Dear Early 20’s Me,

Life is very real now.

Not the version of real they warned you about in all those cautionary speeches from people who confused surviving with living or the real that shrinks you into practicality and calls it wisdom.

We’re talking about the kind of real that shows up when the training wheels come off and the road has actual consequences, where the choices stack, where the patterns you ignore become the walls you run into, where who you are in private starts showing up uninvited in public.

You are standing at the edge of the most formative decade of your life and you don’t fully know it yet, if you knew the details it would spoil the fun and discovery.

What I do know, standing on the other side of it, is this: the version of you reading this letter is more equipped than you feel, more seen than you believe, and more capable of the life you’ve been quietly dreaming about than anyone in your immediate environment has given you language for.

They meant well, some of them at least. The Caribbean Elder side-eye when you talked about doing meaningful work wasn’t malice, could’ve had more whimsy but it was the survival instinct of people who had been burned by hope before. Try not to hold it against them but don’t let it become your operating system either.

Here’s what I wish someone had said instead.

Validation is a trap set by people who never had to fight for anything.

If they don’t know what it took for you to get out of bed this morning; what you carried, what you survived, what you quietly rebuilt,  they have no standing to assess your worth. You will waste years performing for rooms that were never designed to receive you, stop auditioning.

The people worth impressing will recognize you without a rehearsal.

Learn to tell the difference between supporters and undercover haters. It will save you years and energy.

Some people will celebrate you publicly, call themselves your friend, and won’t hesitate to undermine you privately or when they get an opportunity.

Some people ask questions to gather intelligence, not because they care about the answer. Discernment is not cynicism, in simple terms it is pattern recognition applied to relationships.

You are already good at patterns, use it here too.

The obstacles of your earlier years are building capacity and are not punishment.

When you sit in rooms where other people are rattled, you will be clear and steady. Not out of fearlessness, but because you have already carried and survived worse. Be patient with the process, the weight has its purpose.

The things that feel impossibly heavy right now are developing in you a depth that most people around you will never have to develop and many would crumble under the weight.

Sometimes diplomacy is the right tool. Sometimes you just have to let people know who they’re dealing with.

You were taught that being palatable was the same as being wise. It most certainly isn’t. There are moments when the most loving thing you can do, for yourself and for the other person, is clarity delivered without apology but with empathy.

You are not required to shrink yourself for the comfort of someone who is comfortable at your expense.

Understand the law of thermodynamics as it applies to your life.

Energy is not created or destroyed. It is transferred. Every room you walk into, you are either gaining energy or spending it. Every relationship, every project, every environment is either building your capacity or drawing it down. This is not a metaphor, fundamentally it’s an unspoken law of life. Start treating your time as the finite, non-renewable resources it is.

Go hard with your creativity. Go even harder after your dreams.

You started designing and programming as a teenager to deal with depression and turned pain into craft. That move right there, converting inner life into external work, is one of the most important things you will ever can continuously do. Don’t stop doing it. The world does not need another person who had a gift and was too afraid to use it.

You are Jamaican. You come from people who have built extraordinary things with nothing. Act like it.

Understand your free will, especially as it relates to what you can actually accomplish.

Nobody is coming to give you permission. Not your parents, bosses, institutions, gatekeepers, or the people who gave you the side-eye for dreaming too big.

You will spend your early career waiting for authorization that was never anyone else’s to give. The anointing came before the crowning. You were already in possession of the thing you kept asking for. Stop asking. Keep doing the things.

The generational patterns you were handed are not your permanent operating system.

You will have to consciously choose which things you carry forward and which things you put down. Some of what was passed to you was simply survival code, needing to be refactored, once necessary in the context that produced it, limiting in the context you’re building toward. You are not betraying your heritage by evolving it.

Articulation is not completion.

You will have this problem your whole life if you don’t name it early: you are extraordinarily good at developing ideas and extraordinarily reluctant to circulate them.

The framework in your head is not in the market. The blog post in your drafts folder does not exist to anyone but you. The talk you gave to three people and never wrote down is gone.

Publish the things, ship the imperfect version and evolve, the market cannot assess what it cannot see.

The people you build with matter more than the things you build.

