Nothing’s Possible Unless You Risk Something.
Do you ever see a celebrity in an interview or pop up in the news and you think to yourself “Why did I ever stop following this person’s story?”
That’s how I feel about Stacy London. When I was in high school, I was ( and still am, tbh ) obsessed with makeover shows like What Not to Wear. There’s something about the transformation that I just love. Especially now, in the age of Queer Eye, when it’s not just about the makeover. It’s about self acceptance, self confidence, the power to pick yourself up and realize your value as a person is not tied to the way you look, but the way you feel. And looking your best absolutely translates into feeling your best. There is so much power in that.
You Never Win, You Just Learn.
Last weekend I attended the Small Business Summit held by Create and Cultivate, and Stacy was the keynote speaker along with Sophia Bush ( another person that I haven’t been following closely, but now I’m a huge fan )
The VERY first thing they talked about was how they met - and how their friendship almost never happened because they were both paralyzed by Imposter Syndrome. They were both too intimidated by the other to reach out and talk to each other. This idea of fame and popularity making you a better person than someone else is harmful. I also think that as you become more successful, it can be more difficult to trust other people’s intentions. Do they want to actually be your friend, to get to know you as a person? Or do they just want to be friends with a famous person?
I found myself furiously scribbling notes on every single word that came out of Stacy’s mouth.This woman is an inspirational quote machine.
She spoke about our society’s overuse of “value judgments” - words like success, failure, good, bad, winning, losing - these are all indicators of perceived value, and it’s detrimental. She wondered why, as a society, we always live by the shame of our greatest failures instead of by the high of our greatest success.
Don’t Compare Your Insides to Someone Else’s Outsides.
“Social media is just a tool. It is not your identity.”
What more is there to say about this? We all do it - comparing your life to someone’s highlight reel makes it so easy to fall into the comparison pit. But we’re all human. Nobody is exempt from that, regardless of what they post on instagram.
There is no finish line. You’re always going to be moving. The whole point of living is to keep going. There will be career success, relationship failures, periods of growth, periods of stagnation. But there is no such thing as reaching your goals and then just “stopping”. We have a whole life to live, so many things to learn. Some lessons will hurt more than others. Some experiences will lead to making money, some will lead to losing it. Some will bruise your ego and some will leave you feeling unstoppable. Stacy’s lesson to me is that we need to embrace all of it, because it’s all important, and we’re all just learning.