What Do You See?
What if you stepped back and looked at your life from the outside?
What would you see?
My default for so.many.years was to focus and obsess over all the ways I wasn’t enough.
As a daughter. Sister. Cousin. Teammate. Friend. Athlete. Student. Teacher. Entrepreneur. Wife. Mother. And the list goes on.
I believed that focusing on what wasn’t would drive me to enough.
What is enough?
Really,
What is enough?
When I see pics like these - ones I didn’t know were being taken - it reminds me how powerful the seat of the Compassionate Observer can be at disrupting those old pathways.
Here’s what I know for sure - when we focus on all the ways we’re not enough, it sends us straight into scarcity.
It's all we can see.
The obsession with all that's not. All that's lacking. All ways we fell short.
The words that weren't said. The actions that weren't taken. The time we didn't have.
And #rawtruth it becomes all we can see in others too - corroding even the most sacred relationships.
We miss the opportunity to see all that is.
Overtime, we start to self-protect. We become less likely to take risks. We resist feedback. We try to protect ourselves from falling. Failing. And being exposed.
We play small.
Constantly striving for more. Time. Money. Success. Love.
{insert all the things}
When we live with a scarcity mindset, nothing will ever be enough. Not even our best.
It's an easy slide from my best isn't enough to I'm not enough.
What if a shift in perspective was all you needed to welcome abundance?
What if inner peace + deeper joy weren't found in more?
And I know. I see you Perfection.
How will we grow + succeed + achieve if we don’t focus on all the ways we're falling short?
What we focus on grows. That's how.
By walking to the powerful, magical world of AND. We can see BOTH.
We separate who we ARE from what we DO.
We unhinge conditions.
Because, our worthiness of love + belonging is a birthright.
It's not something that needs to be earned.
And then, we find perspective.
We reflect on areas for growth - seeing them as opportunities - as part of the process.
And then we step back and anchor in gratitude. For all that is.
//
Samantha Arsenault Livingstone is an Olympic Gold Medalist, transformational speaker, high performance coach, mama of four girls.
Samantha empowers women to cultivate the courage, resilience and perseverance needed to live their dreams. She helps her clients let go of beliefs that are keeping them stuck - opening up the door for freedom, balance and joy that transcends.
Samantha candidly shares her battles with her inner critic, depression, perfection, PTSD and parenting as a working mother because she believes in the transformative power of story – and the strength that comes from knowing we are not alone. She is on a mission to pay forward all that she’s learned to help others find joy and live free.
A mama of heart warrior and mama of twins, Samantha and her husband, Rob, live in the Berkshires with their four girls. You can learn more about Samantha at www.samanthalivingstone.com.