You are going to meet someone who becomes your partner in every sense of the word. What you build together, the company, the family, the life, will be evidence that you chose right. Fight hard to protect that. Not everything or everyone will deserve your time, not every opportunity is worth what it costs.

Some of the best decisions you’ll ever make will look like walking away. Fomo isn’t real unless you make it.

Burnout is not a badge.

You will push yourself into exhaustion so many times that hospitals will become familiar. You will call it dedication but if anything it is a failure to believe that you are worth protecting. The work will still be there when you rest, the version of you that doesn’t rest will eventually not be, learn this earlier than I did.

Grief is not a detour from your life.

You will lose people and animals and versions of yourself that you weren’t ready to release. The weight of it will feel incompatible with being a functional human being.

Grief and productivity can coexist, grief and joy can coexist. What grief cannot coexist with is pretending it isn’t there. Let it move through you at its own pace. It is making you more capable of the depth the work ahead will require.

Success will feel different than you imagined. Don’t let that confuse you.

The room you dreamed about getting into will feel ordinary once you’re in it. The project you fought for will feel like Tuesday by the time it ships. The goal was never the feeling. The goal was always the building. Stay focused on what you’re constructing, not on how the milestones feel when you arrive at them.

Always Upward is not just a motto.

Not a destination. Not a performance. A direction.

When life knocks you down, and rather creatively it will, repeatedly, in ways that will feel unfair and sometimes are, the question is not whether you fell. The question is which way you’re facing when you get up.

But here’s what I really need you to hear.

You can put it down now.

The weight you’ve been carrying, the need to prove yourself to people who were never paying attention, the guilt of dreams that outgrew the rooms you were handed, the exhaustion of translating yourself for spaces that weren’t built for you, the quiet grief of becoming someone your younger self would be proud of without anyone around to witness the becoming; you don’t have to carry all of that into what’s next.

You earned the next chapter. Not because you suffered enough. Not because you finally got it right. But because you stayed and showed up when showing up was the hardest thing to do. You kept creating and going when you couldn’t see the point and things felt pointless. You loved when love required more than you thought you had left.

That’s enough. It has always been enough.

Put it down.

Walk forward.

Always Upward,
David

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The Myth of Going lt Alone

You really don’t have to do this thing called life alone.

Every hero, every creator, every entrepreneur worth their salt has a constellation of people around them; mentors, peers, truth-tellers, and energy protectors, keeping their head on straight and their soul intact. The wild part? Sometimes these people believe in you more than you do.

They don’t need to compete. They’re not here for the clout. They hold a different frequency, one built on vision, integrity, and the quiet confidence of people who’ve been through storms and still choose to build.

However, while every hero has a team, every great story has a threshold moment: the point where the protagonist accepts the call, steps into the fire, and says, “I’m in.”

That moment matters more than the montage that follows. Because until you get honest about your values, your vision, and the kind of life you’re really trying to build… you’re just rehearsing.

And if you’re not accountable to your own dream, how can you expect others to invest their energy into it?

Assembling and Reassembling Your Council

I wouldn’t be here, writing this, building what I’m building, without the people who’ve held me down, called me out on my doubts and fears; and encouraged me throughout the years. Not just cheerleaders, but character checkers. People who saw my potential and weren’t afraid to challenge my excuses.

Who you have around you is just as important if not more than what you have around you.

In the vein of keeping things real, you can be brilliant and still make dumb choices. Intelligence doesn’t immunize you from blind spots. That’s where your council comes in.

And no shade, but if the five people around you are always nodding, laughing at your mid tier ideas, and never holding the mirror up; you don’t have a council, you’ve got a glorified echo chamber with snacks.

Choose people who walk with integrity, who make courageous decisions even when it’s uncomfortable. Not because they’re trying to be saints, but because they understand what’s at stake. The dream, the vision, the legacy. Yours and theirs..

And understand this: your council is dynamic. It evolves as you do, because life shifts, people grow and sometimes you outgrow each other. Stop always counting it as betrayal, sometimes that’s the rhythm of alignment.

Personal Governance Without the Bureaucracy

Let’s demystify a word that for some reason makes individuals break out in hives: governance.

Sounds like something that belongs in a government handbook or a corporate compliance manual, right? But zoom out for a second, governance is really just a fancy term for how you choose to live and lead yourself.

