Do you remember this?

Do you remember the last time you believed in yourself? 

Like truly, deeply, believed in your own potential? 

I can tell you the specific moments they happened for me. 

2012. Walking down the streets of Chicago: the very first time I was completely exploring a brand new city outside of the country on my own. 

2014. Watching my hands clench and unclench when they started regaining movement during my stroke recovery, and truly believing they would be okay again. 

2016. Registering my business — and WITH an HST number. Because I knew this was going to be profitable. 

2019. Making the decision that I was going to be a six-figure business owner — then seeing that through. 

And today. 

When I was reminded of all the big goals that I have and that I’m well on my way to not just imagining a future where they are possible, but creating it too. 

Something re-ignited in me today, during a call with one of my favourite humans, friends, and coaches: Katy Prince. 

Talking about everything that was coming in the next year, I remembered what it meant for me to believe in my own infinite potential, and the way that I would intentionally write my next chapter — because the pen is in my hand. 

There’s this idea that I always fight with internally — the ones that are repeated by the Marie Forleos and most Neuro-linguistic-Programmer (NLP) coaches, that everything is figureoutable, and that we control our destinies. 

Living in a world where I am constantly aware of what it actually means to exist in a systemically oppressive society, it is hard to swallow the one-size-fits-all blanket statement that everything simply will be okay, should you decide that it will be. The reality: marginalized communities face very different experiences than their privileged counterparts, which makes this statement feel icky, if not false.

And so, I sit with that often. Tossing between feeling in control of my future, and knowing what I’m truly up against. I know that I have created a lot of my reality: partially due to the privilege I do have, partially because of the actions I’ve taken, but mostly due to Oprah’s definition of being lucky, and being prepared whenever the moments of opportunity come knocking. 

The thing is, they both co-exist. 

When we understand the world we live in, we can understand how to work within it, while also simultaneously changing and reimagining what a new, better one can look like. 

I grew up in the 90’s and 00’s being constantly told by the adults around me that I was born in a generation of changemakers. That we, the young ones, would shape technology and how we respond to it. That we would tell the world how it needed to behave and change, and that the rest of the world would adapt to our voices. 

That we would be unafraid of being loud. 

And holy freaking heck. 

We’re here, aren’t we? 

And sitting here, as a mid-twenty-something, writing this out, I am aware of the glaring fact:

We’re all a part of this. 

We all get to be changemakers. 

And every single one of us gets to add to the fabric of the realities we exist in. 

It’s not perfect; it’s far from it. And we have decades more work to come ahead of us. A stronger and more resilient generation of change-makers that we need to raise. 

But this fire that’s ignited is in all of us. 

So don’t forget it.

And let this serve as your weekly Thursday reminder.