In my last post, I wrote about my daily gratitude jog ritual. Well, I have a lot to be grateful for these days. For some reason, the last two weeks of my life have been packed full of personal revelations. I’ve been learning a lot.
Between attending business seminars, teaching my first online course, writing Valentines poetry, making new friends at coffee shops, and solving health mysteries, I have had a really eye-opening couple of weeks.
Here’s a list of personal revelations that I’m grateful to have had recently:
- Don’t push away the fear. Learn how to be afraid.
- Multipotentialite parents have a responsibility to a) expose their kids to a wide range of culture and activities, and b) pursuit their own interests, so that their kids see that it’s normal and healthy to do the same when they grow up.
- When it comes to dating, start with passion, and then see if the person fits your checklist, not the other way around.
- Don’t tweak the CSS yourself!
- Reach out to people you think are inaccessible. They’re often a lot friendlier than you think.
- Surround yourself with people who see such big things in your future that it scares the shit out of you.
- If you’re having mysterious digestive symptoms, don’t mess around with strange diets and waste money on naturopaths for two years. Get a GI panel done now. You will get answers, and they will blow your mind.
- Eat coconut oil.
- The difference between boredom and resistance becomes clear by listening to yourself. Is it dread only? Or is there a pinch of excitement, deep down, mixed in with the crushing fear?
- Opportunities come to those that other people want to be around.
Your Turn
What have you learned recently?
I love this post! Learning to be afraid is something I’m really trying to be better at. I read somewhere that ‘fear is just excitement without the breath.’ Meaning that fear is usually just opportunity, and if we breathe deeply into it, we’ll find the place where fear flips over into excitement. It sound hokey, but it actually kind of works.
I would also add to no. 8: Do EVERYTHING with coconut oil. It makes a great moisturizer too! 😉
Oh absolutely! Fear is so uncomfortable, and our instinct is to push it away. But that only makes it stronger. It’s like you said, converting the adrenaline to fuel is the way to go. I’ve found that embracing the spotlight feels far better than running from it. That’s when nervous situations actually become fun.
And coconut oil… Oh man, am I in love with that stuff! I literally have to watch myself or I will eat a whole tub. Lol.
I’m backing the coconut oil as well! It’s amazing.
I use it as a makeup remover as well as eating & cooking with it, using it as a moisuriser for skin and hair and using it to help heal any open wounds (though this tends to apply to my little brother than to me).
It seems like everywhere you turn on the internet at the moment someone’s using it in a new and amazing way, I keep discovering new tricks with it.
Yes! Don’t mess with the CSS yourself. Oh God I wish I never did that. I had to literally start my site over from scratch. I will never touch the CSS again. On the other hand, I might give the coconut oil a shot, as long as it doesn’t crash my website. For clarification, the coconut oil is for me, not my computer, right? Thanks Emilie for always brightening up my day!
OUCH! I once had a CSS mishap about a year ago, where I accidentally deleted my wordpress footer and had to re-code the entire thing. It was like 3am too, and I hadn’t been paying attention because I was so exhausted. Brutal. That was a long night.
Haha nope, coconut oil is too yummy to waste on computers! It’s like a magic food. Google it. It’s incredibly healthy for you. And spooning a teaspoon into your mouth a few times a day will give you a nice boost of energy as well.
I firmly believe that nothing good happens at 3am! I didn’t know about the coconut oil. Sounds like something I need to take. Thanks Emilie!!!!
Smiling through all 10 of your revelations. You’re onto some great stuff, especially plowing your way through fear.
Not sure if you’re a comic book/superhero fan, but The Green Lantern movie helped to put this into a visual reality that I could latch onto. The only true combatant for fear in the movie, was willpower. He had to use willpower to blow right through fear. You’re the next Green Lantern Emilie! The multipotentialite Puttytribe won’t let you back down and settle for anything less than greatness.
Aww thanks Jason! You’re amazing.
I’ve been thinking about you in regard to the health stuff in particular. It looks like I’m officially going to be a member of your gluten-free club! (I’m actually happy, because I’ve been on a way more extreme diet, and gluten-free sounds like heaven from where I’m sitting)!
And you know #6 was about you and the gang, dontcha? 😉
Yes! I knew #6 stemmed out of the “hot-seat”… 🙂 You are in the perfect spot to be gluten free. The options are pretty epic out there in Portland. Looking forward to coming back and trying some other stuff.
