How Can You Tell Someone Is Vegan… Don’t Worry, They’ll Tell You! 🤣

It’s one of the few jokes about vegans that I laugh at because, (speaking only for myself, not all vegans) it happens to be true! 😂😜🤷‍♀️

But not for the reasons you may think.

Whilst thinking for myself and feeling for animals is actually something I like about myself, contrary to popular belief, vegans aren’t trying to scream ‘look at me, look at me!’

It’s not about ourselves at all.

I’m trying to say ‘Look at the animals. Look how easy it is to make choices that do not harm them. We don’t have to, I am living proof! Ask me how.’

Shoes are made from cows skinned alive (can you imagine the time, the horror, the torture, before they succumb to their injuries?) or their unborn foetuses. Personally I feel shoes made from animals should be labelled – truthfully!

But here we are in our ethically upside-down society where barbaric cruelty to, and the commodification of animals is considered ‘normal’, ‘rational’ and a ‘personal choice’, and we have only just progressed from vilifying vegans for NOT using and abusing animals, to ‘respecting their beliefs’.

Being vegan is not about trying to look cool, look ‘different’, gaining negative attention, being popular, nor being respected (except by oneself).

It’s not about me. It’s about the animals.

Vegans telling and showing you they are vegan is not about ‘forcing their opinion’ on you, trying to make you feel bad, acting morally superior to you nor needing your approval.

It’s not about you. It’s about the animals.

So here are my new, super cute, cruelty-free, off-white and vegan certified takkies, that blaringly tell the world that no animals were harmed in their making! 😍🤍🥰💚

And, for good measure – in case I missed telling someone today – I’m vegan!! 😜😂😜

10 Year Veganniversary

I haven’t eaten an animal in thirty-three years.

Ten years ago I realised that exploiting animals for human use is intrinsically and directly harmful to them.

I ditched honey, milk, wool, silk, eggs, leather, products tested on animals, aquariums, zoos, circuses, riding, buying ‘pets’. I never was one for hunting and fishing. Everything, as far as practicable and possible, that uses animals for food, clothing, entertainment or any other purpose got ditched and alternatives sought.

Animals exist individually, and as species’ for their own unique and wondrous purposes. Not to be disrespected/diminished to commodities of dead bodies to munch on, pairs of shoes, gimmicky tricks to perform, and being locked up to be stared/pointed at.

Animals look and communicate differently from us and each other, but in their ability to feel love, joy, purpose, pain, terror, and subjugation, they are very much the same! They are deserving of moral consideration in their own right.

Veganism is not about eating – this is just one action that is as easy as all the others to practise when the ‘why’ is clear in mind, heart and soul.

Questionning, when about to do something, changes from ‘Will this taste good for me? Will this be fun for me?’ ‘What benefit am I getting out of this?’ to ‘What is what I am doing or buying doing to somebody else..?’ ‘Is someone getting hurt because of me?’ ‘Is this in the best interest of the someone else involved?’

And that doesn’t feel restrictive, no. It feels freeing – a weight off! It’s empowering to make decisions and take actions in alignment with soul- searched ethical values.

It provides an inner peace that unchallenged inherited habits based on advertising, social conditioning and misinformation never did.

I don’t care about being different from everyone else if being the same means being hurtful to those who need us to protect them in THEIR best interests. Not ours!

I get my kicks from helping sanctuaries of rescued farmed animals, supporting the protection of wildlife in their natural habitat, adopting homeless animals and supporting advertising campaigns encouraging others to avoid harming animals, too!

It is a travesty and stain on the existence of human beings that our global species population is made up of 96% human beings and farmed animals and just 4% wildlife.

In ten years of being vegan I have saved 3,650 animals’ lives, 4,015,000 gallons of water, 109,500sq feet of rainforest, 146,000 lbs of grain and 73,000 lbs of CO2.