Think of it as your personal operating system. Your OS for values, decisions, and growth. The principles that shape how you show up when no one’s watching. It’s not about rigidity. It’s about rhythm.

Want an example? Think of a healthy lifestyle. No one gets fit from one workout or a crash cleanse. It’s in the daily preparations, the walks in nature, and the daily choices. That’s governance, and when it’s done right, it doesn’t feel like a chore, it will feel like freedom.

The same applies to dreams. It’s the consistent little choices, the time blocks, the boundaries and promises you keep to yourself, the occasional late-night work sprints, that create focus not on perfection, but excellence.

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At the heart of it all is this truth: who you have around you will shape the quality of your journey more than almost anything else.

Not the metrics, not the Instagram highlights; the people and the way you treat them.

Your Accountability Council isn’t there to run your life, it’s there to remind you who you said you wanted to become.

Appreciate them, celebrate them, try to evolve with them. And when it’s time, be that council member for someone else. Pay it forward like your growth depends on it, because it does.

In the end, personal governance isn’t about control. It’s about liberation.

It’s not about looking polished. It’s about staying aligned. Even when the path gets murky. Even when the world tells you to settle, shrink, or silence yourself.

Because at some point, the world doesn’t need another expert or influencer.

It needs someone who stood up, stood firm, and stayed lovable, flaws, fire, and all.

The post Creating A Personal Brand Accountability Council appeared first on David Yarde.

Self grace is not the absence of correction, it’s the presence of care.

I’m learning to meet myself where I falter,
Not with fury, but with softness.

As I recognize the areas I have been internally harsh, I fix them.

It’s like a bad weed, roots threading through memories, twisting under old beliefs, pushing through cracks I didn’t know were there.

But I no longer yank them out in anger.

I dig slowly.

I breathe deeply.

I tend to the soil of my soul so something better can grow, and keep aiming always upward.

The post Grace in the Growth appeared first on David Yarde.

But let’s be real for a second: how often has your brain also turned into an overthinking, anxiety-generating machine?

How many times have you tried to outsmart a problem so hard you created several new ones?

That’s the thinking trap. It starts innocently enough: “Let me just weigh all my options.” But suddenly, you’re 17 tabs deep into Google, charting out a decision tree that would make a NASA engineer jealous.

The problem with overthinking is the illusion to the belief that everything could be solved by just thinking things through or thinking harder.

The irony? Overthinking doesn’t make us smarter; it just makes us stuck.

We often fall into this trap because we’ve been conditioned to believe our intellect is our only superpower. But even Superman had kryptonite, and for us, that kryptonite is the illusion that thinking harder equals solving better

Spoiler: it doesn’t.

PAUSE

Ask yourself, What am I feeling right now? Name it. Don’t run from it.

Emotions aren’t enemies, they’re like messengers. They reveal what matters to you. Listen to them, but don’t let them dictate your next move. Even messengers need a coffee or tea break.When a decision feels overwhelming, simplify it. Break it into smaller steps. Focus on the next right action, not the entire journey. Clarity often comes through doing, not thinking.

When a decision feels overwhelming, simplify it. Break it into smaller steps. Focus on the next right action, not the entire journey. Clarity often comes through doing, not thinking.

Balance is key, reflect, but don’t overanalyze. Plan, but don’t obsess. Move forward with intention, not haste. Avoid the extremes, neither reckless impulsivity nor paralyzing indecision will serve you.

Hold yourself accountable and be honest about your motives and limitations. It’s okay to admit when you’re unsure or need help, wisdom tends to grow when you acknowledge what you don’t know.

Thinking is Great, Doing is Better

Life isn’t about finding perfect answers, it’s about trying, failing, and figuring it out as you go.

Your brain is amazing, truly it is. So far it’s gotten you wherever you are in life, and it’s probably going to take you even further. But don’t let it hold you back by convincing you to think when you should act.

Give yourself some grace. Mistakes will happen, what matters is what you do next. Learn, adjust, and keep it moving.

Remember, growth is uncomfortable. You’re not failing because it’s hard, you’re evolving, trust the process.

Progress doesn’t need to be perfect; it just needs to be real.

So, next time you catch yourself spiraling into overthinking, pause, take a breath, and then, just do the thing.

