Episode Transcript
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(00:31):
So last week I talked about my journeyinto becoming an entrepreneur, what
it looks like, how it surprised me.
And I was going to talkabout goal setting.
And I think goal setting is, whilstit's an incredibly important topic,
we are going to get to that at anothertime, because I think that there's
been a topic that's been on my mind.
That's really important.
And that is the topic of having dreams,finding your passion and purpose,
(00:56):
because a couple of months ago, Iwas in the middle of a conversation
that really sparked a thought that Ihaven't been able to get out of my head.
I was at an event where we were talkingabout aligning with your passion your
purpose and setting goals to achieve them.
Now, there was a lady that satacross from me she spoke up and
said, But how do I find my purpose?
(01:20):
or my dream if I literally don'tknow what I even want to live for.
She said, my life has been so chaotic.
I've had a lot of bad things happen and Iactually don't know, I don't have a dream.
I don't know what my purpose is in life.
I don't know what I'mput on this earth to do.
So how do I find that?
The lady next to me, she looked acrossand she said, I don't know how you
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don't know what your purpose is.
or how do you not know whatyou want to do with your life?
, when I sat in the middle of thatconversation, I heard those two very
different aspects of questioning.
So how the first lady, she was,really not sure the second lady
was like, how could you not know?
I think that's probably really relevantbecause We are told that when we grow
(02:08):
up, we need to know what we want in life.
We go through school, we're asked , whatdo you want to be when you grow up?
And we generally have an answer.
We go through school and we go throughour younger years, thinking that
we've got this sense of purpose.
We've got this sense of drive ofwhat we want to be when we grow up.
Then life happens, things get in the way.
And when we don't achieve those dreams.
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We think that we haven't accomplishedthe first thing that we set out to do,
which gives a bad narrative to a degree.
Like for me, for my example,yes, I wanted to be a marine
biologist when I was growing up.
Then I got into modeling and then Iwanted to be like Elle McFerson but
then I wanted to be a real estate agentand I wanted to be all of these things.
And every dream that I've
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had has evolved over time.
And I think we all look atdreams and what our purpose is
meant to be as a static being.
It doesn't move, we're meant toachieve it, and then that's it.
Then everything else in lifeis going to flow through.
That could not be furtherfrom the truth at all.
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Which is really sad because we're nottold that things are going to be really
different to what we think it is now.
It's one of the things that we needto be more educated on is that no
matter where you are, no matterwhat stage of life you're at, you
don't need to have it all together.
And I do that all together inair quotes, because we do, we
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get told these expectations ofhow our life's going to live.
We're going to go to school.
We need to have an education inorder to make anything of ourselves.
Once we have our education, thenthings will be really clear.
We'll have our degree eitherin university or we'll find our
passion coming out of school.
And it's you know what?
When you're a kid, when you'regoing through school from.
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to 20, you're actually stilljust trying to figure life out.
You don't know what life'sgoing to throw at you.
You're going to face failures.
You're going to face all of thesethings that are change your direction.
Some of them are going tochange your direction quietly.
Some of them are going to changeyour direction drastically.
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It wasn't until when I had my daughterthat I realized that, okay, my
dreams are not my own dreams anymore.
I really need to makea life for both of us.
So then that way she can live a life whereshe can follow her dreams and passions.
And I need to show her andset an example for her.
So I'm working really hard now togive her a life eventually that
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will be really easy but not withoutexamples of the struggle that it was.
I think we look at all of thesepeople who are our mentors and
people who we aspire to be like.
that they've got everything laidout for them, but it's so far from
the truth when you actually lookat everyone's stories individually.
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It's so wrong.
So we think of all of these thingsthat we've got to go to school.
When actual fact, the mostamazing, incredible minds in
the world did not go to school.
We assess ourselves based on value,which is how much IQ have we got, how
intelligent we are, what can we bring.
There's Benjamin Franklin.
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There's Albert Einstein.
Albert Einstein could not speakfluently until he was nine.
Benjamin Franklin droppedout of school at 10.
