Thoughts on lessons

enter a few pages of my journal, written on the night I landed in France on the first international trip I've ever embarked on by myself. & a few journal prompts because, well, it's me ;)

Wow. What a trip. I am so proud of and impressed with myself. I did it. I came here.

Alone.

I flew here. Found my apartment. I listened to the guidance of my intuition and stumbled upon a beautiful place for dinner.

What a trip. Literally and figuratively.

I can already tell this is going to be a game-changing experience.

I’m so lucky.

Shall we track lessons learned?

Here are a few to start:

Lesson #1: do it scared.

Don’t let fear get in the way of doing something or being someone you wanna be.

💡Journal prompt: How often have you allowed fear dictate your actions?

Really, though?

I wonder if we reframe how we approach the things we fear and instead of wondering what would happen if it went wrong or if our fears came true, we wondered what would happen if it went RIGHT and if our DREAMS came true?

💕An excerpt from Glennon Doyle’s Untamed:

“ Glennon: No chance. She’s too fragile right now. What if she doesn’t make it and it breaks her?

Abby: What if she MAKES it and it MAKES her?”

Do it scared. Because guess what? Even if you “fail” you’ll have a good story. It’s always either a good time or a good story.

💕Another excerpt from Glennon Doyle’s Untamed:

“It’s true. We are terribly lucky. It is also true that we imagined this life before it existed and then we each gave up everything for the one-in-a-million chance that we might be able to build it together. We did not fall into this world we have now, we made it. I’ll tell you this: The braver I am, the luckier I get”

Do it scared. Be brave. even if it’s just for a few minutes. If you keep practicing being brave for a few minutes, those minutes will add up and before you know it, you might have just built a life you love.

At this moment, hearing the multitude and various accents and languages spoken at the table next to me is inspiring. To connect with others in one of the most impactful ways – the spoken word – in their native language…what a beautiful thing. Note to self: Be open to new people and perspectives and be open to learning their language to connect. but really, download Duolingo, research classes, and learn Spanish and French to start. (I have a tendency to be very ambitious, but I’m still going to hold to those commitments 😉)

Lesson #2: revel in novelty, in new perspectives. Exercise courage and bravery to open your mind.

Put yourself in other situations and places that REQUIRE you to have an open mind, to exercise bravery. Challenge yourself. We often surround ourselves with people that look and act like us – a tribal nod to our old ways of finding and keeping community because it kept us alive. In our cavepeople days, it used to be psychologically and physically safer to be with people you understood and who understood and knew you. It kept you alive.

We live in a different world now.

Perhaps we do not even realize that we surround ourselves with those like us.

So, I suppose awareness is the first piece and then it is the ability to be open-minded.

We discussed the idea and benefits of reverse mentoring at work. One of those benefits is broadening perspectives within the intimate 1:1, (assumingly) safe and vulnerable container that is a mentor/mentee relationship. The open-mindedness that comes from being mentored by someone different than you is beautiful if you choose to see it that way– whether that difference be age, career experience, lived experience, personal beliefs, etc.

These kinds of formats and mindsets LEAVE PEOPLE BETTER THAN THEY WERE, as long as you enter with an open mind.

Here’s some 💡⚡journal prompts ⚡💡if they help guide your own reflection 😘

Journal prompt: how can I open myself to be changed today? How can I seek or be open to new perspectives?

Journal prompt: How often have you allowed fear dictate your actions?