My weekly emails are for you if you want a transformational SHOT OF POSITIVITY that makes you think, gets you laughing, and sparks a positive change. Start each week inspired.
It's time for a "Do-Over." 🔄
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Reader I made it past Quitters' Day. How about you? The second Friday in January is called Quitters' Day because a quarter of us have already abandoned our New Year's resolutions. However, the good news is you are allowed to hit the reset button and get a do-over.{ Reader, I know your 'Polly Perfect' is trying to tell you otherwise, but ignore her. If you have a dream you are unleashing for yourself in 2026, you need to know that there isn't one straight path you have to follow to achieve it. In fact, according to renowned creativity author, Steven Pressfield, the more deeply you care about a pursuit, the more true it is to your being, the more resistance your internal narrator will generate. On the ride home from St. Louis after Christmas, I read Steven's book, The War of Art. I knew immediately that I wanted to share it with you. So here are a few of his words that captured my attention: The more you love your art/calling/enterprise, the more important its accomplishment is to the evolution of your soul, the more you will fear it, and the more resistance you will experience facing it.
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It uses fear of rejection to paralyze us and prevent us, if not from doing our work, then from exposing it to public evaluation.
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Never forget that Resistance is using criticism against you on a far more diabolical level.
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Resistance has its seat in the ego. The self wishes to create, to evolve. The ego likes things just the way they are.
Reader, pursuing that dream or making that change is real work. It requires effort. It requires persistence. And it requires you to accept that that path will include mistakes and imperfections. On last week's episode of The Story I'm Telling Myself Podcast, my guest Rachel Druckenmiller challenged listeners to identify and pursue what would otherwise become a boldness regret at the end of their lives. "What Dreams Are You Mutating?" is a powerful episode, and I encourage you to listen if you have already. (links below) It was so good that it spurred me to create a companion journal for the episode. It's a self-reflection guide with questions to help you name those suppressed dreams and the stories holding you back: ​TSITM journal.pdf​ (if you love it and want to receive future versions, ​you can sign up here​.) Telling yourself "I don't know how" or waiting for someone else to give you permission are all lies from your unreliable narrator. You are always ready to start, even when you don't know all the answers, because you are capable of figuring things out. Reader, whatever your dreams and goals for 2026, I believe in you. Borrow that belief and say yes to you. My goal is to continue to grow listenership and the impact of The Story I'm Telling Myself Podcast. A new episode records live every Tuesday at 11:30 New York time on YouTube, LinkedIn, or Facebook and then drops Thursdays on Spotify, Apple, YouTube, and Audible. I would be so honored to have you listening, sharing, and engaging. I'm also looking for opportunities to share this message with teams and organizations facing change or seeking to elevate performance. I'd love an introduction. Cheers to you, Catch Up on 'the story i'm telling myself' podcastGive us a 5-star review and share an episode with a friend: Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube Music​ |
​Rita Ernst, Positivity Influencer
My weekly emails are for you if you want a transformational SHOT OF POSITIVITY that makes you think, gets you laughing, and sparks a positive change. Start each week inspired.
Hey Reader ! Thanks for the warm welcome back to your inbox. I want to take you back in time with me to a moment that changed how I understand the "operating system" of our minds. I’m a college freshman. I’ve brought my love of singing to school, joining the choir and a cappella groups. A friend who lives near Busch Gardens in Virginia wants to audition for the summer cast. She begs me to audition with her. I’ve been a soloist for years and won several competitions, but I have no idea what is...
Reader I want to talk about something that is a constant struggle for me: Vulnerability. I’ve been asking myself why it feels like such a battle, and I finally uncovered the "programming" behind it: As a child: I was celebrated for being "smart and competent." That competence earned me freedoms and opportunities others didn't get. In school: Getting it right the first time was praised; getting it wrong and learning was seen as a failure. At work: As a woman, I often felt I had to disprove the...
Reader I have to brag a moment. Tracy is one of my favorite client leaders, and it’s because she understands a fundamental truth that many business owners miss: Technical knowledge is not the same as leadership competency. When she was filling the head position in Client Services Operations, Tracy didn't look for a niche-industry insider. Instead, she hired someone she respected from outside her sector—someone with deep customer service roots and a proven track record of day-to-day team...