All it would take is for every human to evolve from their apathy towards the suffering of animals and act accordingly, to halt and hopefully reverse the horrific damage we have done to their home.

When I started, much like most vegans I know, we were pretty much alone.

But in an age where we know the protein myth is widely busted, the rabbit food myth is busted (quite frankly neither ever being an excuse to abuse animals), there is no reason everyone can’t do better.

Happy Veganniversary to me and to you, please reach out to your nearest vegan to ask what easy changes you can make in your life to make the world a better place for animals. It’s time. 💚🌱

Extreme?

The best way to get other nationalities to stop abusing the animals you love is not by attacking them for it.

Like you, they have been culturally and socially conditioned to love some animals and use others. Like yours, their culture also has a population who doesn’t use any animals at all. Vegans!

I wonder if Chinese people campaign for Brits to stop doing this to pigs..? 🤔

Sounds about as non-hypocritical as it does when I see piglet eaters condemning other cultures for eating dogs.

No, it’s not ok for puppies and kittens. But if that’s the case it’s also not ok for chicks, lambs, calves and piglets.

All baby animals are born with a wonder for the world, their life, love for their mother and expectancy that they can depend on her.

But in my culture, people pay for them to be deliberately brought into the world, treated like this, then slaughtered at four to six months old.

Vegans are not ‘soft’, ‘sentimental’, ‘sensitive’, and most certainly not naive.

On the contrary. Vegans are people who’ve had the guts to look at the harrowing truth and take responsibility for changing their own habits and, as far as is practiseable and possible, exercise moral consistency.

Veganism is not extreme.

This cruel shit to baby animals for a piglet flesh sandwich is extreme.

Learn Something New, Learn About You.

It’s three weeks exactly since I moved into a caravan, as the first step in a wider plan to obtain land and buy a Tiny House.

My initial thought was that it just needed all it’s amenities up and running, (water, fridge, toilet and heater) and I would be good to go on the fun part – jazzing up the interior a bit!

But I also knew that there would be challenges to face and that as a tactile learner, the best thing I could do would be to jump in and just feel my way through, as things arise.

People are super kind. They want to help and do things for you. Especially when they learn I know absolutely zero about caravanning! And it’s tempting to accept. Especially the boring but necessary bits. But I know that I have to learn.

There is a lot I didn’t anticipate. Like caravans really are built for camping, as opposed to living. End of March in a caravan in the UK is NOT the same as July and August!

It may come as a shock to some that I didn’t jump in to immediately get the amenities working. Mainly because, at first, it was overwhelming to try and work out how this water tank worked and that pump and how much electricity etc.

But also, I have been getting distracted (in my mind) with the decorating part, which has turned from a fresh lick of paint and new cushion covers, to a full blown refurbishment. The second cabin, for instance, instead of being a diner/office/four bed sleeper would be better serving as a full time double bedroom. Even in researching where to find the water pump (under the offside seat/bed – thank you, yes, that is caravan lingo just learned!), I got distracted with how to insulate a caravan..(thermal blinds, double glazing windows, reflooring, for those interested.)

So eventually it had to circle right back to getting the amenities working. Not just because of my inclination to veer off into redecoration but also because the initial novelty of dashing to the shower block immediately upon rising, was getting outweighed by the inconvenience when I could feasibly just walk two steps!

So I picked the toilet to address first.

Admittedly, part of the delay in getting that started is my aversion to bad smells and germs and grossness in general, and my tendency to put off things I anticipate I won’t enjoy doing.

I have a chemical toilet tank with manual flush (something later models have electrified….modernising and reinstalling the whole toilet system might be necessary if this is going to be a guest wing..maybe a push button and power flush? But wait, how would that work eco-wise? And how does this darn thing work now, anyway, to be able to determine that?).

See what I mean with the mind wandering..?

