We have something at my work called Pause for Purpose. At the beginning of meetings, we stop just for a moment and recognize something meaningful. Sometimes it’s a team that showed up during a natural disaster to help families get back on their feet. Sometimes it’s employees volunteering in the community. Sometimes it’s people doing extraordinary things when the world gets messy. And I love that we do that. I really do. Because in corporate spaces, we talk a lot about values. But when you pause the agenda to honor service, real human service, that tells people those words aren’t just printed in the company newsletter. They are practiced. This matters. Since I’ve become a leader, things have happened. My perspective has shifted. I’ve been exposed to the why behind the time off. I’ve spent more time listening to a bigger group than just my handful of usuals about their kids, their bad mornings, their big wins, their big losses. And something happened recently that shifted the way I think...

While everyone else is panic buying gym memberships and promising to become an entirely different person by February, I’m rolling into this new year exactly as I am. Unapologetically. Intentionally. And with zero interest in your vision board that implies my current self isn’t enough. I am not broken, so there is nothing to fix. There is this wild assumption that January 1st should trigger some metamorphosis, like we are all caterpillars who have been waiting for permission to become butterflies. But you are already the butterfly. You have been one all along and the only thing you need to shed is the belief that you are supposed to be someone else. I have spent years building the person I am. My habits, my boundaries, my non negotiables, the way I take my coffee, the way I handle my business, the relationships I have cultivated, the ones I have walked away from. That wasn’t accidental. And I am not demolishing it because a calendar flipped. This Year My time with family is sacred and n...

I heard a song recently that talked about growing down, and the words have echoed in my mind ever since. We are told to climb, to reach, to aspire upward. But what if we have the metaphor backwards? A tree's vitality doesn't come from its highest branch, but from its deepest root. What if true growth is not about elevation, but foundation? Because in the natural world nourishment comes from below. It is from the roots sinking deep, unseen, steadfast and strong that sustains everything above. There is a particular kind of exhaustion that comes from craving a seat at tables we were never meant to sit at. We contort ourselves, soften our edges, create versions of ourselves that might finally earn approval. We wait for permission to exist fully, thinking that up there wherever “there” is we will finally feel whole. But growing down reveals a different truth. The truth that the table itself was always the problem. The validation we have been seeking and the acceptance we have been c...

You know that feeling. It’s late, and you are grinding away on a project, and the thing keeping you going isn’t a dream, it’s a grudge. It’s the memory of someones smirk, their dismissive comment, the way they wrote you off. That fire is real. It gets you moving. I’ll show them, you think. And you do. And for a while, it works. Proving people wrong is a powerful, intoxicating motivator. But it’s corrosive. It’s tied to a moment in the past where you were small, underestimated, or disrespected. Your entire drive becomes a reaction to someone else’s limited vision. and that fire… it burns fast. And it leaves you with ashes. You finally get there, You get the promotion, you launch the business, you hit the goal, and the first person you think of isn't yourself or your loved ones, it's them. The doubter. It’s like you built a whole beautiful house but you’re still staring out the window, waiting for the person from your past to walk by and see it. The victory feels hollow, because...

Have you ever noticed how a change in perception can change your path? How a shift in mindset can change the way you walk it? And how believing in someone else’s belief in you can change who you become along the way? I’ve watched an introvert come out of their shell, not because they suddenly became outgoing, but because they finally realized being quiet didn’t mean being invisible. I’ve seen imposter syndrome fade when someone stopped chasing perfection and started chasing impact. And I’ve watched entire career paths change because one person finally stopped asking, Why me? and started asking, Why not me? Sometimes, the biggest transformations don’t come from dramatic life events they come from mental pivots. A shift in mindset can pull you off a path of burnout and onto one of purpose. A change in perception can rewrite the story you’ve been telling yourself for years. And belief, even if borrowed from someone who sees more in you than you see in yourself, can steady your fo...

But what if Grow is an acronym (Get Rid Of old Ways) We talk about growth like it’s a destination. We set growth goals, chase growth mindsets, and consume growth strategies. But what if we have been thinking about it backwards? Growth isn’t about accumulating more knowledge, more habits, more tasks. Often, it’s a subtractive process. It’s about creating space for the new by Getting Rid of Old Ways. Get Real with Yourself. You can’t change what you won’t acknowledge. The first step is total honesty. Old ways are the invisible weight of    self limiting beliefs. We are stuck in comfort zones and outdated stories you tell yourself about your capabilities. It’s subtraction. A mental and emotional prison. Ask yourself, What story am I still telling myself that I’ve outgrown? and then    be willing to finally set it down. And it’s not a one time purge. It’s an everyday practice of releasing permission seeking, ego protecting, energy draining patterns that creep back in if ...