Day 14: Bye Negativity, I’m Joining Team Hope

Short journal post today because I’ve gotta jump back to digitally attending the Inbound 2022 conference. (I know some of you are low-key relieved.) But holy cow have the speakers been on fire today!

The first talk I heard this morning was with Viola Davis, powerhouse actress and badass human being. Viola talked about the difference between ‘being real’ and being transparent.  Being real is trendy and avante garde, like openly rocking your $15 shoes.

But being transparent is about being vulnerable to express what’s really true for you. It’s about admitting when you’re struggling, embracing your weirdness, and setting aside the mask you wear to make other people comfortable.

Interestingly enough, the third talk I attended echoed those same themes about showing up in the world as yourself. Jay Schwedelson put on a talk called “How it Started & How It’s Going: How Failure & Pivoting Can Create Massive Opportunity”. He talked about his failures over his career and coming to realize that he only needed to be stellar at one thing rather than lots of things. 

Jay humbly poked fun at himself, with his less-than-impressive powerpoint slides that had personal photos of him. He talked like a normal human being rather than a fancy corporate person, and it was a breath of fresh air. 

In day nine of my journaling experience, I mentioned the more I embrace just being myself and not patrolling my interactions with others, magical things start happening and I meet the right people. Jay echoed the same thought, saying that when he stopped censoring himself and trying to be perfect, the number of people that walked into his life exploded. 

And then they featured freaking DR. JANE GOODALL. My god, what an icon. Talk about a total badass of a woman who, at 88 years old, continues to spread the word about hope, sustainability, and loving on our planet. 

My biggest takeaway from her talk is that there is still hope. And when we get so mired down in being hopeless, we put ourselves in tiny little miserable boxes that don’t serve us. But when we have hope that we can make a difference, and act on the little pieces that we know we can do, our life changes.

I’m tired of feeling anxious and afraid everytime I pull up the news section on my phone. I’m tired of my family members and I talking about how the world is going to hell in a handbasket. That doesn’t serve me and it certainly doesn’t help change things. 

I don’t want to live in the land of overwhelm anymore. I’d rather live in the present, have hope about what good things I can experience today and how I can help spread that goodness to others. That sounds way more enjoyable and within the shit I can actually control.

So what am I going to do? I’m going to surround myself with the stuff that brings me hope and actually makes me feel like doing something. Books, movies, songs, people, stickers…

Hit me up if you want to join me on this journey towards more hope!