Trust me, you’ll be fine, or at the very least, you’ll have an interesting story to tell and lessons to learn from.

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Who said that just because they underestimate you, that you had to do the same?

Who gave them the right to define your worth, to dictate the limits of what you can become?

Who told you that you were anything less than extraordinary, crafted with purpose and filled with potential?

Who gave permission for doubt to settle in, to plant roots in a place meant for dreams, for growth, for strength?

Who said that the weight of others’ judgments was greater than the light your Creator placed within you?

Chances are, you are that who.

However, no one but you can determine and authorize your value.

Only you hold the power to say, I am enough and worthy of the same love I give others.

You and only you alone can choose to believe in your worth, to see past the shadows others cast and step into the light that’s been waiting for you.

Perhaps it’s time to recognize and affirm your worth, abilities, and potential without relying on external validation or approval.

There’s no better time than now to start taking ownership of your self-worth, believing in your capabilities, and your own standards for what you bring to the world.

So rise, stand in love, walk in faith, and refuse to let anyone’s doubts define you.

The post Who Authorized Your Value? appeared first on David Yarde.

However, there has been this nagging thought about wisdom, its origin, how it matures, and above all else, how it’s applied.

Wisdom comes only from understanding and understanding often only comes from experience.

The problem is not everyone takes away the same lessons or perspectives.

Especially when it comes to severity and possible importance or even life priority.

Some of us battle this paradox while trying to understand how we’ve made it this far without realizing how ADHD and trauma response driven we are.

Some of us including myself. 

When life is moving at a million miles an hour and your childhood bears more resemblance to adulthood. When your childhood has more rules than a schoolyard, these are things quite easy to miss.

It’s been a whirlwind of coming to acceptance with the fact that my brain works a little differently.

However, it’s not until those experiences can gain perspective and be sharpened by love and family are they truly useful to our growth and development.

Wisdom, discernment, and the practice of love through pain are quite nuanced and often overlooked in the pursuit of success.

This is the lesson from an impromptu weekend, during the midst of another wave in a pandemic that has already caused so much disruption.

Impromptu only because the precautions for everyone else were already a lifestyle for this group of boys now turned into a set of unusually empathetic men. All realizing that they are being called to lead at a time when they truly are gasping to heal. Their souls pushed to the quantum option of doing both.

They realized a few things with the most important being, family is what you create, relatives are what you’re born with.

This particular article is a brief summary of the lessons learned through a variety of experiences as well as perspectives.

Choosing wisely is key for the lessons you learn through these experiences. 

Choosing wisely can help you to be better or bitter.

Whether you’ve been hurt by family, friends, colleagues, or even people masquerading under the banner of religion, those experiences serve to deepen your understanding and potential in this world. 

At some point, you’ll have to be aware of where each road leads, especially when it comes to healing. You especially have to be aware when you’re on a path to growth while holding on to a vision of success.

The roads that lead to healing

You may be familiar with the phrase, “All roads lead to Rome”.

The reasoning behind this statement is that all methods of doing something, eventually end up with the same result. Another way to put it is, insanity.

If every generation kept perpetuating hate and selfishness, what do you think would happen?

Exactly what we have going on around the world right now —unhealed trauma in action.

When trauma goes unhealed, no matter how hard it’s suppressed, it’ll find a way to put itself on display.

No matter how much you run, you’ll find yourself in a proverbial Jonah moment, deep in the belly of your own darkness.

Take time to heal mentally, physically, and especially spiritually or they’ll make the time for you.  Take the time to discover your inner child and feed it the wisdom you wished others imparted to you. It doesn’t have to be through a grand vacation, if anything it should be something small and sustainable that you can do to feed your soul.

In the pursuit of each higher level, never forget to breathe in the gratitude of being able to achieve the level you’re on now. The pursuit of excellence requires a deep appreciation for every step of the way.

An easy way to visualize and put these things in life into perspective is to keep a gratitude list of your accomplishments. Find a road to healing that works for you and be patient with yourself in the process. The damage and trauma didn’t happen overnight, so don’t expect to magically heal instantly. 

Solidify the Foundation

Fixing anything that’s broken requires a deep assessment of where it broke and what may have contributed to the destruction.