So, first thing I did was remove the tank. Only for litres of stale pee to splash and fill the tank cavity in the side of the caravan! Cue much recoiling at the smell and then filling water containers to flush it out. Only for it all to POUR AND DRIP ALL OVER ME! I swear this is the stuff of my worst nightmares. Yes, it’s gross but even talking about this sort of thing induces palpitations, sweating and involuntary spasming retching.

OMG and I had to carry the thing to the disposal hole across the site.

I resigned to the experience but even as I started walking, my nose itched and I impulsively wiped my hand across it. Only to feel the wetness and the following stench.

Shaking, I poured the contents of the tank (thanks previous owners for not emptying it!) into the Black Waste Disposal point (new lingo again) and ran my hands and the tank, inside and out, under the tap.

Coming back I was still shaking and my clothes still drenched, but the manual said I had to pour the blue chemical stuff (came with the caravan) into the tank with some water.

Great, like most chemical cleaners, I don’t like the smell of it. So my mind went off again on researching eco-friendly, plant based and cruelty free chemical toilet chemicals. And to remind myself that I needed Method Mint Anti-Bacterial Spray to scrub the tank and the cavity thoroughly and Ecover Toilet Cleaner for the bowl, to counteract that school toilet smell. And that I mustn’t forget to get a silicone toilet brush for the bowl, because bristly ones are just gross..)

I had to leave it there that day. And wash my clothes. And scrub myself thoroughly. Yes, I did feel a tad deflated, but also I didn’t want to get it up and running without getting the cleaning products I like (and need) to get the external of the tank and it’s cavity disinfected.

Besides, I couldn’t smell anything beyond pee at that point anyway, and wasn’t going to be able to, whatever I did.

Finally the outside of the clean tank and its cavity smelled of lovely cotton fresh Astonish disinfectant and a cap of the blue chemical stuff was in it. Next, according to the manual, 2 litres of water had to be added. Done.

Ok, so that was the bottom end (as it were) of the toilet sorted, but how did the flush work? Did the water come from the main water tank? (Which I hadn’t approached yet).

As with most of the instructions and diagrams in the manual, it wasn’t exactly clear. “Fill the Header Tank with up to 7 litres of water”.

Lovely. What was a Header Tank? And where the hell was it? Was it the main tank? Or specific to the toilet? Don’t expect any of that kind of clarification from the manual, which is clearly not written with novice caravaners in mind.

So truly, I must take this opportunity to say HURRAH FOR CARAVAN-ENTHUSIAST YOU-TUBERS! AND THANK YOU!!!

Talking and showing the way on videos is really helpful!

I now have an up and running chemical toilet and flush. That is immaculate and doesn’t smell. (I sniff around it periodically to check).

I feel pretty darn accomplished!! Here’s a pic.

Bear mind, though, the room will all be repainted – probably in a warm white.. and some new knobs on the cabinet might be cute. And possibly a frame for the mirror..and a wooden blind..? And that cactus could do with growing a bit bigger..

JUMP – And Grow Your Wings On The Way Down

JUMP – and grow your wings on the way down! 😃🙈😂

It’s amazing how when you get clear on what you want, the universe, and everyone you meet and everyone who cares about you, conspires to help make it happen. 🙏🏻

Three years ago I started looking into what was actually a priority in my lifestyle and concluded that built up areas, large indoor spaces with teeny outdoor spaces (or none at all) and high rental and bought property costs for something that doesn’t feel like value for money and won’t take all my animal family, are not it.

Don’t get me wrong – budget is a huge factor too. I would have loved the two bed barn conversion on half an acre, but can only raise half the money and even that’s a stretch! 😂

But I do want my own home, where I won’t have to move from, with the space and freedom to rescue anyone else who may need it – and whatever their species. 💚

As well as a decent cooker for baking and movie entertainment system. 😃🤔

Plus, importantly and particularly at this time, something that is eco friendly, isn’t going to chew resources and will free up finances from utility costs.

Meet PHASE ONE of the new plan! 😃
This baby is a starter/practise project in Tiny House Living.

