Life Is So Freaking Beautiful
“There’s a spark. And there’s something calling me to it. And I don’t know how to do it.. I have no clue. All I know is I have to get in there and find out.”
-Scott Avett
Hello friends!
This week I'm feeling very grateful.
Grateful for this beautiful life in this beautiful world that we get to live.
And I'm having my period so that's saying something.
It's been a few weeks since I've written a new chapter. There are two main reasons for this:
We had covid (aka: everything is our lives was turned upside down).
So much has been happening behind the scenes at Collective Rise Ventures.
The past few weeks have flown by. I've been in such a state of flow that the days are whipping past and I haven't had much time to slow down and capture it all in writing.
This past week we had our first team meeting. Six incredible women joined me for our first official collective workday.
Yes, I have people.. six of them actually.. working as paid employees on this project. Can you believe it? I barely can. I have a team! And a beyond incredible one at that. And I know.. I KNOW the work we will do together is important. It's powerful. And it will change people's lives.
And the truth is I feel so ready.. like I was made for this.
Like every cell of my body is saying "hell freakin yeah.. let's do this."
Words can't describe the gratitude that I feel at the arrival of this group of women.. not long ago, just a dream in my heart. Now they are here. And it all seems a little surreal. It's all making me reflect upon my journey to get to this place. And the person I've become along the way.
Let me be clear here: starting this organization that has been a dream in my heart for as long as I can remember, and definitely did not happen overnight. It took an immense amount of work.. but not the type of work we typically think of when we think about starting a business.
Yes there has been all of that stuff too.. paperwork and details, logistics and legality. But that's been the easy part.
The difficult part has been the inner work of BELIEVING that I am capable of it. Believing that I am the leader, the CEO, the entrepreneur that is right to bring this vision into the world. Because it's not small vision. It's been the work of overcoming my limiting self-beliefs, learning to trust my inner voice, and learning to walk hand in hand with fear and continue moving forward.
If I could sum it all up, the way that I got here was by learning to deeply believe in myself.
But what does that mean.. what does that truly mean?
It means believing that my ideas-the literal thoughts in my head- are valuable. And important. And good enough to create real change in the world.
It meant trusting my intuition.. when I had a hunch, I trusted it. And once I started doing that, I learned that I have good instincts. So I started trusting those too.
When my body was saying no, pushing hard against me.. when tasks seemed so daunting that every cell in my body was begging me to stop, I paid attention and changed course.
When my mind was spinning and I was unable to get it to slow down, I went outside and took a walk.. using the peace of nature to bring me back home into my body so that I could hear my thoughts again.
And when I was tired, I rested. I asked myself in those moments, “does this absolutely NEED to be done right now?” And if the answer was no, I didn't do it.
One of my most important lessons came from my time in the Mind Rebel Academy. There we learned that ALL people are these 4 elements:
Whole, Capable, Resourceful, and Creative.
And I learned, over time, how to deeply embody all those beliefs as truths. No longer something that I need to convince myself of.
I am whole.
I am capable.
I am resourceful.
I am creative.
And so are you.
How would your life change if you deeply believed that about yourself?
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Say love my friends,
Caitlin
