it's been a little over two months since the new year began so i thought i'd check in with you all to keep myself and each other accountable and share updates on how i've been more intentional with creating positive change in my life to stay focused, be present, and enjoy the little in-between moments in our day-to-day as they're the ones that add up to become the big moments. thank you so much to coach for sponsoring this live a life i proactively chose to live. every day we are presented with countless opportunities for us to learn, grow, be, and do our best. how we choose to react, if at all, to all these beautiful life happenings is a choice we get to make. though we can't choose how life mysteriously unravels itself, we can choose to gracefully roll with the punches. so here's a very ordinary work in my life that's made extraordinary by enjoying the little moments throughout the day in my 20 things i like to do more or less of in 2020 video, i shared that i like to stop stressing over things that aren't life-threatening, which is most things in our lives, and welcome with open arms more stillness, peace, and calm. i've been reminding myself to slow down where i can so that i can run when i have to run. speaking of running when i have to run, coach city soul are the most lightweight and comfortable sneakers i currently own. these days i've been choosing elevated comfort over flashy leather boots and my blisters have been immensely grateful as these sneakers are flexible, responsive, and super functional from running around the city. here i have my city soul in chalk but there are a bunch of different styles and color ways to choose from that you can find in the link in my description box. quoting scott h young's blog, busyness and productivity aren't the same thing. running around doing tasks isn't the same thing as accomplishing something important. hearing isn't the same as listening and empathizing isn't the same as nodding your head at the right times. it's easy to get caught up striving for the illusion of what we're really after. i found that often it is necessary to slow down in order to accomplish something meaningful. slowing down has allowed me to get more done. sleeping earlier has allowed me to wake up earlier and show up earlier to work to read with the team before the workday starts. knowing how hectic and crazy the day can get, it's a blessing to be able to spend mornings in stillness and in grounding ourselves as a team before we tackle the day together. another thing i wanted to work on is to work less and live more although i'll still be working because i'm trying to be a responsible redult adult so i have to show up for work. i've been trying to be more intentional with how i spend my time and my mental energy. in our day-to-day lives we can always work with what we have, blaze our own path, and do our own thing in big and small ways. the key takeaway is to focus on what we can change like how we choose to spend our time versus what we can't change. the fact that most of us have to show up to and for work. another takeaway is to listen to yourself and give yourself what you're craving, be it food or personal space. some days like today when the kitchen is popping with 10 too many people, you just want to eat your breakfast in peace and on days like this i make sure to keep my laptop powered off until i'm done eating. since i'll be working the rest of the day anyway i'm not gonna get so much done in 10 minutes that i cannot wait and eat my breakfast before i start working. less guarding my time, more spending it on helping and serving others. there are so many days where i show up to work and i'm fully immersed a thousand percent focus on what i have to do that i completely forget that there are people and teammates around me. i've also been operating on this belief that if i can do it better and faster than someone else, i'll do it myself. but i realized towards the end of last year that hoarding knowledge and spreading myself too thin across multiple projects wasn't doing me or anyone any good. so i've taken this as a learning opportunity to take a little step back to allow others to step forward whether it be in a work setting or a relationship life setting. learning to let go, trust in people, trust in the process, and have more patience for the greater collective good. on top of spending more time on helping and serving others, i'd also like to make more time in general. to be more spontaneous, to be more curious, carefree, and just spend time on what's important. living more, being outside more, spending little pockets of time throughout the day exploring even if it's on a work day. like today, dragging one of my beauty within kids out to stroll around the city, have a one-on-one, have a coffee, have a snack, have a drink, have a walk and talk, heart-to-heart meeting instead of sitting in a room in the office where we usually are. so with anything and everything that we do, we can easily turn the ordinary into something extraordinary by just being a bit more intentional with how we spend our time. meetings need to happen that is something we cannot change, but why not to get outside and enjoy a nice walk while we're at it since how we do the meeting is something that we can change. i've personally found that going out for walk and talks have allowed my teammates to be far more open and willing to share what's on their mind as opposed to being cooped up in a meeting room in the office where we are already all day, all week, all year. and for the record, for as much fun as it looks like we're having, we did talk about some very important and pressing matters that had to do with our team and how we can be better individually and collectively. so since i usually eat takeout on my desk for lunch, i thought today why not let's take this one-on-one meeting a little step further and treat my child to something delicious. i call my teammates my calling them whatever it is that you're supposed to call your employees. one last thing i'd like to share is that in 2020, i want to be less driven by fear and more driven by faith. the real reason why i worked myself as hard as i did for the past few years was because i was driven by fear. fear of the unknown, fear of not being good enough, fear of just not living up to the person that i thought i could become. so i used this as another way to escape actually taking a step back to reflect and to figure out where i am and where i want to go. definitely to the direction of where these desserts are. so what does working driven by faith look like?

it should be something that's far more peaceful, far more calming and something that is not anxious at all. so like everything i mentioned earlier, learning how to let go, learning how to make time and enjoying the present and enjoying the journey a lot more than treating work in life like there are multiple fires going on at the same time and that i'm missing out or that i'm not doing enough or that i could be doing more. because i think the truth is we're all doing plenty and sometimes it requires us to take a step back to really see that okay i'm actually being really hard on myself and that i need to be more kind and compassionate and accepting of myself. if you haven't been doing as much as you feel like you could be doing, could also use this as a little word of encouragement to not be afraid of chasing your dreams and making things happen instead of just dreaming and with that we're ending this specific day with filming b-roll for beauty within and thank you guys so much for joining me and thank you again to coach for sponsoring this video and i will see you guys in next week's video. voice hug, voice hug, bye