A problem within a support beam or even within the foundation can be a massive problem with collateral damage, both in buildings and people.

This is why it’s key to not take shortcuts when building the things that matter. Building anything comes at a cost and in some cases, sacrifice. 

The key is to remove the unnecessary things, not the ones important to the sustainability and growth of an individual or even brand.

The sum of the willingness to sacrifice the ego, set aside instant gratification, and embrace a ton of hard, painful life experiences that lead to lessons.

It’s important to look at the resources you use to build your foundation.The habits and routines that influence your mindset from the moment you wake up until the moment you give in to the call of rest.

Wisdom that possesses great strength and value only comes from the fountain positioned in a strong foundation. 

If the well has been poisoned, then it’s time to halt pouring out to others and evaluate a few things.

Once the source has been traced and restorative measures are in place and things are deemed safe, then feel free to open to gates once more.

Ultimately, you only have as strong of a building as what it’s built on.

The pain from the past, no matter how dark or confusing it may be at times, is there to facilitate your powers of discernment and activate the gems of wisdom you need in order to put your best self forward.

With a solid foundation, you can more confidently aim upward. This brings up the question of “what does aiming upward mean?” 

Aiming upward isn’t about the glory moments, it’s about being equipped to push through the darkness.

Essentially not kicking others down in the process.

Aiming upward goes deep into not just where you’ve come from but where you truly want to be.

To truly be great, you have to seek the empathy that drives the wisdom and understanding.

This is where creativity, empathy, and a sprinkle of humility comes in. 

Subscribe below for the next part of the series.

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If you tell yourself that you can, you’re more likely to try.

When you’re more likely to try, you’re more likely to win.

Achieving the unimaginable doesn’t require any special skills, it does require a willingness to show up.

More importantly, how you show up.

If you’re going to a party, chances are you bring something along.

Why not take the same approach with life?

So here we are at this pivotal point in history, hopefully asking ourselves, what unimaginable things can I accomplish in my life?

That’s the question I asked myself as the dread of becoming a year older crept up.

It was time to set the theme for the next year of my life.

Besides, what’s the sense of creating an entire brand development framework and program if I don’t take my own medicine?

The rules are simple, look at three areas that I want to focus on or improve in. 

From there the overarching theme often arises. 

So after reflecting on the past year of returning to the stage after burnout, reigniting my loveable core, and finding the passion to create again, the answer became quite clear.

In order to reach the next level as a creative and entrepreneur, I would need to be relentless in my pursuit of my ambitions, while removing the fear of setting healthy boundaries.

Most importantly, in order to heal, I’d need to create deeply.

Let’s break it down.

Chase Your Ambition

Often we’re told to chase our dreams but what about chasing ambition instead?

Dreams come and go. 

Ambition however requires a much different approach.

The long game, where the endurance levels intensify and only those who see it through will make it to the promised land.

In this lane, it comes down to how bad you truly want to reach a better level that goes beyond financial gain and fame.

We’re talking about the kind of ambition that wields true influence where it naturally sets the standard everywhere it goes.

This only happens when you set your focus on something bigger than what the status quo offers.

It’s an opportunity to stretch farther than your current comfort zone suggests but only if you dare to answer the call.

With that in mind, I assembled a traction list aka a list of things that I want to accomplish before 2020. 

The plan with this strategy is to leverage the trade winds of turning a year older to finish the year strong and build up the needed momentum to crush the upcoming calendar year. 

In short, it’s an ambitious effort to supercharge my loveable core to an intensity that it hasn’t really seen before.

Surprisingly I’ve accomplished a little over 30% of the things on the list with a few months left in 2019 to spare at the time of writing.

That’s the thing about being intentional when you’re chasing your ambitions. It allows you to reach into a source of energy far greater than what the gurus and self help experts can ever offer.

Ambition however, is limited by the boundaries you perceive and the boundaries you set with those around you.

Set Your Own Boundaries

Protecting your energy as a creative and leader is key to being successful.

Let the wrong energy into your life and you’ll spend more time trying to balance things out than anything else.

This is one area where prevention is definitely much better than the cure.

However, if you limit yourself to only achieving what you think is possible, you’ll never go farther than I what you can see.

Setting your own boundaries requires a different type of faith, one that is only acquired by passing through the valleys.

