Does the pressure to be financially, physically and spiritually awesome feel like a bit much sometimes. What does living your best life mean anyway?

I don’t know about you, but trying to be amazingly awesome is a tad overwhelming sometimes. It seems like the quest to be freakishly happy, fulfilled and enlightened is everywhere.

I ought to know, because I have been espousing it and failing for years now.

This isn’t a grumble and gripe post, though there is a part of me that when I hear the phrases “live your best life” and “be your best self,” I want to run away screaming and hide. Not because I don’t want those things, but because honestly I am not sure what they even mean.

Does it mean that my life has to be a certain way before I can choose kindness, joy and fulfillment? Does it mean that if I eat a cookie that I am betraying the green juice health goddess within and should have my hand slapped? Does it mean that I have to make my business so good that it may someday be Oprah worthy?

From Gwyneth Paltrow’s conscious uncoupling to the meditation boom, I just feel lost among all the goodness and purity. I feel like I have sticky spiritual feet and I no longer know if consciousness is a just a trend and people are just as crazy as they ever were, or if we actually are evolving into our best, most loving selves.

I do know this. I am in the process of re-positioning and pivoting my business so that I have something to share that feels concrete and actually helps people.

My “Why” (see Simon Sinek) is to support and inspire people so that they awaken to their full potential and share it with others.

But what does that really mean? My husband asked me that and my reply was, “I want to help women make money online.”

He was like, “So say that.”

I said, “Well, that doesn’t sound very, I don’t know…conscious. I want to help people.”

“Why? What is better than helping people create wealth in a way that feels good?” he said. “We all need to make a living doing something that matters to us. I don’t understand the problem.”

And you know what? Neither did I.

So basically, I want to help you make money online doing something you enjoy. You know… consciously. I don’t know why everything has to be all wrapped up in reverence and complex spiritual growth. It doesn’t have to be that complicated.

But I do think it helps to understand my beliefs and why I show up everyday even when things are hard. Otherwise it’s tempting to fall back on those “meant to be” muscles instead of real earned personal transformation.

For the record:

♥ I believe that we attract the kind of people that believe what we believe.

♥ I believe seeking learning and deep, compassionate understanding is the best way to grow into a world that is changing around us.

♥ I believe that we all have the power to learn from some of the horrible choices that we make along the way.

♥ I believe taking responsibility for your life is the best way to empower yourself to make difficult changes.

♥ I believe that sticking your neck out, willing to experience vulnerability is essential to finding out about yourself.

♥ I believe that having a relationship to something bigger than yourself is different for everyone, and necessary for fulfillment.

♥ I believe that designing your life around helping people that want to help people is the fastest route to fulfillment.

♥ I believe that we all do dumb things that we wish we could take back, but that those are the things that have the power to change our perspective.

I don’t know if I am ever going to be awesome enough to change the world in any significant way. But I believe that if we start with loving the people around us in a real way that is humble and laced with curiosity, that we develop the confidence we need to show up and keep trying.

So there you go. Is that conscious? I have no idea. That is just the best I’ve got right now.

Am I living my best life?

Well, my life doesn’t have all the fancy bells and whistles that I always imagined my ultimate fantasy life would have. But it is filled with work that is challenging and fulfilling with super cool people who I love, a loving hilarious husband who adores and delights me, and two fur babies. I truly do recognize those things and deeply cherish them, and I know that I earned the ability to awaken to just how fragile and sublime those things are. And I don’t mean it in the #blessed sort of way. I mean it in the “OMG I better wake up and realize how awesome my life is right now so I don’t miss it if I suddenly die in a giant fireball, or zombie attack,” sort of way. I mean it in the “fuck life is short,” kind of way.

Living your best life is learning to identify what is wonderful about your life in the midst of worry, fear and dissatisfaction, and allowing those blessings to fill you up with gratitude and love. Even if that gratitude stems from the fear of being eaten by an army of the undead, or of significant death bed regret.

It’s pretty simple and boring I guess, but I’m ok with that.

Leave me a comment and let me know what you believe.

I would love to know how your best life is going.