She is a six-berth self contained caravan with own separate shower and loo, kitchen and using the one cab as a bedroom while enjoying the lounge area.

I can see her clad with wood, with window boxes growing fresh herbs on the outside, and a facelift of white fresh paint on the inside, with re-upholstered cushioning. In dusky pink, of course! 💕😜

The next few months (and more challenging, I am sure!) will be PHASE TWO – looking for land of my own to put her.

Then PHASE THREE – upgrading to a bespoke Tiny House that can run both on and off grid! 💚

At that point this well loved and refurbished baby will become the Guest Wing! 😃

In the meantime I have been unbelievably fortunate to find a lovely spot in just the right place and owned by vegans, no less, AND who are creating corridors in their caravan park to encourage and protect wildlife. 💚🙏🏻

Waking up to birdsong and miles of open space for walks, is bliss!

Grateful and blessed for the support of my amazing parents Shelagh Pye Frank Pye in my next hair-brained plan(!) and my dear gorgeous friends. ❤️🙏🏻

Act As If What You Buy Makes A Difference. It Does.

Nearly nine years in and finally the big food treat companies are producing plant-based options!

When I first went vegan, any of my friends could tell you that I was addicted to Cadbury’s Dairy Milk Chocolate. And Cadbury’s Whole Nut. And Galaxy.

I didn’t think that when I decided to live the rest of my life of avoiding the use of, and harm to, animals for food, clothing, experimentation, entertainment, or any other purpose, that it would be easy to quit Milk Chocolate.

The vegan option at the time was dark chocolate and to this day, and while even that has improved dramatically, it just wasn’t and isn’t the same. I don’t like it!

I finally made the connection at 37 that animals really own nothing but their dignity, sentience, skins, furs, reproductive systems, bodies and very lives. And I was taking all of those from them.

So I had to reconcile with myself that actually quitting chocolate altogether was going to be better for my health too!

It was only after becoming vegan that I learned the truth of the dairy industry. And, horrifyingly, Cadbury themselves as a company. I read and watched videos, one of which disclosed that Cadbury has its own dairy farms to supply all the ‘glass and a half’ bars.

Their cows are kept in factory farming conditions, do not have access to fields and are fed grain, not grass. The video depicted what happens to to the calves born.

They are led, one by one, away from their mothers. Some suckle the hands and fingers of those leading them away. They are led up to the back of a truck and shot in the head. The next one is led onto the pile of dead calves and shot in the head. Saves having to carry their dead weight to load the truck if you just shoot them on there!

The truck when full is then driven to tip and dispose of the bodies.

Many people have asked me over the years how I could possibly give up commercial chocolate and stated that they never could.

Well, the fact it is it is easy when you know the truth, take responsibility for your own participation and take steps to change. It really is.

Both Cadbury and Galaxy have produced plant based ‘milk’ chocolate now. I had my first Cadbury’s Plant Based Milk Chocolate and Galaxy. And it was odd! In nine years I have learned to bake, supermarkets have produced their own plant based chocolates and my tastes and eating habits have changed considerably. I haven’t and don’t miss them after all this time! I can’t even tell if they are anything like the Galaxy and Dairy Milk I used to love because I can’t remember!

Many vegans are anti big companies, especially ones that have been unethical. I also personally try to support vegan companies these days, as far as is practiseable and possible.. Both Cadbury and Galaxy have sought certification from The Vegan Society, which lends credibility to their plant based chocolates.

I long-since moved on from wanting substitutes for things I moved on from years ago. My tastes have changed.

But I see a very big opportunity for change for anyone considering going vegan but concerned about how it will affect their current food habits and accessibility to alternatives. Indeed for everyone. If it’s really good, why would we want to harm animals for a treat? Why would plant based chocolate not become the norm?

It has never been easier. For every bar of chocolate where an alternative to animals is used, and sold, life for cows and their calves is made easier. And if everyone switched, or just the majority, animals would not be used at all.