Experience is the only teacher that can deliver this perspective effectively.

As you set boundaries the key here is to balance making the map and filling in the details.

Lean too much in either direction or on anyone’s shoulder too much and there could be a problem.

There has to be a point in time when you’re simply comfortable in your own skin and content with who you are as an individual.

No one else can determine what’s ok for you. 

Only you can decide if you approve or deny of an experience.

Above all, only you can limit yourself. 

It’s about time you started to view your life with a little more appreciation and with the perspective that you can accomplish the things others say you can’t.

There’s a certain level as an individual that you realize that you need to find the limit and push it.

When you think you can’t.

Keep going but be respectful.

Like seriously, if you need to reach that next level.

Like you’ve been dreaming about it until you want it so bad until you want it badly at every step of being awake…

Max it to the limit.

Dig deep into your creative self and unleash ALL the dreams.

Too many people out here in this world living with regret.

Too many people wishing they could just be unchained from the expectations and created the good they wished to see.

Goodness. At what point does that change?

Let’s get real, if you don’t value yourself then chances are others won’t value you either.

The boundaries you set will either give you room to heal or they’ll constrain you to continue suffering in pain.

Create To Heal

Creativity is all about solving problems, so why not utilize a little creativity when it comes to healing?

Whether it’s establishing boundaries, setting goals or in this case with healing, creativity can go a long way.

If there’s a most important thing or “growth hack” it would be this; your creativity shouldn’t be overlooked in the healing process.

Often the emotions and thoughts that don’t fit within the normal boxes of expression find their way out through ones creativity.

When they do the first response is to fight the thought away.

The problem is that the thought builds up to a feeling where at some point the dam bursts.

In some cases that burst is expressed in a constructive manner and in other ways through unhealthy behavior.

One of these allows you to heal and face the fears you’ve been avoiding while the other ends up creating a much bigger mess to clean up later.

Immerse yourself in the creativity of life. 

Take the scars of life and turn them into stories that leave an impact.

Push back on the negative thoughts and reinforce your spirit with love and hope.

Establish the boundaries necessary to protect your soul, extend the vision of your ambition, create that which allows you to heal.

Keep the receipts of thy accomplishments and frequently give gratitude for the experiences that lead to each one.

Find your others, the ones that push you to be better in all the things.

Quality is the result of intentional and intelligent action.

Remember why you started but focus on why you kept going.

It’s not about being liked. 

It’s about being respected and learning to respect yourself. 

Do you respect yourself enough to attempt to achieve the unimaginable?

If you do, go out and live like it.

Live like you’re actually aiming upward and not just wishing it.

The post 2020: Achieving The Unimaginable appeared first on David Yarde.

What’s rarely paid attention to is the long hours and valleys that brought them to that point.

It’s easier to grab hold of a motivational quote or inspirational meme and share it.

With just a few taps or swipes, you can now be a motivational coach, with a few more likes you’ll be an “influencer”.

Now you’re running a rat race to show how awesome you are.

We tell ourselves how successful we’ll be if only we can get a post to go viral.

We make a huge deal about all the awards and accolades yet still end up battling the empty feeling on the inside.

The truth is that in a world where everyone seems to want to be a thought leader or someone in the spotlight, it’s key to have a solid grip on who you are and the things you give value.

Not everything is of equal importance.

Foundational Clarity

Once you establish the foundations that should include basic human rights and respect, everything else has the ability to be a priority that leads to greater progress.

The key is to toss out the notions that hold you back and embrace the ones that allow you to place the right priority on the things to be done.

If you fear change or think that bad things are destined to happen, you’ll never allow yourself to be pushed to the levels of greatness.

However, if your heart is all in on growth, you’ll seek out every opportunity to grow.

Excuses will fall away.

Clarity will emerge as the blur fades away.

Only if you take the time to toss aside the people, places and things that hinder your progress.

Additionally, you have to be authentically present which isn’t possible when hiding behind a false notion of who you are.

Challenge The Bias

We are all biased.

Whether that’s towards people, things or places.

We’re even biased towards our biases.

The truth that we avoid here is that we rarely ever challenge those biases.

What notion are you hiding behind that’s holding you back from aiming upward?