He then went on to signthe U S declaration of
independence when he was 70.
Oprah Winfrey dropped out of school.
Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg.
All of these incredible minds, likethere is a list that goes on and on of
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people who are incredibly successfuland they dropped out of school.
We need to have a look at dreamsas if they're ever evolving
and your purpose will change.
And when I sat in that middle ofthat conversation between those
two women, I put my two centsin because I actually thought,
I'm That the comment from thesecond woman would make the first
woman feel quite inadequate.
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Now whether that did or not, that is theway I took it and if that question was
directed back at me, it's like, how doyou not know your passion or purpose?
I would probably feel inadequate
and I sat there and I said, yourpassion and your dreams are an ever
moving and ever evolving thing.
Then it's not just one thing.
I gave an example.
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I went through a really hardtime when I was pregnant and
when I gave birth to my daughter.
And because I've lived through thatexperience, I now have a dream of
creating a charity to help singlemums go through pregnancy alone.
If I didn't have that experience, Iwouldn't know that's my next dream.
And it's not just a dreamof, I want to do that.
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I want to take it off the list.
That's it.
I'm done.
And then move on to the next thing.
This charity of mine is.
my heartfelt dedication to changethe world of mother's lives.
And that's my purpose, my purposehas never been to play small.
I've always known that nomatter how lost I felt along the
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way, I wanted to play bigger.
I wanted to make something of myself.
I didn't want to just be this smallperson that I had felt up until I was 29.
I think that we define ourselvesby our dreams and passions.
We define our whole livesin accordance with numbers.
Every single thing that we do isdefined by a number, I talk a
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lot from experiences and feelings.
And when I realized just before I turned30, that my whole life was in turmoil,
my marriage was in turmoil, whilst mybusinesses were succeeding, everything
who I became was not what I expected atall for how my life to turn out like.
I thought that in yourtwenties, you're meant to.
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Make yourself who you want to befor the future, isn't it meant
to make life really easy for you?
Yes, it's meant to be astruggle, but you're meant to
then have it all figured out.
When I realized at 29 that my lifewas not at all what I wanted it to
be, what I expected it to be, I wasreally down and out about it because I
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thought my life was essentially over.
I thought that I'm about to hit 30.
I'm basically halfway to dead and Idon't have anything really like, how am
I meant to turn my life around from here?
When I left my marriage, Iwalked out of my marriage with
no home to go to, no money.
And we had to start from scratch.
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My daughter and I had tostart completely again.
I needed to reinvent myself.
I needed to work out who I wasbecause I lost so much of it through
years of working and narratives andexpectations that I looked in the
mirror and I had no idea who I was.
I didn't know what I was good for.
I ran my graphic design agency.
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It won an award . And, you know what,when I won that award, whilst I was
grateful and I was so blessed to havewon that award, I felt numb about it.
I posted it on my own personalsocial media about the journey
that I'd gone on to win thataward that was really exciting.
But I didn't post the award on mybusiness page because I just feel like
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I was a hamster wheel doing the thing.
I didn't feel like I wasmaking a real difference.
And I felt completely empty.
So when I looked at my lifeat 29, I was like, that's it.
It's done.
It's over.
Now I'm about to turn it around from here.
all of the things that hadshaped my career path, my dreams,
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everything's happened for a reason.
And I think that's where we have, weneed to have a look at our purpose
with what has happened in your life.
that can shape you to be better.
So there are so many people in the worldthat go through and they think that
they've got a really poor mindset, they'vehad bad experiences, things aren't what
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they thought they were meant to be.
So then they just exist andthey don't try and improve.
Self development is one of the biggestthings that help you find your purpose.
Because when you start working onyourself in an intangible way, The
tangible things will come to fruition andyou'll be able to explore opportunities.
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A lot more, but we defineourselves by these numbers.
By what age we are, how many fine lineswe've got, how many followers we've got,
our friends, how much money is in our bankaccount, how much we weigh, every single
thing that we do is defined by numbers.
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And I think we need to stop that becauselife is as much time as you've got.
