Most of the time, shine, polish, and fancied-up stuff takes away from the realness we all crave!

It only took 12 years of training and my 3rd attempt, but I finally ran a sub-four-hour marathon. The story of the race, my support team, and how chasing dreams as I enter my 40s matters!

Every once in a while, I get hooked on a show, and lately, it’s been, Ted Lasso! A show about mental health, relationships, and how even though not everything works out the way we want, life can still be pretty amazing!

We all operate under specific thoughts and emotions and have stories we tell ourselves about how the world around us is treating us. What if we engaged in activities that striped us of those thoughts, emotions, and stories. Maybe we would arrive at the truth.

One of my strengths is figuring out the tricky thing about navigating difficult emotions. So today, I talk about why such essential emotions are present in every story I tell and always will be!

We seem to think there is only one solution to our problems, and that’s why the advice: “do not put all your eggs in one basket” was invented. We might take another look at applying that advice to lots of areas of life.

Those pesky to-do lists get in the way of the good stuff. What if we rewrote them with a better understanding of what we want out of life.

Four Talks over two days in a small northeast Iowa Town reminded me why I fight the losing but much-needed mental and emotional health awareness battle.