Have you ever heard the phrase “Only the good die young?”❔ It’s more than a song title. I’ve discovered the hard way that it’s a mindset needed for living life to it’s capacity. John Maxwell, whom I consider my mentor via his coaching program, once quipped that “Most people are dead at 35, but don’t make it official until they’re buried at 75.” 👻 Like a scene out Aliens, when I heard him make this comment at a conference event in 2010, it grabbed a hold of most everyone in the room. It was a shocking and relevant statement — one that for me, made me rewind the tape of life and ask one simple question.⁉️

❓Have I spent my life more dead than alive?

The sad☹ truth was that I was able to pinpoint times in my life where I was just a follower, and not really leading my life. Those were the times that where I was a lady barely alive. I was a lady no longer in pursuit of a dream. I was in a state of hyperbolic freeze.

Fortunately, that all changed in 2011 when two colleagues👭 and I realized there was a shared dream that had yet to be pursued. In January 2013, we decided to go after the dream, and to “never give up – never slow down, never grow old,” but it wasn’t without some challenges.

I look back, and I can see the challenges🚫 we faced were there to question us on our goal, on our dream, and IF we were still willing to live. If not careful, challenges can put you back in a freeze state or follow only mode. That’s an impossible phase to be in and still lead. For me, it was only through the help of others, that I was able to get pulled out of the freeze. 💨