Hi guys! Welcome to episode 227 of the Wildly Successful Lifestyle podcast! How do you like that title? Be legendary, not ordinary!
I wish I could take credit for the saying but it came from one of my favorite fitness instructors. Christine. She says it almost every class. I love it and it inspires me. Now it does go along with the thought I had for what I wanted to chat about today.
I woke up last Friday morning at 5 am which is my favorite time of day and I was like oh cool it’s Friday and I have my Toastmasters meeting at 7 which I love. ok. That’s good. And then It hit me that I had volunteered to be a speaker today and I hadn’t prepared a speech.
I felt a moment of panic and then I said wait a minute. You don’t have to go to the meeting, you could just send Kara an email and tell her something came up or you could even be honest and tell her you aren’t prepared. So I’m typing my email and all the while I’m thinking about ALL the things I talk about on my podcast every week and how my word of the year was authentic and I just felt like it was the wrong move to just back out. Then I remembered one of the leaders in the group saying the week before oh yes I can be a standby speaker this morning no problem. He was going to give a speech with no notice. I have 2 hours notice. I also thought about another member who had confessed a few weeks ago that he had forgotten until that morning he was speaking so he wrote one quickly and practiced that morning.
I told myself if they can do it, so can you. I canceled the email and I came downstairs. I didn’t sit in my normal chair where I do my morning routine, I sat in a different part of our house so that I could be in a fresh zone and I wrote a speech. And I delivered that speech probably with more pride than any of my other ones.
Because I had stepped way out of my comfort zone. I didn’t quit when it would have been super easy to. No one but me would know. I talked In episode 226 about having your own back and this goes hand in hand with that because having your own back also includes not giving up so easily when things get hard. See it through.
The most important commitments in my opinion are the ones you make to yourself. There was an element of not wanting to let the group down, sure because If I had not shown up for my speech, more than likely one of the other members would have had to quickly gear up for a standby speech but that’s not why I ultimately decided to follow through. I did it to show myself that I could. And part of what helped me was the inspiration that others gave me by setting an example. You never know who you’re inspiring when you show up for yourself. But ultimately the best thing is you learn to trust yourself. I want to always knock my speeches out of the ballpark, that’s what I expect from me but I also expect to show up when I commit..so I had a dilemma. In the end I decided it was more important for me to show up than give up even if it meant I was giving a b level speech. Even if it meant I was less prepared. And that’s what I did. And guess what? I still pulled off being voted best speaker of the day all because I showed up. I don’t say that to brag, I say that to show you what’s possible. Sometimes you have to inspire yourself. I ended up telling the group what had happened and how a few of them had inspired me by showing up even though it wasn’t easy and in turn I inspired others to do the same in the future. I know I did. That’s how it works.
I’ve learned as I’ve studied how our thoughts affect us and how the brain works and how often we think in order to change the world we have to change the lives of a gazillion other people. But really you only have to change one person and that’s you.
When you grow and thrive and live your message really follows your passion YOU change. And when you change, you change the world. Your world for sure but also the world of the people you touch. My little sister’s firm commitment to always working out even with the disruption of Covid and her ability to stand strong in the most uncomfortable work scenarios inspires me to do the same. Her growth inspires me as much as my growth inspires her. She probably doesn’t know that, she will now because she also is a loyal listener.
Think about it. Why is it so much easier for most of us to work out with someone or in a group dynamic? It’s because we inspire each other! That girl showing up for herself and working her butt off in tabata a few weeks ago gave me energy to do the same.
That’s how YOU change YOU AND the world.
And Showing up for yourself doesn’t always have to mean you knock it out of the ballpark. Sometimes it means rest. Sometimes it means admitting you don’t know the answer. Sometimes it means being vulnerable. You grow from that too and so do others.
I used to think as someone’s interior designer I had to know all the answers all the time or all the high end brands or everything about everything. That is ridiculous. You aren’t going to know everything. You don’t have to know it all. A few years ago I wished I could remember where I heard it but someone said it’s ok to say I don’t know. Giving myself the permission to say “I don’t know the answer, let me get back to you” is one of the best gifts I’ve ever given myself. Admit you don’t know and go find the answer. That’s easy. The more experienced you get the less that will happen of course but the world is too full of options for you to know it all. And that’s ok. It’s too stressful on you to always try to know. That’s showing up for yourself. And ultimately showing up for the other person too.
If you’re like me you would like to make an impact on the world and what we have to remember is that we don’t have to have a million followers or 100,000 downloads per episode, sure that would be amazing but what about that one person that listens and then goes and makes a change in their life that inspires 2 other people to do the same…you’re making more of an impact than you know.
We make an impact on the world when we live intentionally, when we live authentically. When we embrace our life and be the best we can be every day. Maybe you’re a new mom and someone else is inspired by the way you handle things so well and they copy you which makes them a better mom. You’re changing that person’s world and yours. Maybe you’re a Fitness Instructor like Christine who inspires us every day with her spirit…She sings to the music in class, she is outrageous, she tells us it’s always a good day to have a good day if we want to have a good day…she is definitely not ordinary, she is legendary for sure or maybe you’re teacher and you’re inspiring people every day because you’re showing up and being your best. You may not even realize it.
Ordinary for me would have been sending that email last Friday, saying I couldn’t show up for the toastmasters meeting that day, then sitting down and drinking my coffee and yeah that would have been fine, my day would have gone on but with a little less energy, a little less pride and that would have shown up everywhere that day. But being legendary meant having a few seconds to freak out, then sitting down, writing a speech delivering it and then winning best speech all because I didn’t quit…All because I wanted to show myself what’s possible and be authentic to my message that I talk about every single day. What’s going to be legendary for you today? Where can you step out of the confines of ordinary?
It isn’t that hard anymore to stand out. I hate that that is the truth but standards have gotten lower. I think it’s time we buck that trend and we bring them back up. One person at a time and it starts with me and it starts with you. I changed. You being the best version of you. Us living our version of a Wildly Successful Lifestyle.
And it doesn’t mean you’re not going to make it on the big stage one day, it just means this may be your opening act preparing you for what’s to come.
Now go out there and buck the trend. Be legendary, not ordinary.
I love you guys and I’ll talk to you in a few days.