But I listened to this sayingthat has gone around the world
a lot, that every single personhas the same 24 hours in a day.
And I listened to one of my mentors theother day and she said, we actually don't
all have the same 24 hours in the day.
We don't have the same 24.
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Hours of opportunities.
We don't have the same goals.
So we need to remove that pressureof looking at someone who's highly
successful and think, Oh, if they've got24 hours, I've got that same 24 hours.
Why am I not furtheralong than what they are?
If we're going to define ourselvesby numbers, we need to start defining
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ourselves by the amount of timeswe wake up in the morning, looking
forward to the day or dreading the day.
That is a really importantnumber to look at.
And how many joyful memories have you got?
We need to get rid of that narrative ofwe're only as good as what our number is.
We're only as good as what our IQ is,how much we weigh, how old we are.
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I speak to so many middle aged women,and they feel like their life's over.
Because they just have gottento 50, they've got new ideas,
but feel like it's too late.
When you have a look at it, some of themost successful people in the entire
world who have really made waves actuallydidn't start until much later in life.
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Nelson Mandela is a phenomenal example.
He was a revolutionistin the Apartheid times.
He was sentenced to life in prison at 46.
He then had people rallyingbehind him around the scenes
and got him out of prison.
And then he became the firstblack president at 76 years old.
So he changed lives.
very late in life.
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Yes, he was a revolutionist.
He knew he wanted to change thesegregation that was his purpose.
Generally, when you get sentencedto life in prison, that's
the end of the road for you.
You're looking at the next fourwalls for the rest of your life.
And there's not many waves thatyou can make when you're sitting
in a prison cell but, becoming apresident at 76, that's a revolution
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in itself after coming out of prison.
Mother Teresa, she was a nun at 18.
She didn't start her Catholic girlsschool until she was in her 40s.
Then she started looking afterpoor people and unwell people.
She became a humanitarian, but thenwon her Nobel Peace Prize at 69.
For her missionaries of charity, whichwe know all around the entire world.
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Ray Kroc, another one.
He was 52 when he metthe McDonald's brothers.
Before that, he was trying to sellmilkshake makers to hamburger joints
until he met the McDonald's brothers.
showed him his milkshake machine.
They all decided to join forces.
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Seven years later, he bought theMcDonald's franchise and he created
this trillion dollar enterprise allbecause he was smart enough at 52
to see an opportunity and take it.
You look at Vera Wang.
Vera Wang didn't design herfirst dress until she was 40.
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She was a figure skater anda journalist before that.
People can shift at any age.
You can change your path as muchas you want to, how drastically you
want to, no matter where you're at.
But then you look at the people whohave known their passion and their
purpose, but they have just failedtime and time again, which I think
that a lot of us also have that.
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We know what we want, but we failed at it.
So then we think, okay,actually, I'm not good at that.
I'm going to fail at that.
I failed at it.
So I'm going to quit while I'm ahead.
I'm going to cry myself ina corner because I failed.
Now, don't get me wrong.
I have failed so many more timesthan I have found success, but I
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look at my failures now as part ofmy success, because without those.
I wouldn't have been able to learn.
I wouldn't have been able to grow.
I wouldn't have been able torealize that there are flaws in me
and my thinking and My risk takingthat probably need realignment.
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And without that realization, I wouldbe still stuffing things up left right,
and center, and I will still stuffthings up left right, and center.
I'm always learning.
I know that particularly beinga mom, I didn't go to university
and study how to be a mom.
I discovered I'm not a mom type.
I'm very much a freespirited, best friend.
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I've always watched Gilmore girlsand always wanted to be like
Lorelai Gilmore, like Gilmore.
But, I fail at so many things.
But it doesn't deter me from pushingforward, which that's where the mentality
of some people is, it's either yourcup's either half full or half empty.
And if you've got the thought that yourmind is looking at things as if the
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cup's half empty, you really just needto work on how to shift that mindset
to make it look like it's half full.
Because once you see that it's half full,opportunities start opening up for you.
Once you become an optimist, youactually open your mind to ideas.
Because ideas are like a door.
