Tell Your Story

Leadership comes at a cost. We spend our time, energy and in some cases, our personal resources in the service of others; these are our costs. But a fulfilled leader, one who focuses on others’ successes, gains so much in return that the costs are offset by the invaluable return of pride and emotional currency.I have witnessed the transformation of so many in the Wellfit family over the past several years. From our Wellfit Girls graduates and program leaders to participants of Wellfit retreats, I am FULL of inspiration and immeasurable reward. I received messages from several Wellfit Girls alums while in Peru, as they reminisced about their previous time there; they shared how their experience with Wellfit Girls has positively impacted their lives and guided them to create a powerful vision for their future. My passion for the work I do grows every time I hear another personal story of transformation. We all have a story to tell.One thing I have learned and accepted about myself during this past year on sabbatical, traveling the world with my family, is that I am a storyteller.I am a storyteller (and it takes one to know one).I love hearing people’s stories and I am becoming ever more empowered to tell my own. There were moments as we traveled around the world when I felt far away from friends and family, the cradle of comfort and the crucible of belonging in my life. While I knew true friends and family would always be there for me no matter how (and where) I showed up in my life, traveling has been an unexpected opportunity to distance myself from social roles and relationships. Travel allowed me to open up in even more authentic and personal ways.Have you ever realized how much you have held back your truth and bold sharing to protect those closest in your lives?I have actually had writer friends tell me they’ll write about their families, the deep, dark, (sometimes) ugly and wild truth once they’re dead and gone. I’ve considered the same. In protecting the ones we love, we betray ourselves the most. We stay in outdated marriages, jobs and friendships. This is the stuff of convenient relationships and complacent avoidance. It’s a life based on fear of loneliness, where we forget to listen to our own story and the stories we want to create for our lives.YES! This is the best part of being a storyteller. We get to create our lives exactly how we want them to be. We create vision. We write our destiny. I’ve always believed, and I implore my children, in order to be good writers we must read— a lot. The same goes with story telling. In order to be a good storyteller, we have to be good listeners. Thankfully I love listening—and helping others tell their stories—this is the best part of my work.Sharing our stories provides enough light to nudge the hidden stories of others out of the shadows. Some of us have stories we never knew we had to share until we started listening to small voices inside, often triggered by someone’s courageous truth-telling. We all just want to be heard.What happened on our recent Wellfit Women’s Peru trip spoke right to the heart of the matter. For our first gathering as a group, I asked everyone to share one thing that everyone knows about them and another that no one knows. I prefaced this little activity to be a brief introduction, our first of many circles throughout the journey in Peru. Within minutes the women started sharing what they were most proud of in their lives—in detail—brevity spared. It became evident to me that this was the place to start; this was the dialogue we needed to be having.What you are most proud of became the topic of our next group gathering. We went into detail—a lot of detail.I loved what was created during our life-expanding wellness adventure and transformational journey in Peru. We listened to one another, we were heard and as a result co-created an incredible experience of inspiration for all.When we show up as both listeners and storytellers in our lives we become the catalysts for courageous, truthy living and inspired bad-assery—I make things up like words and things. You can do that when you’re the teller of your own story.Start now.My prompt to you…What are you most proud of? chances are, once you realllllly talk about your source(s) of pride, you’ll create more and more prideful things in your life.Now go tell someone. Hell, tell everyone. Write it on your Facebook page, group email everyone you love, text it out and twitter to the masses. Tell me! I’m here to listen. ALWAYS.In loving-kindness,