🔁 BEST OF - You Did It!

Hello! 👋 send me a text message! Tell me what your thoughts 💭 are about this episode

Strap in and join me, as I remember facing my inner fears of driving 🚗 cross country from Northern New York to Mesa Arizona 🏜. I chose 🔁 BEST OF - You Did It! from Season 1 to remind myself & YOU , that by purposefully making a decision that  conquers 💥your own anxiety of the unknown 😫, can be a huge fulfillment!
It's not only about accomplishing huge personal inner struggles. It's also about reflecting upon true gratefulness 🥰 every day for your own inner peace ☮️, even when you are struggling with very difficult life challenges that YOU will overcome! It's the little moments of making the best out of what is in front of you, that will keep guiding 🌅YOU towards your best version of yourself! ❤️
 So buckle up, and let's hit the road 🛣 to empowerment 💥 and shared tales 📝 of resilience.

LINKS! 🚨🚨👇 👇
I would LOVEEEEE to hear 🗣 📧 from YOU ‼️
[e-mail] - 📧 Send Me Your Own Personal  - I Did It! - moment!! By sharing YOUR own story, YOU will be empowering 💥not only yourself, but the universe 🪐needs more positive voices!!
https://speakpipe.com/NearestAndDearestPodcast - 🗣 Want to give a quick shout out about YOUR own - I Did It! - moment?! I can share it on a future episode!
Share your mailing address 📬 👇[e-mail] - I'll send you a vinyl Nearest And Dearest Podcast sticker to put on your fav water bottle! ❤️
 

Episode Transcript

Julie Rogers (00:05):
No one ever said life is easy, but I believe by
giving yourself permission, youwill find you have more control
over your life than you realize.
I'm Julie.
I hope you will join me bytaking responsibility for
yourself, by only controllingthe things you can and letting
go of the things that you can't.
By doing this, you will havediscovered the secret to having

(00:30):
happy, healthy and morefulfilling relationships.
This is Nearest And DearestPodcast.
I'm Julie Rogers and you arelistening to Episode 23.
You Did It! I want to hearabout that one thing you did

(00:56):
that changed your life.
It can be as challenging asfacing your biggest fear, like
driving cross-country for thefirst time ever, even though you
have anxiety about driving longdistance.
Or how about how you survivedon a low-income paycheck while

(01:19):
being a single parent withoutany child support, but was able
to have food on the table andpay your rent.
Life struggles are the realdeal.
I have faced them.
You have as well.

(01:39):
The difference between facingthem and successfully surviving
them is how you handle thosesituations and finding the
motivation that keeps you movingforward.

(02:02):
Woody and I decided to take ourfifth wheel camper to Mesa,
Arizona, for the winter of 2019.
We had a job opportunity forthe both of us to work from
November 2018 through the winterat a very nice RV park resort.

(02:23):
He was going to be pulling thecamper with his big Ford truck
and I was going to be driving myJeep Wrangler.
The furthest I had ever drivenby myself was from Northern New
York down to Augusta, Georgia.

(02:46):
This long drive from our homein New York and drive
cross-country to Mesa, Arizona,was going to take us five days,
if all goes well.
Our goal was to drive 500 milesa day and the trip is roughly

(03:10):
about 2,500 miles.
My anxiety about driving longdistance goes as far back as
when I first got my driver'slicense, which didn't happen
until I was 21.
I wasn't that teenager that wasexcited to drive.

(03:36):
I had a real fear of driving onany interstate highway.
I don't even know why.
I used to think maybe I had ahorrible or tragic accident in a
past life that involved a car,but however it came to be, my

(04:00):
fear was real to me.
I did conquer that fear ofdriving the interstate when I
realized that I was limiting myopportunities to go places by
myself.
I used to have others drive mewhen needed, like my ex-husband

(04:23):
or my friends, who were morecomfortable driving highways.
It wasn't until I workedpart-time at a radio station and
I had to get to my work siteson my own.
I was part of a promotions roadcrew that I started facing

(04:47):
those fears.
I wasn't going to let my ownfear stop me from pursuing a job
that I really enjoyed.
It was a big first step for me.
I still remember my heartracing when I first would get on

(05:10):
the highway and have to speedup to pass someone, to get by
them or take an exit ramp.
I would have sweaty palms and Iwould take extra breaths to
inhale and exhale.
I would tell myself You Did It!when I made it safely to my

(05:34):
destination.
It was the beginning of metaking more risks in order to
achieve my goals.
On my own terms, it wasempowering.
My driving is very differentthan Woody's.