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So you imagine your brain is a hallway.
It's got all of these doors.
Some doors are open,some doors are closed.
Obviously, whatever doors are open,you're going to receive more of it.
So what you give thoughtto, you give power to.
It's the same with scarcity.
If you think you don'thave enough, guess what?
You're always not going to have enough.
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You've got to work out what doors areopen, if you've got a negative mindset.
you need to shut that door.
If you've got bad friends,you need to shut that door.
You need to open the door to newfriends and new opportunities.
If your heart's closed and yourmind's closed, then you won't
receive ideas for opportunities.
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You won't see things in a different light.
To change them because that's essentiallywhat finding your purpose is that you
find things on your path as you're goingalong that change how you perceive life.
And you will actually think thatyou want to change it or fix it
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because, we come across so manythings in life that we very rarely do
we want them just to stay the same.
We don't want ourrelationships to stay the same.
We want them to grow andwe want them to be better.
We don't want our money to stay the same.
We want that to be better.
We want us to start aging like finewine, rather than aging awfully.
It's the way you look at things thatmake you a magnet you either attract
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it in a negative way or a positive way.
And when you're looking at failures,
We look at J.
K.
Rowling, one of the most influentialpeople in the world, she's changed
the world drastically with hermagic and fantasy with Harry Potter.
But when she was 20, she wrote HarryPotter and the Philosopher's Stone while
she was on government benefits, and shewas looking after her young daughter.
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Now, when she finished themanuscript of that first book,
she was declined by 12 publishers.
Before she got to the next publisher,who brought her on board and they were
really excited, she was really excited.
They came with fine print.
So this publisher who published HarryPotter and the Philosopher's Stone,
they actually told her not to useher full name, Joanne Rowling, on
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the cover of the Harry Potter books.
They said no one wants to hear of afemale author writing about boy wizards.
is on the books, because they told herher female voice wasn't good enough.
Which is, really sad, but she's stillgone on to make millions and millions of
dollars and created a world of happinessand joy in the third series she
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pulled in the Dementors using them asexperience from her clinical depression.
So without her experience of clinicaldepression, the Dementors wouldn't be
an iconic darkness of the movie thatreally played out into the whole story.
Walt Disney, he faced crazy challenges.
Whilst he's one of the best mindsin the world, he, in his first
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animation studio, he actually had todeclare bankruptcy in its first year.
But that didn't stop him from wantingto continue to build a legacy with
his thought of Disneyland, hewas so relentless in wanting to
build the happiest place on earth.
He was actually declined byfinancial investors and financial
opportunities over 300 times.
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And the only way he could get financeto start Disneyland was using a
completely different name and an alias.
So people didn't know who he was.
Oprah was told during one of herfirst TV anchor positions that
she wasn't fit for television.
She's now one of the greatesttelevision talk show and inspirational
people in the entire world.
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So there's all these things thatyou look at it and if it's not what
it was meant to be, find anotherway for it to be even better.
And every single one of ushave different experiences
that shapes what path we're on.
And every experience thatwe have is like a pebble.
That pebble is either a sharp stone,or there's a smooth one that you
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can slip on, ones that's reallypretty, ones that's really dark.
And you know what, it doesn'tactually matter because you need
those pebbles and those stonesto make your next step forward.
One brick doesn't build anentire house, but a magnitude
of bricks, creates life in it.
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So if you're feeling stuck, I wantyou to have a look around you also,
at your people, your social circle.
Are your people positive and striving forsomething, or are you surrounding your
life with people who are just existingand don't want to move forward in life?
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Now there's nothing wrong with not wantingto move forward in life and just existing.
There's nothing wrong with that at all.
But if you're listening to this,then that means that you're wanting
something more from your life.
Let me tell you right now, it'swho you surround yourself with
that will make or break you.
And when you start leveling up in yourpersonal development and your aspirations,
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the people around you will also level up.
When I left my marriage, I didn't haveany friends it was really interesting
for me to come out of that and realizingthat I had actually had a social circle
around me that wasn't lifting me up.
