courtesy of my new relationship/personal growth blog yilovewomen.com
Success comes in cans, not cant’s
I sat down this week with someone who inspires me. A triathlete & dietetics graduate student at Texas A&M, I am honored to count Sarah Pledger as a friend.
I think interviews are too impersonal. In this video, I dig deeper into the world of real. The following is the audio of my interview with Sarah. Feel free to listen. The following is my summation of our convo along with choice quotes.
A Little Background
This past week was about asking yourself the right questions. Life is created by the choices you make. It is important to understand how you can make choices that will lead you to happiness, love, and your life’s dream. After I finished reading The Right Questions, this image of Sarah popped into my head. I feel like her story is a fantastic example of what you can do when your making choices to help yourself.
In a previous life Sarah was an advertising major who graduated from Texas Tech University. She worked at an advertising firm before realizing her path was not bringing her the happiness she sought.
“It just wasn’t inspiring and it just didn’t feel good down to the core. At the end of the day I felt like I had fun but I didn’t feel like I was doing anything.”
You have to be strong to be honest with yourself. And that’s what impresses me about Sarah.
“I was like man I dont wan’t my 9 hours a day, five days a week to be this. I would rather my actual job be doing what made me feel the best and I was helping people.”
A New Beginning
How many times are we not real with ourselves and what we want? Too many. But the fact is everyday is a new beginning. With each day you can choose change. No one can carbon copy what Sarah has done. Everyone’s journey is different and everyone has their calling. Sarah is simply proof that you don’t have to wait for a midlife crisis to do what feels right.
Sometimes in life you have to grow a pair and start over. Some choices in life are easy but If you’ve traveled down a broken road for quite some time making a change can be difficult. Look at it as trying to lose 20 pounds. It ain’t gonna happen tomorrow. You have to find the courage to grow.
How did ask yourself what you really want in life?
“One of our clients was Kaiser-Permanente and they always do a corporate 5k. So we decided at the ad agency, we would get together a 5k team and compete as a team. Someone was like how’s everyone training? I was like, hey guys, don’t worry about it. I can make you training plans…and lead the runs. If anyone wants diet plans or nutritional advice, I can come up with that. I’ve always done sports and athletics for my entire life. I thought is was a really good ground to learn about myself and other people and what’s possible, stretching the limits and stuff. It was always a hobby anyways like I was training for the boston while at the agency. So we did the corporate 5k. I trained everyone. I think I got fourth in the race. lol But ya I was talking to my boss about three months later. He was talking about needing to make layoffs and he didn’t know what to do. I was like well I’ve been really wanting to um change careers. I’ve been thinking about physical therapy or nutrition.”
She worked two months longer and enrolled herself in few classes at Georgia State University.
**I would say at least start the clip @ 6:15 to hear Sarah’s wisdom on motivation and relationships**
What Motivates you?
“I would say people, relationships, and following what feels right.”
What is the Key to Relationships?
” I think the key is um..being comfortable with being yourself and just being able to be open to a certain degree of vulnerability. And like yes, you’re going to mess up and basically how you feel about yourself, until you can like love yourself and be okay with having imperfections and working on it. See it more as like a progression and going in a good direction, rather than being like this idle or pinnacle. It seems like everything’s going to fall. And it seems like the people your closest too will always scuffle or have a difference of opinion just because yall are so close. Being genuine, being true, and having the right intentions for yourself and others. Wanting to be open, honest and doing the right thing with that too I think. You can’t have a relationship with someone if you don’t know yourself or are uncomfortable showing/giving yourself to someone else.”
I think it would be safe to say your living your dream every day?
Yea.
Where do you see yourself in 3 to 5 years?
“I’m probably either gonna be working with a triathlon training club or a small sports performance company.[...] I want to be around people who have similar goals as me so we can sorta bounce ideas off each other. I would like to work really good physical therapist and chiropractor and just generally like inspiring people. I want to learn more about how the psychological stuff ties into it too. [...] Positive thinking, visualization, almost meditating to believe and see what you want to happen as if it’s real. And then really convincing yourself that that’s where your going to be. I know this is kind of weird but Jim Carrey, his bio, I was watching it one time and all he did for like every single day when he would get work, he would drive his car up to the top of a hill, he would lay down in his car, watch the sunset, and convince himself he’s going to be a big time actor. I think it helps when really you see, feel the senses, and remind yourself also why your doing it, what motivates you, and make sure that’s real and genuine too. If your not aligned with the right stuff, you find your not really going to find the support you need or the motivation.”
I thought it was crazy she talked about this stuff because I’ve been writing about the magic of belief, visualization, and finding your purpose.
Living Her Dream
When I think of Sarah the words positive, inspiring, amazing, beautiful, and confident come to mind. Just look at these pictures and tell me that is not a happy camper. Sarah is one of the most genuinely happy people I know and that’s why I love spending time with her. Positivity is infectious and it it important to spend time around people who lift you up.
Words to live by
“Do the right thing, follow your love and passion, manifest it, and do no harm to other people.”
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This is a joke right? Sarah followed her boyfriend to Atlanta, it wasn’t a dream of hers. She couldn’t cut it as an adult so her boyfriend cheated and left her. She then got an internship where she got coffee all day. She is a liar like you can’t believe. And side note, she has a great collection of self taken nude pics.
Elliot, this part of cyberspace is dedicating to sowing positivity, enlightenment, and understanding. Your comment falls under neither of these categories. I would kindly suggest you perhaps focus more on yourself and less on Sarah. Life is constantly changing. People change as well. It is true, I did not know Sarah in her past life. But your perspective is just that: Your perspective. You are entitled to it. And even if what you say is true, I support her even more. To drastically make change in your life requires strength. That is what I am writing about: How people (i mainly write for women) can change, how they can live the lives they want to live, how they can love and prosper. So good for Sarah. Let’s celebrate how she’s changed. The past is the past. It is a waste of the present moment to dwell on it. I wish you the best my friend. But I will suggest that perhaps it is time you take a look in the mirror and ask am I happy, living my dream, and the man I want to be?