Living a Beautiful Life

Somewhere along the way, many of us started believing we had to be good at everything.

• The perfect employee.
• The perfect parent.
• The perfect leader.
• The perfect friend.
• The perfect cook.
• The perfect gardener.

The perfect...

        Everything.

If I'm honest, I've spent seasons of my life trying to become someone who could do it all.

The older I get, the more I'm realizing something.

I don't have to be good at everything to live a beautiful life.

I can celebrate the people who are gifted where I'm not.

I can ask for help.

I can admire someone else's talent without questioning my own.

I can stop trying to become everything and start becoming the person God created me to be.

There's a strange kind of freedom in that.

Because when we stop measuring ourselves by everything we aren't...

We finally have room to appreciate everything we are.

This Week's Reminder

You don't have to be good at everything to live a beautiful life.

Happy Monday, friends.

Until next time, keep leading with strength and living with purpose.

-srt

#MotivationalMonday #Leadership #Growth #LiveWithPurpose #ReaCoachingandConsulting

The Sweetness of Waiting

I've been thinking about our conversation on Monday.

About the pear trees.

All week I've been helping graduate students put the finishing touches on their final projects.

There's a certain excitement that comes with watching people realize how much they've learned.

It's easy to focus on the finished project.

• The presentation.
• The grade.
• The accomplishment.

But those moments only exist because of months of steady work.

Then I walked through the orchard again.

The pears are still hanging from the branches.

They're close.

But they're not ready.

And that's exactly how they're supposed to be.

No one gets frustrated with a pear for taking its time.

No one stands beneath the tree shouting, "Come on! Hurry up!"

We understand that fruit ripens according to nature's timeline.

So why are we so impatient with ourselves?

Why do we expect healing to happen overnight?

Confidence to appear instantly?

Dreams to unfold according to our schedule?

As a coach, I often meet people who feel discouraged because they believe they should be further along by now.

Maybe you've felt that way too.

But what if your life isn't behind?

What if you're simply still ripening?

Growth isn't always visible.

    Sometimes it's happening quietly beneath the surface.

        Sometimes it's happening while no one else notices.

            Sometimes the waiting is doing as much work as the growing.

Coffee Conversation

Before we finish our coffee together...

Can I leave you with one question?

What in your life are you trying to harvest before it's had time to ripen?

Sit with that.

Maybe the waiting isn't delaying your story.

Maybe it's preparing it.

This Week's Reminder

The sweetest fruit is rarely the first to ripen.

Until next time, keep leading with strength and living with purpose.

-srt

#ThursdayThoughts #Leadership #Growth #LiveWithPurpose #ReaCoachingandConsulting

Ripening Takes Time

This week is the final week of my graduate Project Management course at Jessup University.

My office has been filled with project plans, executive status reports, final presentations, and students putting the finishing touches on months of hard work.

It's one of my favorite weeks of the semester because I get to watch confidence replace uncertainty.

Between meetings and grading, I stepped outside for a walk through our orchard.

The pears are almost ready.

        Almost.

            Not quite.

It struck me that no one stands in an orchard demanding the fruit hurry up.

It ripens when it's ready.

    Patiently.

        Quietly.

            Exactly as it was created to do.

                Maybe we're not so different.

We spend so much time wishing we were further along that we forget growth has its own timeline.

Some lessons can't be rushed.

Some dreams need another season.

Some parts of us are still quietly ripening.

This Week's Reminder

Don't mistake "not yet" for "not ever." Some of the sweetest things in life simply take time.

Happy Monday, friends.

Until next time, keep leading with strength and living with purpose.

-srt

#MotivationalMonday #Leadership #Growth #LiveWithPurpose #ReaCoachingandConsulting