They were actually tearing medown and now don't get me wrong.
Not bad people at all.
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But they just had different.
Path that they were goingon to what I was going on.
But I also looked at the amountof people I had in my life that
were a massive influence and hadbeen there right from early days.
And that was, women around me who weremuch older, but they were my mentors.
They were people that inspired to be likethem, but I didn't see them as my friends.
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But now that I'm out of my old socialcircle, I've actually realized that.
My mentors are my friends.
I can call them with anyproblems that I've got.
They give me more motivationthan my old friends ever could.
I remember when I openedmy first business.
I called my best friend atthe time and it was the first
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month that we ran into the red.
I didn't have enough moneyto pay the commercial rent.
I was struggling for fuel and I neededto pay money out of my own pocket or
out of my family's pocket to make upfor the shortfall in the business.
And when I rang her and Isaid, I don't know what to do.
Just distraught because Ithought ultimately I failed.
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She said to me, just close it.
You've obviously tried it.
It obviously hasn't worked.
Just close the business.
It's not worth it.
Now, that was my first realization intothe people around you, whether they
bring you up or tear you down, becausewhen I got off the phone, I was so
disheartened, not about my situationwith not being able to pay my rent,
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but my situation of my friendship.
Because I poured my blood, sweat,and tears starting this business.
And it is my existence.
Her telling me to shut down mybusiness was basically her telling
me to give up my first child.
it just wasn't that simple.
And I was like, I don't want to do that.
And I'm going to work outa way to make this better.
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But it just didn't comprehend,which there's nothing wrong with
that because She had a differentpath that she was taking.
She had different experiences.
She didn't run a business.
She didn't know about workinglife or anything like that.
So I took what she said,and I threw it in the bin.
And that was my first time that Ithought actually, no, I need better
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people than this to help me and provideme with insight, not tell me just to
shut it down and quit while I'm ahead.
So if you are feeling stuck,have a look at those people.
Have a look at the people who inspireyou every day to be a better person.
Have a look At the people whoare chasing their dreams, who are
taking risks, because when you aredoing life and finding a purpose,
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you have to become comfortable withbeing uncomfortable, taking risks.
They're some of the biggest minds in thewhole world, they've all taken risks.
Maybe the reason you're feeling stuck andyou don't have direction is because you
don't have any confidence in yourself.
You are worried about failing.
You're worried aboutthe opinions of others.
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Now they're major thingsfor people to get stuck on.
And it's about vocalizingyour frustrations.
You don't internalize your frustrations.
If you've got things about youthat you don't like, write it down.
Make it known.
And I tell you what, 90 percent ofthe time, The things that you don't
like about yourself are the thingsthat people have told you they don't
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like about you and you've shapedthat narrative in your own mind.
You need to write all of the traitsthat you've got down, all of the
things that you believe about yourself.
You need to write everysingle one of them down.
Good, bad, write themdown without thought.
And then read back through that listand have a look at the things that are
on that list that actually aren't true.
That someone else has told you and someoneelse has shaped that narrative for you.
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Because once you start to become selfaware, you then start to see what areas
in life that you want to make better,what areas do you want to improve,
and you look at the world aroundyou as to see What gaps can I fill?
so many of us live in a state ofunconscious living and reaction,
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rather than being consciously awareof what's happening around them
and their thoughts in their head.
And when you start shifting fromliving unconsciously which is just
existing, to consciously being aware of
your thought patterns, your wants andyour dreams , it changes everything.
So many people say when you'retrying to find your passion, do
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the thing you're good at, it's notnecessarily the thing that you love.
But that couldn't be more wrong becauseyou need to find what you love to do.
Now whether you make money off thatthing that you love to do, or you don't
make money, you can nearly make moneyoff . Any thing that you love doing.
And the reason why I say that youneed to incorporate what you love
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doing is because if you're doingsomething that you're good at, but you
don't like it, it will destroy you.
I was good at running my plantequipment, Hire business.
I made the family a lot of money, but Ihated it with every fiber of my being.
I was loading up heavy trailers andequipment and getting close to running
exhaust when I was heavily pregnant.