I have learned that being patient about an issue or problem for too long can turn into complacency. Patience can be a good thing — good except when it means you are tolerating something in your life that COULD be changed — but you use “patience” as a reason to avoid or defer actually doing something about the problem. I think that was a run-on sentence, but hopefully you get my meaning.
I like being a patient person who doesn’t get irritated or frustrated easily, but every good trait has it’s bad side. Just as I was typing this, I actually made the connection between “patience” and procrastination which is a big problem for me. I guess I often use “patience to put a nice spin on “I just don’t feel like figuring out that problem right now”…Always a new self-discovery around the corner.
Oh boy! I resonate with so many of these! In the past couple of weeks I have learned that, no matter how much I want to collaborate with those around me, I have to be extremely careful about WHO I talk to and make sure that they’ll be as committed to the project as me. I can’t tell you how many times I have tried to collaborate with people but they can’t keep up with my speed, with my ambitions and dire to do things NOW, not tomorrow.
A couple weeks ago was the final straw. So now, I just need to really pick & choose and before even deciding to collab with anyone, I need to realize if collaboration is really the best effort I can give, or if I can do it on my own.
Thanks for the great post!
I so hear you on this, Morgan! Finding compatible team members is so vital. It just doesn’t work if you’re going at different paces or there are different levels of commitment. But a good team can be absolutely magical! Definitely worth hunting for. (p.s. you should come to a Huddle sometime. I’d love to see you in the Puttytribe)
i’ve learned that staring fear straight into the eyes is the only way to move forward. moving towards what my heart believes in, is much more important that taking the safe & certain route.
i am still learning to get out of my own way and shout from the mountain tops that my work is of value.
i love reading about your journey, too! it is insightful and wonderfully inspiring.
Thanks Brenna. I agree, pretending fear doesn’t exist doesn’t work. You need to acknowledge it, and then do the work anyway.
And the mountain top shouting will come with time. For real. 🙂
YES Emilie! I am so excited to read these and especially the tummy troubles part! I messed around with incompatible/unhelpful doctors/naturopaths for years and only until I found a half holistic but half traditional doc that ran a profile for me did I finally get an answer and start feeling BETTER! (granted I’ve had to go the better part of a year without pretty much every food I used to eat…but hopefully that’s not permanent). Did they test you for food allergies and other common GI imbalances? I couldn’t believe that with one appointment I got more answers than a decade of frustration where I was genuinely feeling like I’d never feel better or worse, was just ‘imagining things’.
So so so happy you’re getting answers and hopefully feeling better!
Wow! It’s so interesting that it was a half holistic, half traditional doc who helped you. I had the exact same situation! Just started going to an “integrative medicine” clinic. Part naturopaths, part docs. It’s the most amazing place!
We haven’t gotten to food allergies quite yet (well except for gluten, which I have a severe intolerance to). There’s some major GI imbalances that we have to fix first. I’ve been on a super restrictive diet for about 2 years now. I’ll have to stay on it a bit longer (not a big deal at this point), but once we do some restorative work, I’ll be able to start integrating more food back into my life. I’m so excited to finally have some real answers, a plan, and a competent team behind me!
Thanks for the support, Lesley. 🙂
Oh that’s awesome. I’m so glad that you’re finding answers finally, and so coincidental we’re both seeing the same type of people at an integrated clinic!
Hopefully it’s not TMI to put out here about my GI stuff but when they ran tests on me they found out I had systemic candida which, they’re hypothesizing, caused a bunch of food intolerances/allergies by turning into leaky gut syndrome (ack!). So the theory is if I keep staying away from the ‘bad foods’ for about a year (it’s been about 7 months now) there’s a decent chance some of the allergies will go away. They had me on diflucan for 2 weeks at the beginning and then 2 months of no sugar or fermented foods plus avoiding all of the intolerances, then had me take a few supplements for a few more months (triphala, l-glutamine, colostrum, and a pro-biotic) and now I’m just pluggin’ along sans allergy foods for the time being.
Sorry that’s probably super medical stuff clogging up your comments! But I just figured I’d put it out there in case you or anyone else reading it has run into something similar. I’ll be sending healthy tummy thoughts your way!
Um we must talk. I’m going to send you an email though. 🙂
Most recently, I learned…
That just when you think someone is too set in their ways to change – they do, and shock the heck out of you.
And launching a new idea into the world is scary, but worth it.
Beautiful.
