The “Integrated Life”

Many years ago I began my journey into motion and design… I had no idea where it would lead, I just wanted a creative career that would support me financially.

I started off in startups and the corporate world aiming for stability full of innocence and hope. The startup bro culture beat me up and spit me out. I spent a long time reevaluating my purpose in the tech field. As a humanitarian, my impact small and large matters to me. I wasn’t being given the promotions I had earned, working 7 days a week 10–12 hours a day, my future was bleak. And I was questioning the impact my work was having on the world.

So, I jumped, I packed up everything, took my dreams back, and risked everything to create what my husband and I call “an integrated life”. We’ve spent the past 4 years building our vision, our community, living from our garden. Discovering amazing people and using our influence to reconnect with and put the spotlight on people doing amazing things. Championing the beautiful, the amazing and the heartfelt creative visionaries we have been fortunate to enough to encounter in our life.

And now, we are reevaluating again…still far from our goals. What worked? What failed. What do we need? Do we still want the same things?

This week I am beginning “phase 2” with gratitude for those who have held the door open when others tried to pummel me into invisibility . And I think about the quote “What we do to others, we do to ourselves” as I clean, paint and rearrange my office to make way for a bigger vision.

I am no longer using the phrase “If this happens”….today forward I am completely focusing on “When this happens”. And will continue to grow despite the cage society would like me to wear. I reject any structure that encourages or attempts to hem me into belief systems of diminished impact.

We are not here to fall in line, to comply, to be diminished. We are here to be ourselves and to contribute our individual talents and vision to the world. Despite the obstacles, fear, doubt and opinions of others. We are here to be true, to be courageous, to be real, to be honest, to lift up others and find the solutions to problems big and small. We are here to collaborate and to live a full life. And I for one, intend to keep the torch of creativity and courage burning.