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While I had men who just stoodthere and watched me while I loaded
trailers and equipment up to cars.
I couldn't shower when I wanted tobecause we ran the business from home.
People would just rock up outside oftheir appointment hours, anywhere between
six in the morning to nine 30 at night.
I was good at it.
It was a success.
I lost who I was in the process.
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The thing that made it not fun was thefact that I needed to chase the money
and I didn't put boundaries in place formyself to stop me from feeling burnt out.
And I think that's probably one ofthe things that is really important
to take notice of is when youdon't put boundaries in place,
that's when resentment will build.
At the end of the day, you're responsiblefor your boundaries, what you're willing
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to accept and what you won't accept.
When you close the door to thingsthat you won't accept, that makes
room for things that you will accept.
Is there a failure that you'veendured that made you believe you
can't be successful at anything?
Because if you've looked atthat, then you need to Google all
of the people who have failed.
Re listen to this podcast you needto look at failures as an opportunity
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rather than the end of the road.
Do you want to go back to school?
Is the thing that you really wantto do that you're passionate about,
and get an education to do that?
Do you need to have a full time jobto then be able to fund your dream?
Because sometimes it's not aboutjust quitting everything and.
Starting your dream and that'swhat you need to do quite often.
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It's not, it's so far from that.
Actually, You need to still putin some work in areas that you
don't necessarily want to do.
So then that way it can fund youand create more freedom and build
a financial barrier behind you.
So then you can go and dowhat you want to achieve.
If you're feeling stuck, don't lookat what you want, because that's
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the whole reason why we're stuck.
We actually don't know what we want, butyou need to focus on what you don't want.
What don't you want for your life?
And you work backwards from there.
When you look at what you don'twant, you then are able to shape a
little bit more of what you do want.
But as John Maxwell said, youdon't automatically get better.
You automatically get older.
So you actually need to be intent.
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in yourself getting better and developing.
When you don't knowyour passion, step back.
You don't need to have it all figured outlook at areas that sparks a fire in you.
If there's no fire, if you can't lookat any area in your life right now
where there's no fire, that's okay.
that just means you haven'texperienced the thing that's
going to change your life yet.
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Because that happens.
every single day for so many people.
Now that experience mightbe good or it might be bad.
If that experience is bad, thenyou need to take that and turn
it into an opportunity becauseopportunities are everywhere.
You either take it and run withthe bulls or just sit there and
hopefully for it to fall in your lap.
nothing falls in your lap.
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The only time when things fall inyour lap is when you intentionally
put out what you want to bring in.
I want to leave you with one of myfavorite quotes by Marianne Williamson.
It is not our deepest fearthat we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that weare powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not ourdarkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who are weto be brilliant, gorgeous,
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talented, or fabulous?
But actually, who are you not to be?
As we let our light shine, weunconsciously give other people
permission to do the same, as weare liberated from our own fear.
Our presence actually liberates others.
Write that quote down,because you are powerful.
If you've got the ability to blink,to breathe, to feel, to see, to walk.
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How many people who have beenparalyzed and gone on to the Olympics?
How many people who haveendured violence abuse?
And racial segregation.
And they've gone on to make waves.
They've turned a bad experienceinto a positive experience.
So you'll find your passion.
You'll find your purpose inlife and it'll all become clear.
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It might not become clear until you're60 or 70, which is perfectly fine.
Take each day, don't try and rush it.
When you try and rush it,you'll miss other opportunities.
Even if you want to message mewith your dreams or passions or
something that you remember youwanted to do, and we can brainstorm
to see how we can get you clearer.
Or, if you are feeling stuck, thenplease reach out to me because
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it's not about being alone.
It's not about trying to findyour way in the darkness.
It's all about just looking for theopportunities and working towards
making yourself a better person.
If you liked today's episode ofThe Business Vault, be sure to
subscribe and share with your fellowentrepreneurial friends who might just
need some help along their journey too.
Until we see you on the nextepisode, have fun and don't forget
(31:48):
to always reach for your dreams.