So many kind thinking people who are not vegan think of me when they come across vegan options. Thank you. But, with respect, I do not miss anything from my non-vegan days, nor am I clamouring for vegan options. Over nine years I have been resourceful, learned to bake, learned to cook and learned to love new foods. And in the beginning, I just went without, because not contributing to animal use is more important to me than whether something tastes good.

I invite you, when you see a vegan option or alternative to what you consume, to instead buy and try the items yourself.

The power of change lies in the hands of the consumer and I ask the current Dairy Milk and Galaxy consumers to consider making that change. Switch out your chocolate bar. Act as if what you buy makes a difference. It does.

Every Time You Spend Money You Cast A Vote For The Type Of World You Want.

Omg I love receiving gorgeous things in small packages! 💕

It’s vegan certified, cruelty-free, made of natural ingredients, has decomposable refill packages and refillable aluminium case in your favourite colour. In my case, pink! 😃💕

I’ve been looking for a decent vegan deodorant but have found many crème ones to drag.

This glides on beautifully!

Every time you spend money you cast a vote for the type of world you want.

Please vote for one that doesn’t use animals as ingredients nor test subjects, that doesn’t use plastic and that respects our planet. 💚🙏🏻

You were not born to just go to work, pay bills, and die. In fact, if you’re an average British employee, you can’t even afford to.

The 9-5 job! It will help you buy a house and give you money for holidays and fun and you can save for anything you want then retire, get a pension and travel the world! This is the lifestyle module we were taught was the aspirational symbol of financial stability, respectability and success!

When I started my first job at nineteen, I remember cycling into work and looking over the horizon at the traffic jam ahead. And already I felt low. Already a job felt like a chore. Like somebody else in charge of my time and money. Like school. But I was told that to not feel happy and grateful about a job was ‘immature, irresponsible and unrealistic’.

Fast forward twenty five years, intermittent jobs and own businesses and I decided to see whether in fact, in Britain today, employment really does deliver the financial security, disposable income, holidays and comfortable retirement it promised.

Job for Life – In 2019 the average Briton won’t stay in a job longer than five years. The reason is salary increases are maximum 3% per year. The only way to get a significant salary increase is changing jobs. Nowdays even workers in jobs with high income and high savings worry the link between hard work and fair pay is broken. Only 20% think their pay reflects their efforts. Fewer than half of employees (44%) feel they have progressed in their careers over the last five years with only 40% feeling they have good opportunities to progress in future. Many routine jobs are at high risk of automation. Add to that the ease and speed of restructuring and a management that favours quick fix and cheaper hiring staff already skilled and trained by another company and firing staff instead of investing in their skills and long term development and you have employees living in near constant fear of losing their job.

Financial Freedom – In 2019 cars and houses are sold to us as ‘assets’ but in reality, an asset is something that helps generate cash or add value. We are taking out credit – ie long term debt with interest – that has to be repaid. In addition studies show that in 1992 the average house price in Britain was £70,000 with the average house buyer salary being £24,000. By 2016 the average house price had risen to £300,000 and the salary of the average buyer £63,000.
The average working Briton has only about a month’s worth of savings to maintain their living expenses, if their income suddenly stopped and while the average University Graduate is expecting to earn a higher wage, they embark on their career saddled with a £50,000 debt.

Lifestyle – UK Labour Market statistics released suggest that employment is at an all time high, but this is not quite in the way we would imagine. There are now nearly 1 million people on zero-hour contracts and 1.7 million in temporary work. A record 4.8 million are self employed and another 1.8 million in Britains’s gig economy. The Flexi-workers love their job, 83% reporting job satisfaction. However as many of these are redundant ‘second careerers’, they value autonomy as security over a job and earn less than £21,000 per year.
Only one group out of seven employment type groups of workers in Britain has the lifestyle we were told a having a job would provide. They are successful at adapting to automation, and the most likely group to value new technology. They report high job security, high autonomy and high fulfilment. What is the average job that can fulfil the promises offered by every job? Director of an IT services business!

