Coffee Talk #143: This is Your Sign

It’s Tuesday! Grab your cup and let’s start chattin’.

If we were having coffee together today, I’d tell you that I’m all about August! I have an extra full teaching schedule, no more NGS camps (#done!), and I love this stage of planning for the new school year. I have a ton of data to work through right now, and I love this process. My students call me the “survey Queen” but surveys are immensely helpful for fine-tuning our work and creating a better opportunity for the next event.

If we were having coffee together today, I’d tell you that good news travels in threes, and I heard three pieces of good news already this week! I’m blissfully happy for the bearers of the good news. Need a hype human? I’m your girl! I love seeing people crush their goals and enter new stages of life.

Speaking of being a hype girl, if we were having coffee together today, I’d tell you that I’m about to embark on a big fitness and wellness journey – yoga teacher training! I’m attending a 200-hour training between September and April, with the goal of being certified to teach yoga. I’ve been practicing yoga since my first half marathon training days (10 years!!), and I’m thrilled to be in a place to want to share this practice with others. You can follow my journey at @ctownyogi on insta. How’s this related to being a hype girl? I was told yesterday by someone that I’m “too high energy for yoga.” I have taught mostly high-energy fitness classes, and as someone who only knows me in that sphere, I could see this point being valid! It took me a little by surprise, but I was able to reply that I’m multi-talented and that yogis come in all forms. I prefer an athletic-style yoga class, but appreciate yoga in all forms. Everyone can do yoga! I’m on a mission to prove it.

Becoming a yoga teacher has been on my list of goals and dreams for a couple of years. At first, I thought that maybe it’s a practice I should hold onto for myself, a place I can go to find strength, re-center, and connect to the breath. But it’s my nature to share fitness and wellness, and I’m so excited that I pressed play on this goal.

Sometimes, we stand in our own way when it comes to a goal, and we psych ourselves out of it. I promise I do this all the time, too! I’ve let goals sit on the back burner while I’m busy working on another task. Why? It’s easier, it’s more comfortable to tackle a known quantity than it is to reach for a big goal. It’s one of the reasons I stayed at a job that I had outgrown. Habit breeds doubt and fear. I’m not saying it’s not ok to be comfortable (I think sometimes we interchange the word for ‘safe’ and I highly value feeling safe), just that we use it as a crutch to avoid changing habits.

One of the biggest demons I battle is wanting to make a full-time gig from something that hasn’t blossomed into a sustainable lifestyle, so I take multiple jobs until I can figure out how to make it happen. It’s a lot to hold down 3+ jobs with different demands while trying to figure out the next level for my fitness and wellness business.

And then, it started happening. I’ve had slivers of ideas on things to take it to the next level, but different from what I’ve been doing. I’ve seen signs and literally have an email request sitting in my inbox with words that are echoing my thoughts. Is this manifesting? Or coincidence? If you meet a new person, you’ll start to see them everywhere. If you hear about a certain type of car, you’ll see it EVERYWHERE. Is this my subconscious telling me to get over myself and go for it?

This got me thinking – if we were having coffee together today, I’d ask you this very big question:

What placeholder things are you doing now that are preventing you from your biggest dreams?

Take a moment and pick that question apart, word for word. What habits and daily tasks do you have that are preventing you from living the life you need to live? I’ve done this before — I’ve walked away from a relationship, a house, a job — all to find the correct places for me. Without really looking. How can you get out of your own way to live life the way it was meant for you to live?

It’s scary. And big. It could mean that people will question you or walk away from you. But those aren’t your people. It could mean a change of scenery, but maybe that’s a better scene for you. It could change your life.

Right here, right now, this is your sign to stop, reflect, and make a change. Will you take it?