Monday Motivation | Build a Life

One of the most beautiful things about The B Werd is the opportunity that it gives me to be transparent with you guys. Regardless of what you see in photos, I’m a bit short of a Superwoman and just like you, I get tired, I get discouraged and I get impatient. I traveled for two weeks in a row and ran myself pretty thin, with the lack of sleep (oh, and amount of drinking) I endured. No matter what that sounds like, I’m not complaining. I’m blessed to have the flexibility and resources to get up and go as I please. Luckily I have a pretty awesome job that allows me to work remotely if need be, which is great – until I get back into the office to 60 new voicemails that I can hardly return because I lost my voice somewhere in a Costa Rican jungle. No exaggeration, it’s been a rough two weeks.

The life I’ve imagined for myself involves me being a boss at my corporate job five days a week, while taking off every couple of weeks to speak at colleges and sit on panels across the US discussing how important education is and how millennial women are so effortlessly running shit. One thing I do know is, it’s going to take a lot of practice because when my week finally ended – I was feeling tired, discouraged and impatient. I bookmark a ton of videos for inevitable moments like these and if you don’t have four minutes to watch this one, please take these things with you as you begin your week.

“I believe that opportunity looks a lot like hard work. I never had a job in my life that I was better than, I was always just lucky to have a job.”

Regardless of where you are in your career, entrepreneurial venture or business, there’s no cheat code to fast forward five years or skip necessary levels. The hard work has to be done by no one else but you. In my opinion, one of the characteristics that make a good leader is their willingness to do what needs to be done, regardless of how insignificant or inconvenient the task may be. To get where we want to be, we’re going to have to do A LOT of things that challenge us, whether it be our character or our patience. The sooner we embrace the fact that we’re going to lose count of the things we hate doing in order to reap what we desire, the quicker our minds will stop dreading the work that has to be done. Remember that how you do anything, is how you do everything.

“The sexiest thing in the entire world is being really smart and being thoughtful and being generous. Everything else is crap, I promise you.”

My biggest concern at this point is sharing what I know with others, and I’m surrounded by people who are sharing their knowledge with me. Maya Angelou had a quote that stated “When you learn, teach. When you get, give.” – and that’s the simplest form of generosity. There’s so much value in substance. You don’t know who’s watching you or who you’re influencing with what you’re deciding to share. Continue to learn; absorb what others teach you and search for the things you want to know – then pay it forward.

“Everything around us that we call life, was made-up by people that are no smarter than you; and you can build your own life. Build a life, don’t live one.”

You’ll start living the life that you desire as soon as soon as you decide to. Don’t wait for magical moments in your life to happen, don’t wait for opportunities to find you. Create these things for yourself. You already possess everything that’s required to do the things you want. Society has a crazy way of convincing us that we have to be a certain size, have designer shoes, come from a certain background, or have a certain amount of money in the bank before we can pride ourselves on who we are. Right now, you have everything you need to build the life that you want. Don’t waste your lifetime living based on the terms of what others told you you can do.

Make this week a great one.