To the Limit

When we share what we were brought here to give, we are in alignment with our highest, most powerful selves.
Jen Sincero

I read a self-development book that asks me to identify my “old story.” What was “defining” me that I wanted to change. The next step was to identify the “false rewards” that were telling me that the tory I had been living was good enough. This did no feel good, but it is what brought me here to you.

This is exactly what I wrote down. It’s not pretty, and frankly, fairly harsh. But here we go. The first task, “list off your old stories.”

This sucks right? These are things that I believe(d) about my story. This is a reality I lived in. Writing it down opened my eyes. From the outside I’m sure people thought of me as lazy. Sleeping until noon, not getting out of my pjs, watching tv all day. But I saw it as “hey, AT LEAST I got out of bed today.”

I finished college, but not really in a way I was proud of. I set out to do pre-med and ended up being a Spanish major who used Google Translate A LOT. My perception of those around me was that college was much easier for them, so I must be stupid.
My father has never been anything but supportive of what I want to do. But all of my siblings are entrepreneurs and parents and I felt like I haven’t done anything for him to be proud of.
I felt like it is ok to be sad all the time, like I had a right to be because my mom is sick.

Now that I had identified my old story, I had to identify the “false rewards” I was reaping from it. Again this is exactly as it was written.

I had lived in a way that seemed right for me and I was being rewarded for it, in a way.

The sympathy I got from my family and friends was all out of love and support, but it let me continue to excuse my behaviors. I let myself believe that what I was doing was good enough, because I was being praised for basically doing anything at all. Frankly had my friends and family responded any differently it still could’ve turned out just the same. Finally I was tasked with “thanking” those false rewards.

I recognized that these rewards let me be who I was, but also that they limited me.

It is time to expect more. It is time to do more. I am certainly not “cured” but it is time to set new standards, and new expectations, and new goals. I don’t want to settle for the bare minimum. I want to take it To the Limit!

“Your Are a Badass” by Jen Sincero Read it. Learn it. Love it.

At times, our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person.
Albert Schweitzer

When I was 16 years old, my, then 59 year old, mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease. After going through medical school with two kids, raising four, and starting the first all female OBGYN practice in the DMV, she was faced with early retirement. This tragic news came along a least 10 year into my battle over anxiety and depression.

For 20 years I have been in and out of therapy, and at different levels of “medicated.” I have been very fortunate to have excellent mental care (mostly) and I have responded well to medication. But I am here now because I think we’ve set the bar too low. Why should “our” goals be any smaller or any different than anyone else? Therapy teaches you to celebrate the little victories. You got out of bed this morning? Good for you! You took a shower today? Bravo! Don’t get me wrong, we should be celebrating the baby steps out of the darkness. But why do we stop there?

I am here to tell you we CAN and we SHOULD set the bar higher for ourselves. This is my experience of learning to set goals and have big dreams. I will be challenging myself to not only get out of bed in the morning, but to improve my business, my health, and my relationships. There is no limit to what I can do!

My hope for you is that you can see through my journey that not only is there a light at the end of the tunnel, but that light is abundant.