Retirement – In Britain today we are expected to live much longer – in fact, if we retire at 65 we will spend more years in retirement than we did working. While Gen Z admits they won’t even be able to own a home to have minimised living costs by retirement, the biggest concern for the baby boomer generation today is outliving their pension/savings.

Economic insecurity has become the “new normal” in the UK with at least 70% of the UK’s working population “chronically broke”, according to the Royal Society of Arts.“Economic insecurity now stretches right throughout our labour market, including within jobs that appear safe on the surface. Wider economic trends suggest workers are worse off as real wages fall and in-work poverty rises. With Brexit in play/limbo Britain’s GDP has decreased £20.6 billion since the referendum.

According to a report by the Social Metrics Commission (SMC) 14.2 million Britons are living in poverty, of which 8.3 million are of working age and 4.5 million are children dependent on workers. It’s the biggest rise in poverty in forty years.

The number of homeless people in Britain is soaring by more than 1,000 a month, and reached a total of 320,000 in the first quarter of 2019, according to research released by homelessness charity Shelter.

Why is nobody talking about generating other income streams (and I don’t mean just adding another part time job to our already time filled working life). I mean Passive Income streams?

Chances are if you’re reading this, you’ve seen the tv show Friends. Jennifer Aniston received a ‘salary’ for each episode of lines learned, acting and filming. Fast forward to Friends ending and without having to lift a finger, Jennifer Aniston receives a cool $20 million per year in passive income from it. How? First it started with DVD sales, then the syndication to other channels and landing on Netflix. Simply put, the replays.

You can’t live in Britain and do your Christmas shopping without hearing ‘So here it is Merry Chrsitmas, everybody’s having fun! Look to the future…now it’s only just begu-u-un!’ Slade wrote the song and released it in 1973 when it went to number one. They did live performances on television and on tour. Obviously they got paid at the time, but did you know that since then every year to date they have earned £500,000 a year in royalties? Passive income. From the replays.

Now we know what it is, how can the average person, working a job and with a salary, with little to no savings, probably some debt and only a bit of free time, create passive income?

Make YouTube Videos – have a subject matter close to your heart? Have a transformation story to share that you feel might help others? With our generations Y and Z wanting to have more meaningful impact for others as well as a passion for what they do, many are already doing this! Whether it be sharing their compelling stories of inter-abled relationships, tv and movie reviews or gender transitions, Gens Y and Z have harnessed technology to reach out and connect with and assist, or educate, others.

Even lawyers and doctors can now be found creating YouTube videos to impart valuable professional information or reactions to tv and film versions of their professions! You can create a compelling video on literally any topic you choose or that means something to you and once it is complete share it on several social media sites. While a good bit of work goes into creating, sharing and promoting videos, repeated shares and views can generate a passive income!

Freelance your Passion – Is your passion photography? Photograph sales websites such as Shutterstock could buy yours! They offer either a flat fee or percentage of sales per photograph and the same photograph could sell over and over, generating a passive income!

Write an e-book – On literally anything. It’s a lot of work upfront but whether you market it on your own website and social media or affiliate with websites related to the same field it could generate a passive income for years to come.

Sell your own products on the internet – if you set up your own dedicated website you can sell literally anything you want. Your videos, your services, your own made items! While it’s not entirely passive in income, it is a time saver.

Start a blog – start talking about anything that means something to you and that could be of value to others. Or, if you’re not sure where to start, buy a blog that is already generating income. You can get a feel for its history or reinvigorate it with new content! Either way it’s a means to passive income!

Create an online course – feel like you could teach something constructively? Cooking? Gardening? How to use a computer? Interview technique? ANYTHING you are passionate about and could help others learn? Perhaps something you discovered by trial and error that could save others time! Create a course and market it online. This really is the gift that keeps on giving because once the upfront work is done, anybody around the world could be doing your course (and earning you passive income) while you sleep!