The post The Notions We Hide Behind appeared first on David Yarde.

I was apologizing for not sending over some information based on a tweet she made and battling the creeping imposter syndrome feeling of not being good enough.

Next thing I know, she asks me, “Why are you apologizing?!”

My response was literally, “Honestly, I don’t know and now you’ve made me realize I’ve probably been apologizing for existing.”

Truth is that subconsciously I was feeling sorry for existing and frankly wasn’t sure why.

But then she adds that there are far worse things happening in this world and it wasn’t so much about the deliverables but the conversation.

In one small moment, I saw a rare glimpse of humanity that I wish existed in more areas of life.

If you’ve ever been late to work, a meeting, or a special event because life had other plans, this one’s for you.

Take a moment to breathe and remember that you’re human, with responsibilities and emotions.

That baggage you’ve been carrying that makes you feel as if you need to apologise for your existence, it’s time to let it go.

If you know you’ve been doing the things to move the needle forward, it’s ok to acknowledge that.

Sure I still felt bad about things but I also felt human.

Surrender to the core inside that seeks to make a difference, the core that pushes beyond feeling jaded and into feeling victorious.

Why?

Because you’ve carried the dream this far, why would you turn back now?

Get real with your humanity and embrace your mortality.

The fear shouldn’t be of failure or even death but it should be of not living fully.

If anything, the only apologies you should be giving are to yourself for not being more forgiving and empathetic to yourself as well as to others.

Life is too short to be living afraid of your own shadow.

You’re way better than that.

In fact, your important in the grand story of moving humanity forward.

So change that thinking process.

Tweaking The Thinking

Stop saying “if” when talking about your goals and dreams.

Speak from a place of faith and say “when” instead.

For instance, instead of saying “if I can get this organized”, imagine if you said, “when I get this organized”?

Watch the change this makes in how you execute.

With just one simple word change, you’ve moved yourself from a place of wishing, to a place of intentional action.

Thinking from a stance of “if” leaves things open ended while a stance of thinking that involves “when” forces you to determine exactly when will be.

Chances are with such a change in mindset, especially when practiced daily, will make you feel better too.

Take some time to make a list of the things you tell yourself.

How many of them are actually positive? Are they mostly negative?

What you think versus the reality may shock you.

Besides, if you don’t know the details of what you’re dealing with, you can’t effectively come up with a plan to improve.

Accepting You

Do you accept you for who you are?

When you accept your origin story, you’ll begin to notice that there were many areas in life that you weren’t accepting of yourself in.

Meaning, imposter syndrome may have told you that you don’t belong for one reason or another, leaving you to wish for greener pastures and happier days.

Yet upon further inspection, you find that your list of accomplishments, experiences, skills and even the community around you say otherwise.

The aspirational side of things is generally fed by your insecurities and often because the “glory days” of the past have been put on a pedestal.

So here we are with the pressing question of, “Do you accept you for who you are?”

Because if you do, then no one else’s success comes at your expense and the only competition that you have in life is you.

Starve The Excuses

I’m not good enough.

I don’t have a large following.

I don’t have enough money.

I don’t have the time.

Often, these are the excuses we feed ourselves when the reality is that the goal or task at hand isn’t truly a priority.

It’s time to starve those excuses and doubts.

You’re capable of so much more than to live a life you’re constantly feeling sorry over.

If today was the last day of your life, would you still be sitting around waiting on opportunity?

You are able to be the person that breaks the cycle of excuses in your world.

Let the naysayers and doubters sit outside.

Your mindset, energy and future depends on it.

If they bring excuses, you bring the solutions.

Live Deeply

Your story isn’t about anyone else except you.

There is only one of you, even if you’re a twin.

You can’t stand out while also trying to fit in.

Do you and do you deeply.

So what’s the story you want to share? Is it one that shows a victim or victor?

That’s what it all comes down to, especially when we’re looking down the road at your legacy.

Ultimately the choices made along the way of your journey are all on you.

Show up for your dreams, your choice.

Don’t show up for what you believe in, also your choice.

It doesn’t matter what you have or don’t, what matters is what you choose to do with what you do have.

So if you happen to have the gift of life, experience and the intention to create good, why are you apologizing?

Better yet, what’s stopping you from living like those are things you actually have?

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