(05:57):
He has more experiences withlong-haul driving than me.
I'm not an aggressive driver.
We decided that we would map outour daily goals and pick a
location where we would stop forthe night to sleep before we

(06:19):
would head out the next morning,usually around 7.
I didn't want to try and followhim, nor did I want to be the
leader of this journey.
The alternative for us was tohave that designated meeting

(06:40):
place.
We both had GPS through ourphones and we would only call if
we ran into any problems andlet the other one know when
whoever arrived first.
It was comforting knowing thatwe would only focus on each leg

(07:06):
of that trip at a time.
By doing that, I wasn't asoverwhelmed with the reality
that this trip was going to be2,500 miles.
We would alternate sleeping inthe RV at Walmart parking lots

(07:28):
or an RV campground.
That time we stopped in Kansasto see Woody's uncle, or
treating ourselves and stayingin a motel with the ability to
sleep in a king bed and take afresh hot shower.
It was quite an adventure.

(07:49):
By staying focused on eachday's driving destination and
visualizing the beginning andthe ending of each new morning
was how I got through thatchallenge.

(08:12):
I knew Woody had more to dealwith.
He was hauling a big fifthwheel.
He wasn't worried or concerned.
He's just that way.
He's calm and he handleswhatever comes his way.
Because of Woody's natural calmdemeanor, he would keep me at

(08:38):
ease with my anxieties.
To this day, when we traveltogether or I travel by myself,
I always say a little prayer fora safe journey for us and all
the others who drive on the road.

(08:59):
It's my own little way thathelps me feel secure.
I never thought that I wasafraid of heights.
However, on the last day oftraveling to make it to our
final destination of Mesa,Arizona, I realized that, yeah,

(09:28):
I don't like driving through bigmountains.
I was thinking to myself as Isaw this magnificent,
regal-looking mound of mountainsthat were straight ahead of me.
How am I going to drive throughthat?

(09:53):
It was part of Tonto NationalForest.
We had left Gallup, new Mexico,in the morning.
I was excited that this wasgoing to be under 300 miles.
I had no idea my last 60 milesor so was going to be the

(10:18):
hardest part of my drivingfor this road trip.
I literally had to talk myselfinto pressing forward.
I knew if I stopped and calledWoody to express my fears that I

(10:39):
wouldn't start the Jeep again.
I knew that about myself.
I had come so far, literallyand figuratively, that I was
going to just do it.
It was the closest to having apanic attack that I have ever

(11:07):
experienced.
Well, there was one other timewhen I was the passenger in my
ex-husband's big Dodge Ram truckheading up Mount Washington.
But that's another story foranother time.

(11:29):
I turned the radio off.
I turned the AC on high becausemy palms were so sweaty that I
would have to wipe them on myshorts and then stick them right
in front of the AC vents tocool them down.

(11:52):
Looking back now, as I'm tellingthis to you, I almost feel that
this huge, magnificent mountainwas taunting me and daring me
to climb it.
We were glad that this roadtrip did not have any real

(12:16):
issues from the start.
So here I am, the last leg, thelast 60 miles, and this
obstacle through my eyes wasstaring at me as if to say You

(12:37):
Can Do it, Julie! I kept driving, climbing higher and higher,
and the road was more curvy andcurvier.
I put on my hazard lights tolet the other drivers know that

(12:58):
I wasn't going to be speeding.
I would stay in the far rightlane when I could, and all I
remember is I couldn't wait tostart descending downward.
The sad part about me drivingthis while trying not to have a

(13:24):
full-blown panic attack was notbeing able to truly enjoy the
absolutely breathtaking viewsthat were all around me.
But my priority was to simplykeep going, staying focused on

