ElizabethPW » fear

What Brings You Joy?

Lori Latimer — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 04:24:50 +0000

Someone asked me that question last summer, and I really didn’t have an answer. At least, not an answer that was just about me, and not about my family, which was my first, automatic response. But this person was quite persistent, and truly wanted to know what brings me joy. Little did I know at the time that that was the beginning of my search for my truth.

That was the match that lit the fire in me… to find the answer to that question. I’d been a wife and mother most of my adult life. Now divorced, my children grown, I could focus on me, on who I am and what I want. On what brings me joy.

And that scared me to death.

Because for so many years, I lived my life for everyone else. How I thought I “should” live. What I thought I “should” do. What I thought others “expected” me to do. Doing things so I wouldn’t disappoint anyone in my life. Doing things that I thought would make me “perfect” so people would like me and love me.

And it was all bullshit. Total and utter bullshit. Because so much of it really wasn’t me. In trying to be the “good girl,” the “people pleaser” that I’ve always been, all of my hopes and dreams got lost and forgotten. I got lost somewhere along the way.

I realized last year that this is my chance for a new beginning – to create the life that I want for myself. But what exactly is that life?

I knew what I didn’t want. But I had to spend a lot of time alone, getting back in touch with me, with who I am deep down inside, to figure out what I do want. And in the silence of that process I found the truth of who I am and what I want… I found my truth.

There has to be something more.

For many years I’ve felt a fluttering inside of me telling me that there’s something more for me… something more I’m meant to do. And for years I pushed it aside. But I now know exactly what that something is, and I’m going for it. Full out. No holds barred. And no turning back. It’s time. Time to pursue my joy, my passion.

Forgiveness

But to be able to start living my truth, I first had to forgive myself for any past mistakes – or perceived past mistakes. To accept all of me, including – and maybe especially – the imperfect parts of me. To accept that I am good enough, just as I am. That was not an easy thing to do. I’m finding that it isn’t easy for any of us.

I’ve learned that living my truth means opening myself up… to the possibility of failure… to the possibility of rejection… of looking stupid… of all the things that are simply mind chatter that have no basis in reality. And it means opening myself up to being vulnerable. But I’ve also learned that it means opening myself up to the possibility of success.

It means getting out of my own self-imposed comfort zone.

Fear keeps us in our comfort zones. It’s safe there. But staying there keeps us from growing. To find my passion, my joy, I knew I had to get out of that comfort zone. And I have. I’ve done things in the past year that I never thought I could, or would do. Things like traveling by myself, attending an actor’s workshop, letting people know what I’m doing, and putting my true self out there in ways I never have before.

It’s a journey, not a destination.

Finding my truth has been a journey, one I continue to embark on every single day. Living my truth has brought joy and passion into my life in ways I only imagined before.

For me, there is no turning back. Something bigger than me keeps pushing me through my doubts and fears to find more and more of my truth. Each doubt or fear that I push through gives me more courage to face the doubts and fears yet to come… for doing more things that are uncomfortable and scare the crap out of me.

Because the truth is that NOT doing these things, not going for what I want full out… hiding behind an employer instead of starting my own business… staying where I am and accepting where I am for the rest of my life… settling… well, that terrifies me more than anything. That and writing this guest post for Elizabeth. When she asked me to do this, I was freaking terrified. But I knew I had to do it. One more fear to face… and conquer.

A Milestone

I turned 50 years old in January. I look at it as starting the second half of my life. Because I do not want to get to the end of my life with any regrets over not having lived my life to its fullest. To do that, I have to put myself out there. I have to take big risks.

I’ve learned that it’s never too late.

I’ve learned that if you have a dream, it’s never too late to pursue it. If I can do this at 50, anyone can do it.

And that’s the truth.

