

Where is it time to stop waiting for someone to set you free so you can free yourself?

Inner rest is a state you can connect to and live from that allows you to work hard in the world without burnout from proving, worrying, or over-exerting. Inner rest is a state that comes from knowing you are something way bigger than your thoughts, body, or emotions. That thing has many names; its essence is pure perfection and cannot be changed, touched, or taken away by anything. Inner rest is available to you now and forever and is most helpful when we feel least compelled to surrender into it.

Remembering we have this place inside of us allows us to have more choice. We can choose to work hard when we feel it serves our intentions, and we can choose to rest fully when we feel like that is required. Our minds and the people and things around us will almost always have reasons to quit when hard work would be helpful or to push through when rest would be best. Inner rest is the place we can dwell that can help us choose freely based on what is most important.

How might your approach change if you allowed yourself to rest in the bigness of your essence?

Many say they want to grow, get stronger, become wiser, become happier, or be more effective. Yet, their desire to stay comfortable is more potent than their desire to change because they have focused on it longer.

Almost all change involves intensity. It feels intense to share our most personal selves. It feels intense to allow our bodies to do the reps to get stronger. Sitting and being still feels intense when our minds pull us towards reality. It feels intense to choose to be loving when we want to blame. If growth feels intense and most people avoid intensity, then most people avoid excellence.

Many folks will tend to go for the things that feel like they are checking the box of “doing the thing,” yet it requires the least intensity. This is why we see mediocre things gain popularity so often.

As you create with a commitment to excellence, know that it might not catch on as fast as something mediocre, yet there is no greater reward than knowing you gave everything you had to give.

Gentleness and softness are essential aspects of Self-love. However, to truly love our Selves means respecting and working with our human design, and growth is an essential part of our happiness and ability to thrive.

A good amount of our growth comes from pressing into and through discomfort. It comes from doing the things we know are good for us that we don’t “want” to do. So yes, love your Self enough to rest and restore, and also love yourself enough to do the new, uncomfortable, hard things.

Whenever you feel pulled to believe it’s one or the other, remember it’s both.

We humans tend to complicate things and make them messy. However, a higher order can support us in being happy, healthy, and helpful if we choose to tune into it.

Peace exists; we need to make space for it. Joy exists; we need to remember to prioritize it. Space exists; we need to seek it. Truth exists; we need to listen for it. All the beautiful things we want for ourselves and others exist; we need to value them enough to build our lives and systems around them.

Prioritizing what The Divine values most takes extraordinary work and commitment, yet it gives us all the things we deeply wish for that we waste our time looking for elsewhere.

What would you need to be willing to let fall away so you could prioritize tuning into a higher order?

Every great story, every great lesson, every hero’s journey comes to pass through an extraordinary challenge. This doesn’t mean we need to survive a huge trauma to grow; it does mean that our willingness to move through discomfort is essential for transformation.

The challenges of being human are abundant daily if we are truly present. The challenge to stay focused on what is most important, the challenge to remain your most loving self when being exposed to mass media and the reactivity of many people, the challenge of being courageous and speaking up or creating something new, the challenge of asking for forgiveness or granting forgiveness, the challenge of reconnecting to your vision after a minor or huge setback, or any other human experience that brings up the intensity of our more resistant emotions. However, many of us choose to stay oblivious to the challenges because of the intensity. We would rather check out than check in because it feels easier than growing.

The good news is, once we decide to make our lives about growth and service and seek places to get uncomfortable daily, we realize how good we can feel. This is because we were designed to be resilient and continue to grow no matter what happens to us. We can’t always choose what happens to us in this community of 8 billion people who were all granted free will, yet our gift is that we can choose how we move through what happens. It might even be possible that our potential for growth increases with the level of challenge we are dealt. This never feels fun, yet we can practice having faith in our design and ourselves as we aim to make our lives meaningful for ourselves and others.

Easy is wonderful. Enjoy it when it’s present. Yet, as you navigate the things you wish weren’t happening, know that the way you show up has the power to upgrade you to the next version of you.

If you are in the wake of what feels like a failure, know that one of the ways that failure wins is by confusing you. It begins to convince you that you are a failure and that the success you had once experienced or the success you dreamed of has slipped through your hands, never to be seen again.

This is one of the lies that failure tells us. First and foremost, ultimate success is living our lives from a place of wisdom, not reaching a measurable outcome and “making it” for good. Wisdom becomes abundant to us when we “fail.” If we are willing to continue to evolve, there are abundant lessons to learn in every failure, big or small. And if we decide to make wisdom and growth the goal, we can unearth the lessons and integrate them into our lives, making choices and decisions from a disciplined place of inner knowing. This decision, to learn and keep running towards our dreams, will change the trajectory of our lives.

You have not already peaked. There is no possible way you cannot have more success in the future than you did in the past now that you have learned your new lessons. You are wiser now.

It takes an average of 66 days to form a habit, and only if you do it daily.

It can take hearing something new up to 35 (or more!) times for someone to consider integrating it into their lives.

This is your reminder that if you tried once and it didn’t stick, don’t panic. And definitely don’t give up. Transformation shows up for those willing to fail not just once but dozens of times.

We are a culmination of our habits and patterns, not our one-off inconsistencies. What we commit to matters much more than what we try on inconsequentialy.

To feel complete with something, even when it isn’t “complete,” we must be proud of how we left it. And genuine, authentic, helpful pride comes from knowing that we were the most loving versions of ourselves that we could be.

Something to remember here is that love is not the same as agreement. We can disagree and hold a loving space for the other person or people to navigate their growth journey. Yet, we can make the discomfort as palatable as possible by letting them know who we are for them in word, action, and energy.

If you can sense you could have done better, you have the opportunity to get to wholeness by owning that and doing your best now. Doing your part in the never-ending dance of completion means ensuring your last step is taken with love. This will let your mind rest as everything unfolds.