After the rain comes the sun. After the fall comes the lesson.

The lessons we have seen all our life, it’s hard to hold them in the right light.

Sometimes we see our life through the lenses of all the mistakes that we have made and at other times we see ourselves as the strong person who has been built over the years.

I know I have struggled with this, my opinion of my life changing nearly every day. From good and bad, from pride and loss, all working to get the core of who I am and what kind of life that I have built for myself.

I can look back and choose the memories that have helped to shape me into a strong woman, a confident woman, a woman who believes of her ability to design her destiny.

I can also look back and see the failure and see the parts where I didn’t quite meet the mark, feeling shame for the mistakes that I had made and deciding that the story I am making up is what I allow to limit me.

We all have this choice—with what lenses we choose to see ourselves, with what story we choose to tell ourselves, with what lessons we choose to shape who we are becoming.

It is crafted, it is articulate, it is intentional.

It is also messy, uncertain, and comedic all the way.

The life we create is our own just as is who we are evolving into.

At different ages and stages we learn about who we are and what we’re made of. Each year, each lesson, and each opportunity shapes us. We get to decide who we want to be in the world.

The lesson in all of this is that it is not by living our life unexamined that we learn but yet by sharing our life with others. Letting others witness our growth and change, our stumbles and falls, bearing witness to our experience of learning how to become more of ourselves with every step.

This October 16, I am honored to be speaking at the annual SOAR Women’s Symposium. This is a day of  retreat for anyone who is ready to Seize Opportunity and Rise together.

You can grab special pricing on this powerful event using my code OWNYOURPOWER2018 by clicking to register here.

I invite you to consider—what have been your biggest lesson in life? What lessons have taught you what you are made of? What lessons made you question everything and you can look back and see the lesson?

Here’s to always evolving, appreciating the lessons, and learning to let others in to share your journey of life!