Lori Latimer has two grown sons and a little grandson. After many years as a family law paralegal and going through her own divorce in her late 40s, Lori is now venturing out on her own, helping women find their passion and recreate their lives after divorce. She can be found on Twitter or at her website, http:\\lorilatimer.com

The Tree That Wasn’t There Before

Carla Young — Tue, 18 May 2010 14:00:37 +0000

Guest Post by Carla Young

One day we planted the tree that wasn’t there before and what happened next symbolized the magnetic power of living your truth.

From out of nowhere birds appeared. One after the other after the other. From nowhere and everywhere, they flocked to the tree that wasn’t there before to hop from branch to branch, chirping and singing as birds like to do.

The idea that wasn’t there before

Your job as an entrepreneur is to plant the idea that wasn’t there before.

Which idea? Yours! Your truth. Not something you think the market wants. Not something you think you should do. Not something you think other people will approve of. Not what makes sense ‘on paper’.

But something YOU feel is important. Your purpose. Your passion. Your truth.

How stepping into my truth changed everything

The idea of building an online resource community for mom entrepreneurs started as a seed of an idea. The idea was to look at how powerful women stepped into leadership roles, authentically and truthfully. She-EO’s.

Why? Because it interested me…kinda. Because I thought the market wanted it. Because I didn’t want to step into the fray of mom business coaches. And it took my mastermind holding up the mirror to show me my true passion.

Motherhood. Moms. Moms in business. Mom-EO’s.

This is the part of the story where you expect to hear that I started pursuing my idea the very next day. That I dropped everything and made it happen. Well I didn’t. I let it sit. Every time it came back to the surface, I pushed it down, ignored it and kept on doing what I thought I should be doing.

But the idea kept coming back around and coming back around until opportunity knocked and I FINALLY answered.

Building the dream that wasn’t there before

Stepping off the ledge and starting to live my truth, pursue the passion, the dream that wasn’t there before was scary. Really scary. What if I share my true dream and then it doesn’t happen? What if people think it’s stupid? What if I mess it up because I don’t know how to make it happen.

What if…I succeed?

The source of the fear is the reason for the magic! Living your truth is…in a word: magnetic! It has an unbelievable power to draw people in, to energize potential, to engage and inspire your audience…

So what are you waiting for?

Carla Young is the Founder & CEO of MOMeo Community.com and Publisher of MOMeo Magazine.com. She’s dedicated to supporting mom entrepreneurs (or mom entrepreneurs-to-be) build work-at-home lifestyle businesses and succeed on THEIR terms at work, at home and in finding a little playtime for mommy!

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The Big, the Scary, and the COO

Elizabeth Potts Weinstein — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 23:41:56 +0000

A few weeks ago I woke up and realized that the only way for me to grow big was to get help. And if I didn’t … everything (including me) was going to collapse.

But the hard part of hiring Ken Moorhead as my amazing new COO was not finding him.

The hard part was getting over my fear of the big scary’s that came up at the thought of bringing another person into my business, and what that means for the company, and for me.

So what scares you?

How are you pushing your boundaries in your business? How are you going to grow?

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What Does It Mean to “Live Your Truth?”

Elizabeth Potts Weinstein — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 21:14:00 +0000

I talk about Live Your Truth all the time (it’s even tattooed on the inside of my wrist!), and every so often someone actually asks me straight out, “what do you mean by live your truth?”

As I’ve said many times, I can’t tell you what it means to live your truth.

Because it’s your truth.

Not the truth. Not my truth. Not the truth written by the gurus or dictated by institutions or governments or your parents.

But your personal truth.

Now, that’s all nice and good, but you may want a little more freaking direction than that.

I define “living your truth” in two different ways … one is the mission of my company, and other other is my personal definition & the tools I use to apply it in my life.

Live Your Truth empowers solo-entrepreneurs to make a greater contribution to the world and become more successful & fulfilled by doing what is a natural extension of who they really are.

(thanks to Ken Moorhead for yanking this out of me during a late night consulting session)

But that’s not *my* truth and it’s not *your* truth … that’s just what I’m doing here in this business.