I learned that 43 is pretty old to learn how to ski…..ouch!
I’ve not given up, even though I am pretty sore and fed up with my kids zooming past me, lol!
Haha good for you, Ian! Show that mountain who’s boss.
“Learn how to be afraid.” LOVE that. 🙂
This sounds a little strange, but one thing that scares the heck out of me is having the project I’m most passionate about actually become successful. If my dream of booking a full-time caseload of clients in my online therapy practice comes true, how will I have time to do my day job justice, keep my house clean, exercise, and finish various projects? One or all of those things must suffer to some extent in order to reach my ultimate goal. Bummer.
Right now I’m experimenting with different schedules to see what works. (Hoping to channel my fear into discipline!) I’m new to Puttylike (via BlogcastFM), so I’m just starting to embrace my inner multipotentialite. Thanks for what you’re doing here!
Hey, thanks Kimberly! It’s always nice to meet a new multipotentialte. 🙂
The fear of success is a big one that so many of us face. There are so many answers to the obstacles you named though. The key is not letting the stress overwhelm and paralyze you, but to test instead. It sounds like you’re doing exactly this!
I mean, some strategies that spring to mind are: quitting your day job (or rearranging some things, cutting down hours, etc.), hiring someone to clean your house (with all that extra moo-lah from the business), and rock some productivity systems to make the other stuff work (like you’re doing).
Every entrepreneur has this problem when they become successful. It’s all about delegation and systems (or so I’ve been told. 🙂
A good problem to have. Congrats!
Yes, a good problem indeed. Thanks for your insight — you’re helping me feel more confident that I have control over my schedule as opposed to my schedule having control over me!
Don’t expect a business or job you love to make you “happy”.
Courtesy of “The Happiness Trap” by Dr. Russ Harris.
Very nice.
I’ve learned a TON recently… but the lessons that stick out the most to me right now are:
1) Trust in Yourself
2) Trust in the Universe
3) Don’t send mixed signals–if you want something, want it with all your heart, with all your being, with all your thoughts and don’t deviate from it no matter what
On January 1 I declared that I would quit my job this year and run my business full time. It’s less than 3 months into the year and I’m already 30 days away from working for myself full time!
Miracles happen in life when you believe in them… Oh, I guess that’s lesson number 4! 🙂
YES!!! I AGREE 10,000%
Manifestation has been huge for me. Huuuuge! (My gratitude jog is in large part based around these principles. You probably noticed that. 🙂
[FYI – My “general” comment for some reason initially posted underneath another poster’s comments so forgive the duplicate]
I have learned that being patient about an issue or problem for too long can turn into complacency. Patience can be a good thing — good except when it means you are tolerating something in your life that COULD be changed — but you use “patience” as a reason to avoid or defer actually doing something about the problem. I think that was a run-on sentence, but hopefully you get my meaning.
I like being a patient person who doesn’t get irritated or frustrated easily, but every good trait has it’s bad side. Just as I was typing this, I actually made the connection between “patience” and procrastination which is a big problem for me. I guess I often use “patience to put a nice spin on “I just don’t feel like figuring out that problem right now”…Always a new self-discovery around the corner.
Hi Jenn,
Yes, there’s a very fine line between patience/education/waiting for the “right time,” and fear. I try to live by the motto: learn only what you need to learn to get started, and then START.
You might try hanging that one on your wall. 🙂
*hugs*
Hi Emilie
I really enjoyed this post.
I had to read the first one a couple of times to truly get it. Learn how to be afraid. Very true!
I actually laughed out loud at the CSS bulletpoint. Totally understand that one. I finally had the courage to make a tweak to my php the other day. Thankfully I achieved the result I was after (much to my surprise). I normally struggle with anything that has to do with code.
Really like number 6 as well.
Personally, last week was a shocker for me. I think I am still processing exactly what I learned out of it. But one thing I do know is that I always get there in the end.
Cheers
Thea
Thanks Thea! And that’s very cool. I love periods of revelation. I hope I get to read about yours at some point too.
Your #2 is something I was thinking about this morning. I was thinking how children see us as parents, and how we can teach them to be vulnerable by being vulnerable ourselves to the beauty and art around us.
We recently discovered coconut oil and I watched a video on how it affects our brains. (I’m so in need of brain functionality!!!) LOL!
Love your revelation about resistance and fear. It’s my guide/compass, and I use it to choose what path I’m going to take.