"Motherhood is the highest and
most challenging vocation a woman can aspire to."

The mothers of today's Extreme Teen Leaders are a special kind of moms. They see the greatness, the awesomeness, and the pure possibility in their student leaders. These moms have seen a generation of teenagers who are developing themselves personally and creating a team that is called to do something great. And they're making the investment today, to secure their student leaders ability to weather the storms of life because they know that the biggest storms come after they’ve flown the nest. These moms are raising student leaders with wisdom and ensuring they have the tools they need to succeed.

These Moms have nurtured and supported their children as they balanced an intense academic workload with a busy schedule of extracurricular activities.

I have seen our Moms taking on their own personal development to ensure they are taking care of their own life challenges to show up as the best Mom for their children. As a mom of five, it is such a blessing to be a part of each family's journey.

These Moms continue to face their own unique challenges as they've helped their teens navigate through adolescence and into young adulthood. They've cheered on their teens as they've taken on new challenges and celebrated their successes along the way.

This tribute is to the mothers of graduates who are members of Extreme Teen Leaders. I truly believe in giving Moms their flowers while they are still here to enjoy them. Today, I am sending you all flowers. Well deserved.

We embrace you with love, and hope that as you continue to empty your cups to fill the cups of those you love…that someone also fills yours and honors you for the beauty you bring to the lives of all of our Extreme Teen Leaders. If it were not for your guidance and love, where would they be?
 
Thank you for your never-ending support and for always being there for your children. Even when they're at their worst, you see their magnificence. Thank you for helping them discover their potential and unleash it in the world. Thank you for training them to be powerful leaders and for always being the last one standing in their corner when everyone else is nowhere to be found.

Happy Women’s Day Month, Year, Decade, Forever

In order to capture someone's heart, it is important to understand what makes them feel loved. Some people feel loved when they are given compliments, while others feel loved when they are shown physical affection. Some people feel loved when they are given time and attention, while others feel loved when they are praised for their accomplishments. The key to capturing someone's heart is to find out what makes them feel special and loved, and then to do those things consistently.

Find out what they love: 

Ask them about their favorite things and show an interest in their hobbies. Capturing someone's heart can be difficult, but it's not impossible. You need to find out what they love and show an interest in their hobbies. By doing this, you'll make them feel special and appreciated, which is the key to winning their heart. So, ask them about their favorite things and show that you care about who they are as a person.

Connect and be vulnerable:

Share your feelings and be open and honest. It can be hard to capture someone's heart. You may feel like you need to put on an act or play a certain role in order to win them over. But the truth is, the best way to capture someone's heart is by being yourself – honest and open with your feelings. When you are vulnerable with someone, you create a connection with them that is hard to break.

Make them feel special: Compliment them authentically, be thoughtful, and create time for them.

Capturing someone's heart is not an easy task. It takes time, effort, and a lot of patience. You have to put yourself out there and take the time to get to know the person. You also need to be genuine and honest with them, and make sure you're always truthful. If you can do that, then you're well on your way to capturing their heart.

Continue to show interest: Keep learning about them and find new ways to connect.

There are many things to learn about someone before you can capture their heart. You have to find common interests, learn about their family, and figure out what makes them happy. It's also important to be genuine in your interest and continue to show it over time. By taking the time to get to know someone, you're showing them that you care and that you're worth getting to know better.

Conclusion: Capturing someone's heart takes time and effort, but it's worth it!

In order to capture someone's heart, it is important to be genuine, open-minded, and understanding. First and foremost, it is important to be genuine with the person you are interested in. Do not try to be someone you're not in order to impress them; they will see right through it. Secondly, be open-minded and willing to listen to what the other person has to say.

As teenagers, we often feel powerless. We're too young to vote, we can't legally drink, and our opinions often seem to fall on deaf ears. But despite feeling small and insignificant at times, each of us has an incredible power within us - the power to create change. We may not be able to do everything, but we CAN make a difference in our schools, our communities, and the world. So let's use that power for good - let's work to make the world a better place for everyone.