Living my truth is about begin 100% myself 100% of the time, about speaking the things that everyone thinks but no one says, about choosing to be uncomfortable every day, about being a visible leader of this movement.

But what could Living Your Truth mean to you?

During the first weekly #lytchat (live your truth twitter chat) we discussed this very question, and here are some of the responses:

idance_iwrite: Actively letting go of what other’s want from you and listening to your ‘inner voice’
JanieC: letting the real and best you out of it’s hiding spot
LisaMHines: Being courteous to others, but not letting them persuade your actions, words, etc.
kymleeisawesome: knowing what you are & are not responsible for. not doing anything that doesn’t fit your vision for yourself
tarufisher: For me, #LYT is saying “no” when I mean “no”, and “yes” when I mean “yes”.
ACCompanyC: disregarding the “shoulds’” – or at least questioning why should I?
LisaMHines: LYT means staying in a centered place, honoring my true self in everything I do.
JanieC: getting rid of barriers, real and imagined
bethearle: For me it’s living my values
JennaAvery: Having the courage to say what I mean, mean what I say, do what I love, and love what I do, in all things.
bethearle: practicing outwardly what my inner self knows intuitively
lizschneider: keeping soul-level promises that i make to myself.
jaladesigns: 4 me, its simply just being myself instead of trying 2 b perfect. It’s living & operating w/ honesty, integrity & decency.
lorilatimer: Doing what’s right for me, not what anyone else thinks or wants
lizschneider: Living my truth means, “walking my talk”, speaking what I think and doing what I speak
truthlifecoach: It’s about honoring my core values and trusting my “gut”
jhaubein: Being yourself no matter what others might think of you. Staying true to your values.
daniellemmiller: making sure my purpose and values are not compromised by my head worrying about what others think
jenngbob: Living my truth means not feeling guilty for doing what I intuitively feel I should be doing right now
ChristineVenart: For me, living my truth means to show up as myself always, push myself past my fears, and to say the hard truth
kymleeisawesome: not being afraid to take that leap of faith, facing down the fear and moving forward into uncertainty
lorilatimer: It also means saying “no” when that’s what’s best for me – something I didn’t used to do
KyraHowell: Living my truth means knowing my vision and allowing that to be my life.
m_michael: Living my truth: Being fearless w/o recklessness
YourGoToGuy: Simply doing instead of worrying.
daniellemmiller: complete trust in my intuition and “gut”
chrisarcucci: speaking & living my truth with compassion and clarit
lorilatimer: Getting out of my head and listening to my heart/intuition
bethearle: not following the crowd/ marching to my own drum
MarySchaefer: Giving myself permission to be BIG and small and loving myself in any state

So … I’d love to hear your thoughts & ideas, by you commenting below …

… do any of these resonate with you? What do the words “live your truth” mean to you?

And, we love for you to RSVP and join us for the next Live Your Truth twitter chat (#lytchat) - it’s free and open to anyone to join (yes, to participate in the conversation you need a twitter account). See you there!

Living My Truth: Taking Uncomfortable to the Next Level

Elizabeth Potts Weinstein — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:58:52 +0000

I created this video for my 6 Weeks to Live Your Truth Project members (we are still accepting new members until Thursday, so check it out), but wanted to share it with you too.

I have always loved to sing, but stopped singing in public when I was in 7th grade, when another girl got the lead in the church musical. At the time, I did not realized it was because unlike me, she had been taking singing & dancing lessons for years. But I viewed that as confirmation that singing was not my calling, and from then on, only sang to myself.

So here’s a little song for my Live Your Truth peeps, the first time I’ve sang in “public” in 20 years. Not only is this an example of doing something (very!) uncomfortable, but also a way of bringing a seemingly-unrelated passion into my business (as we discussed in 6 Weeks to Live Your Truth).

Why am I posting the video on my blog?

Well, because the very idea of posting it in public for everyone to see kind of makes me want to throw up. So, that means I totally have to do it. Cause that’s how I roll.

And … be nice.