What’s your sentence?

I’m currently writing this post as I sit under the sun setting, gazing at red rock canyons, sipping a glass of Cabernet. It feels truly magical. I was craving a little DIY solo wellness retreat so I jumped in the car (with Eve) and set out for Moab. There’s something about red rocks that gets me every single time.

The drive was about five hours. I started listening to Glennon Doyle’s audiobook version of Untamed (love it) and mixed in some embarrassing throwback playlists and episodes of Oprah’s Super Soul Conversations Podcast. Do you guys listen to that? If not, please start immediately.

One of my favorite episodes, entitled “Fulfillment”, is the inspiration behind today’s post. What’s the point of all this? What is happiness? What is success? What are we looking for? How do we orient our lives to what our purpose is?

One of the people Oprah interviewed was Daniel Pink, a New York Times bestselling author. I haven’t read any of his books (yet) but I loved what he had to say.

“Every great person has a sentence. What’s yours?”

One single sentence. That’s it. Something the world remembers them by. Their legacy. Their personal brand. Something they focused their entire life around. Their mission statement if you will. And according to Daniel, we should all be thinking about our own sentence. That’s how we orient our lives to our purpose and ultimately find fulfillment.

Oprah shared hers: “I teach people to lead their best lives by leading my own.”
And Daniel shared his: “He wrote books that helped people understand the world a little more clearly and live their lives a little more fully.”

I’ve been thinking a lot about mine. Even before I heard this episode, I would talk to my mom about what I wanted to do with my life long-term. And it wasn’t about job title or what city I ended up seeing myself in or what my family life looked like. Similarly, I had a conversation with my boss about my personal brand … What do I want people to say about me when I’m not in the room? What’s my “Why”? Reflecting back on all this, the theme was all the same. It was never about salary or status. It was about essence and spirit.

I want to make an impact on peoples’ lives … beyond just my family and immediate friend circle. I want to inspire them to live happier. To live more fully. To live brighter and bolder. To embrace their uniqueness. To stop hating themselves and the world so much. To believe in their worth and that anything and everything is possible.

I spent majority of life at war with myself. Starving my body and soul. Killing myself from the inside out and trying to take up as little space as possible. I moved through life without really living. I prayed for other people to love me because I didn’t know how to love myself. I put my worth in everyone else’s hands and only felt beautiful when I received male attention. I felt stagnant, stuck, sick, drained, angry, sad, anxious, and undeserving … And unfortunately, I think that’s the space where majority of us spend our whole entire lives.

It took me years of therapy, self-reflection, and self-help books to get to where I am now. I fucking love my life … So much so that I cried happy tears during the drive to Moab, while hiking alone in the middle of nowhere, and basically all week long because I finally felt free. Free of feeling stagnant and stuck and sick and drained and angry and sad and anxious and underserving. Free of hating my life and myself.

So what’s my sentence? I think I’m gonna go with this:

Her energy gave people hope and light when things felt dark and hopeless.

One of my favorite parts about writing (and reading) is how it connects us all. It makes us feel less alone and more understood. It allows people to be real and raw, and in turn, encourages other people to be real and raw with their own stories. At the end of day, if I can help people see the world a little brighter … If I can inspire them to squeeze more joy out of life … If I can teach them to embrace their unique path and break their mental shackles by letting them watch me break my own, that’s success to me. That’s the impact I want to make.

More hope, less doubt. And freedom to live our happiest, most vibrant lives. That’s what we all deserve. And that’s what I stand for.

In 2018, I tattooed the word “Hope” (in Sanskrit) on my wrist. Here’s what I wrote about it at the time: The word “hope” has continued to surface in my life over the last few years and pop up unexpectedly in conversations, messages, etc. While some view hope as a naive way of holding onto dreams, I view hope as eternal optimism. To me, it’s about having trust that we are all exactly where we need to be and that everything will work out as needed. It’s about living life, doing your best, and being confident that the universe is on your side.

*If you enjoyed reading this post, please give it some claps below and follow my account for more. And if you feel inspired, I would love to hear your sentence!