Become a referral source – Make a list of small business providers that you use on a regular basis and feel you can recommend to others without reservation. Contact the owners and see if they have cash referral offers. Your accountant, landscaper, electrician, plumber, carpet cleaning services etc. Keep a list of these businesses, and be ready to refer them to your friends, family and coworkers. You can earn a fee on each referral just from talking to people. Don’t overlook referral programs at work. If your company offers a referral bonus for either new employees or for new customers, then why not get paid for something you would do anyway?

Join a Network Marketing company – A good Network Marketing company has a vision beyond transactional sales and, in general, superior products. The business structure is already in place as is the development programme to move your mindset from that of employee to business owner. The price is minimal as opposed to the capital needed for a traditional and it’s also more likely to turn a profit in far less than the five years a traditional business usually requires. 80% of women who earn $100,000 or more per year in the US do so through network marketing and achieved it on a part time basis! Again, with technology you can take your home based business both local and global and, if coachable, can generate significant passive income!

We have been taught by those in jobs that we must do the same, but what do those on passive income say?

“If you don’t learn to make money while you sleep you will work until you die.” – Warren Buffett

Remember, the average job of the person who can afford to buy a house and save in Britain today and the reason? IT Services Director because of automation and technology!

In a world where we have made technology a priority in our day to day lives, why would we not put it to good use? It doesn’t matter your age, background, education level, gender, nor culture. Get to grips with using your smartphone – it has a global reach and you can make money!

I’m not suggesting chuck in your job and leap into the new arena. I am not suggesting that if you love your job you need to find another career. I am not saying that you will unfailingly earn Slade proportion passive income! But if you recognise yourself in the details of Britain’s employees today, what could an extra few hundred pounds a month do for you? What if you really could do what you love or what you would do anyway? What if in doing that on a part time basis alongside your job, you built a full time (or even more!) passive income?

I think that sounds pretty mature, responsible and realistic.

 

It’s time to make a Run

It’s interesting that this direction from my top mentor and coach has come out now. But then, on the path to self discovery and ergo self-mastery, I have discovered that nothing is a coincidence. Particularly timing.

In the last week I was reflecting, ruminating (and all that good stuff) on how to successfully impact more people. What could be learned? How could I do better? Long ago and long forgotten words from my father popped into my head:

“Rachel has never run for anything in her life.”

Although they had lain dormant for so many years, now they were popping up repeatedly. Day after day, sometimes several times a day!

Was it true? Had I never put the full extent of effort into anything I wanted, ever…? OMG and is this a belief I’ve had about myself thus dooming me to a life of eternal strolling the path of mediocrity…?

I started arguing back: ‘Well, I never found anything worth running for before!’ and “Why, Rachel, why? Why have you never run?!” and retorts “well those words hardly motivate me to run!”

And then I quickly came to the conclusion that it really doesn’t matter either way. That this wasn’t why this was coming up now. That this wasn’t the lesson here.

We take on the words and beliefs of others about ourselves as though they are true. Particularly when a) it’s something negative and b) from a parent. I am sure my father’s intention was to motivate me. I just now know myself well enough to know that that kind of ‘motivation’ – doesn’t!

I sought people who inspire and motivate me in a way that’s in alignment with my soul. That give me room to grow as me. People and words that resonate with my naturally optimistic nature. People and words that don’t ever close the door to hope, faith and the possibility for change!

Who you were in the past is irrelevant to your future. Other people’s words don’t define you.  You can choose at any time to take on somebody else’s negative belief about yourself and be bound by it, or choose to know better of, and for, yourself.

What matters is who you choose to listen to now. Who you choose to be now.

I choose the words of my coach now. His words resonate now. Motivate me now. I can now identify any words (and people) that don’t and actively reject them as untrue. All that matters is now and the fact that, right now, I am fucking running!