Yesterday I got to go live on Instagram with someone I greatly admire and find endlessly inspiring and encouraging, Bob Goff. I first read his books flying home from a workshop a few years ago and found myself in tears, laughing, and feeling convicted to love others better and more fully. When the opportunity to coach 1:1 with him came up this past year, I leapt at the chance. You see, I had been praying that God would bring someone into my life who I could find a mentor in of sorts. Someone I could navigate the moving decision with (along with my husband of course), but someone who could offer both of us biblical guidance. So when the chance for meeting with Mr. Goff came into play, I knew this wasn’t a sheer coincidence.
I have gleaned many an insight from our conversations, and have even invested in his coaching course to become a certified Dream Big coach as well. I saw first hand how his approach helped me in so many ways, and I am THRILLED to get to offer others the same comradery and guidance as I walk alongside you and help you reach big goals and navigate the trenches. I will be offering coaching on anything… photography, motherhood, business, whatever your goal, dream, or hang up, I want to help you move through, past, and beyond!
So let’s talk about yesterday’s Instagram live (if you missed it live, you can watch it HERE). Let me set the stage for you… I had been planning for and praying over this oppprtunity for days. I was so nervous! Please know that nerves still get me sometimes… especially when I’m particularly grateful for the opportunity and want to make the absolute most of it. So after dousing myself in calming essential oils and praying for my heart to quite beating out of my chest, I hopped on Instagram live only to welcome Bob Goff and then have my shoddy wifi service drop the live like a hot potato. After frantically getting it back up in a less than ideal spot in my house, we started again, and thankfully his humble nature made the technical debaucle not so bad. The conversation was wonderful and encouraging as it always is when it’s with Bob Goff, and then I ended the live with a clumsy close up of my face as I tried to figure out how to end it. I’m sorry for that haha! And then of course I spent the next 12 hours, including the wee hours of the morning, analyzing every word and how I could have done better. Welcome to my brain anytime I have any sort of speaking engagement.
However I then began to think about the timely nature of our conversation on distractions. How even this, the actions of getting down on myself, can be a distraction to greater things! I’m sharing this all with you so that 1. You realize how entirely uncool I am, 2. you know I care so much about anything I offer to you all because you mean a great deal to me! And 3. Because It’s so easy to pick ourselves apart and let the negative words get loud, and I am not immune to that.
So how do we ignore the distractions…the ones that keep us from our greater purpose….the ones that say we aren’t good enough…or we couldn’t possibly accomplish that? We give life and action to that which contradicts these lies. We find people that support and encourage our dreams. We LIVE fully and purposefully. We release FEAR. We constantly remind ourselves of our great big dreams and we take step upon step forward towards them. And I think what is really important here to note, is that these great big dreams can seem small and insignificant to others, and that doesn’t matter, all that matters is the calling in your heart. For example, one of my greatest gifts and purposes is caring for my family in the mundane day to day; making meals, soothing hurts, rocking babies, encouraging my husband. Although that doesn’t sound grand or notable to some, I know it to be so in my heart… and that’s all that matters. The noise, the distractions that say I’m not good enough, those are the lies and distractions I will release and ignore as I move forward. It’s like when I’m out in the back cow pasture photographing a family like I happened to be doing this morning. We have to navigate our way through cow pies and soggy mud holes, but when we get to the spot, oh how the sunlight shines just right! This is why I invested in coaching myself and also completed a coaching certification program with Bob Goff. I wanted to be able to offer even more to my coaching clients, my workshop attendees, my mastermind members, heck my husband and children too! I’m so thrilled to add another way to serve you to my offerings in the coming year, and to make the in person workshops, and virtual mastermind, even more pivotal in your life and business. So whatever those dreams and goals are that you have, let those be the things you give time, energy, and life to, and if I can help you navigate them, encourage and support you in any way, I would be honored for the opportunity.
(all images taken by me on film. if you would like to schedule a family photo session, email me!)