(13:47):
the road ahead of me with bothsweaty palms on my steering
wheel and safely arrive at thebottom.
Once I reached the highway roadthat leveled off, I immediately

(14:08):
felt 100% better.
I thanked God for keeping mefrom losing my sanity and facing
my fear head-on.
I fist-pumped the air and Iyelled out to the universe.
I Did It! I Did It! When I toldWoody about how I survived my

(14:35):
inner battle with myself, I alsoproclaimed, just so you know,
when it's time to leave Arizonaand head back to New York, I
will not drive through TontoNational Forest again.
I don't care how much longerthe trip will be extended, but I

(15:02):
will go a different way.
Moving to Northern New York inthe summer of 2006 with my
then-16-year-old son, Sean, wasa major turning point in both of
our lives.
There are several reasons forthis.

(15:25):
The first and most difficultone was moving forward with our
lives without Sean's father.
The other challenging real-lifehardship was our financial
status.
I became a single working mom.

(15:46):
There was no child supportcoming in.
Joe's alcoholism left himjobless and eventually, at times
, homeless.
We had moved into alow-income-based housing
apartment in a small town wheremy two sisters lived.

(16:07):
We had to make huge adjustments.
My home in Connecticut wentinto foreclosure and the bank
took ownership, I had to let mycar be repossessed.
Ultimately, I took a job thatwas so close to our apartment

(16:30):
that I could walk to work.
I cleaned houses as well, tohelp supplement my only other
source of income.
During these struggling years,which lasted from 2006 to 2013,

(16:51):
I was the happiest that I hadever been.
I was on my own for the veryfirst time in my life, at the
age of 40.
It was a big transition for me.
Now, all my decisions aboutwhere we were going to live,

(17:15):
what kind of employment was Igoing to seek out and how was I
going to do it all by myselfwere all on me.
Of course, there were timeswhen I felt lonely and dealing
with how to make ends meet, butI truly tried to keep a positive

(17:39):
attitude, along with mystruggles.
Feeling grateful was a strongand powerful positive emotion
that still stays with me throughmy everyday life.
It doesn't matter how hard lifegets or how many struggles you

(18:01):
are dealing with every day, Iwould remind myself how grateful
I am to have a safe roof overmy head, a job that supports me
and my son and allows me to putfood on our table.
I found myself going to mylocal food bank when money was

(18:28):
tight some months and I neededassistance.
I remembered how it wasn't thatlong ago when I was dropping
off bags of canned food items tothe local food bank when I
lived in Connecticut.
I realized I was doing the bestthat I could to make a new life

(18:55):
for us.
You have to get down to thevery basics of life.
I was thankful that I had myfamily and friends around me.
It's only true gratitude thatyou genuinely feel in your heart

(19:16):
and soul, that helps you toappreciate everything you have
and not worry about what youdon't have.
Material things come and go.
Your marriage ends, financeschange.

(19:36):
You focus on how you areworking towards a healthier and
happier life.
I was happy knowing that I wasin control of my own life and
enjoying finding out who I amand what were my dreams and

(20:00):
goals.
I didn't fist pump into the airalone in my apartment and yell
to the universe, I Did It!, butI did acknowledge every day, no
matter what, that I was strivingto fulfill the best version of

(20:30):
myself.
If you want to share your ownpersonal I Did It! experience,
that you feel grateful for, Iwant to share it on a future
episode.
I want your empowerment to helpothers realize that any moment,

(20:58):
uncertainty, challenge orlife-changing goal makes a
difference.
Please visit my website,nearestanddearestpodcast.
com, and you will find my emailaddress, julie rogers@

(21:20):
nearestanddearestpodcast.
com, where you can send me yourown, I Did It! experience,
directly to me.
You can share your name orremain anonymous.
It's your choice.

(21:40):
I'm looking forward to hearingfrom you soon.
Thank you for listening.
The views and opinionsexpressed by Nearest And Dearest
Podcast are those of theauthors and do not necessarily

(22:01):
reflect the official policy orposition of Nearest And D earest
Podcast.
Any content provided by JulieRogers or any other authors are
of their opinion they are notintended to malign any religion,
ethnic group, club,organization, company,
individual or anyone or anything.

(22:24):
Thank you.