In an online discussion over the weekend, my cohort and I were talking about limiting beliefs. Someone mentioned how they are a positive person and still have challenges with limiting beliefs.

I pointed out – those two things are mutually exclusive.

Just because someone is a positive person does not mean that they don’t have limiting beliefs.

I think there is a misconception that positivity is a panacea to personal growth.

Don’t get me wrong. I am a glass half-full, find the silver lining, make the best of a situation kind-of person.

But positivity can’t solve it all.

There is absolutely a time and place for positivity. And yet, at a certain point, we can start gaslighting ourselves with our positivity because we are not dealing with the root issue.

The roots for limiting beliefs can run pretty deep in our subconscious. They most often require more than silver linings, positive thoughts and affirmations.

I also shared some thoughts on this video on my YouTube channel if you were interested in hearing more. Then let me know what you think about positivity and limiting thoughts!

The other day, my five year old asked why we need money.

I shared that money was created as a universal way to trade, and how back in the day, if we had eggs and our neighbor had vegetables, we’d trade some eggs for some vegetables. And now, instead of eggs, we have money.

I have no idea if this is actually true, but it made sense to me. (Hopefully, my kids don’t fact check me in the future.)

What I found most fascinating with this exchange was that I did not get totally tripped up trying to answer it. I have a funny relationship with money, and I’ve been actively healing it for the last three years. If I was asked this question four years ago, I am pretty sure I would have gotten flustered and made up something that would reflect a victim mindset about money.

There is no shame in having a less-than-whole relationship with money because we grow up with adults who have funny relationships with money. Just know – our relationship with money is heal-able!

Art is the meeting of mind, body and heart. The existence of art relies on the collaboration of all three. Nothing can dominate over the others or the imbalance will shift the art into a mere exercise.

Whole body dancing would be reduced to movement on command.

Full lung-ed singing would turn into noise.

Hands to keyboard typing an inspired story devolves to empty tapping.

However, art starts as mere exercise. It is the practice of bringing together mind, body and heart over and over again that we can finally actually create our art.

Hiding is a choice.

A choice means that there are alternatives.

When we hide from something, it may not feel like it’s a choice because every fiber of our being believes otherwise.

It was not always this way.

When we were infants, there was no hiding. Hiding from others would have meant the end of us. Humans are meant to be seen and heard, and our lives depended on that. At some point, that changed and hiding turned into our survival mechanism.

Our job now is to make it safe again for us to be seen and heard.

I’ve been in a state of minor floundering the past couple of weeks. Whenever I’m in doubt or a state of limbo, I pull out a paper or open a document and start writing. It doesn’t matter what I say as long as I don’t leave anything unsaid. While spelling and grammar are important to me, they aren’t necessary when brain dumping into a very, very rough first draft.

Rough first drafts are how life is made. 

If we are afraid to write something poorly (especially something that no one will see!), how are we to go about life? Our comfort in creating our art imperfectly is a reflection to how comfortable we are in creating our life imperfectly. 

We’ve got to rid ourselves of this perfectionism that plagues our soul and society as a whole. It does not serve us and never will.

Each moment is a moment to rewrite, to revise, to recreate.

If we are afraid of making mistakes, we will miss out on the entirety of life because mistakes are part of life’s magic. 

So much that is good comes from the unexpected situations that mistakes and imperfection give us.

Second drafts only come after rough first drafts.

World changing theories come from incomplete and incorrect ones. 

A better iteration of a product can only come from a worser prior iteration. 

Creating is a non-negotiable for me and something I recommend to my clients. Of course, my preferred medium is writing, and it is one that I find universally beneficial, whether you consider yourself a “good” writer or not.

If you are looking to release some of those perfectionist tendencies, write that rough first draft. And then let me know how it went.