Never underestimate the power of intentionally surrounding yourself with loving and supportive people.

I hiked this mountain with people I had only met that morning. A friend connected me with them the week before because she knew I had been wanting to do this peak. They were extremely supportive and encouraging, which was critical during this anxiety-inducing section. They could have tried to talk me into turning around but they knew I wanted to scale the third peak and had faith that I could do it.

At one point during my Running in Slippers book publishing journey, I was frustrated about something and a friend at the time said, "I don't know why you don't just quit." I didn’t have the self-respect at the time to speak up for myself so I let her words sink in and wondered if I should quit. Fortunately, I didn’t.

I quit my toxic corporate job this month because it was affecting my mental and physical health so much that I was in a constant state of functional freeze and only able to concentrate on surviving each day. There is no paycheck in the entire history of this world that is worth sacrificing the livelihood of our soul and entire existence, so I quit. And because I was so jaded with corporate America, I also quit corporate America entirely and decided to start my own business.

There was a time in my life where I was surrounded by people who would have told me that I shouldn’t do it because it’s too risky and dangerous and the risk of failure is too high. Everyone I have told so far has been completely supportive and happy for me because 1) they know how miserable I was at my corporate job 2) they are confident that I am smart, capable, and have the potential to succeed. This is turn, gives me even more confidence that I can start a Self-Love Coaching business and do it well. It may not be rainbows and unicorns all of the time but I know I am the kind of person who can figure things out not matter how, difficult, scary or uncertain.

We can't control how people show up for us, but we can control how we show up for ourselves, including choosing our tribe.

Protect your light as if your life depends on it. Because, well, it does ☀️