How do you do that? You start with yourself. You start by getting clear on your vision and what YOU want to create in this world. I know for me, my vision is to empower. What is your vision? If you don’t know yet, that’s cool too. Take a moment and think about it. Once you get clear, then you can align every goal and every action you take with your vision. Then it’s easy. If it doesn’t align, don’t do it. If it does, go for it!

There's a lot of power in being young. We have the energy to take on the world, and the potential to do anything we set our minds to. But sometimes it can be hard to tap into that power – especially when life gets tough.

Here are five simple tips to help you find the strength within and unleash your inner power!

Conclusion paragraph: So, how can you start tapping into your inner power? The first step is to believe in yourself. You have everything you need inside of you – now it’s time to use it! Once you have that foundation, get clear on your vision. What do you want your life to look like? What are your goals? Once you know what they are, it will be easier to find the passion that will help you stay motivated when things get tough. Finally, don’t give up! Keep going even when the journey seems hard and challenging. Stay positive and keep taking action steps on your goals. With these five tips as your guide, anything is possible. Are you ready to unleash your inner power?

If so, join us for our Extreme Goal Getters Challenge starting February 1st!

It's easy to forget to set goals for yourself in the new year. You can find yourself living in the moment and not setting any goals for yourself. But if you don't set goals for yourself, you'll never know what you want to do with your life. You'll never know what direction you want to set for your life. When you live your life without setting goals, you're actually in limbo. You're stuck in a state where you're uncertain what direction you want to go in. Being in this state can cause you to feel stressed and like you are driving in circles going nowhere fast. Setting goals is a way to get some direction in your life. It's easy to forget to set goals for yourself. You can find yourself living in the moment and not setting any goals for yourself. But if you don't set goals for yourself, you'll never know what you want to do with your life. You'll never know what you want to. It makes it easy to determine what you want to do. If you don’t know where you want to go, how can you get there??

Goals can be set in every domain of your life, such as: Social, Health and Physical, Finance and Money, Community, Spiritual and Core Values, Academics and Career, Personal Development, and Extracurricular Activities and Fun. Decide what you want, who you want to be, what you want to do, and you can start to focus on those things. Once you do, you can choose the mechanism to accomplish them.
 
As you start this new year, follow this goal crushing method:

If you need support crushing your goals and staying on track, join our Extreme Goal Getters Challenge and find an accountability buddy. You can even invite your own accountability buddy! It’s free to join!! Sign up now and make this year the best year of your life!!!

I’ve been doing a lot of work lately on myself because I am a firm believer that before you can challenge others to be the best version of themselves, you get to take yourself on first and continue learning and growing. We are always learning whether it’s learning what to do or what not to do. Growing up I lived with my grandmother who kept us in church. We attended service, bible study, and any other activities that had the church doors open. I learned a lot about judgment in the many messages I heard but the one thing that stood out the most was “don’t judge lest ye be judged”. Don’t know why that stuck with me throughout the years but it did. I spent most of my life being accepting of others no matter where they came from. I learned how to be nonjudgmental. What that meant was instead of vocalizing my judgments and assessments, I allowed my conscience to engage in mental chatter in my head. Instead of judging out loud, I judged in my head. As I continued to do my own work though I learned how to quiet that noise and see the brilliance in people even when they didn’t always show it. You can learn something from everyone. I remember my previous pastors saying “...eat the fish and spit out the bones...”, in other words learn what you can and discard the rest. With all of those teachings and the distinctions I learned later in life, I raised my consciousness to see the good in people and have compassion for them. The question I often ask is, “what must they have been through to behave that way?”.

You can’t teach emotional intelligence if you are not living it yourself. Recently, I had an experience where someone judged me because of my affiliation with a community and some things that had happened to them in the past by people in that community. The walls of resistance automatically went up and it got really weird really fast. They were agitated, short, and unaccepting. The energy shifted and I felt the judgment. They didn’t even see me. They saw their past. They had judgments about a certain group of people and because I knew them and had collaborated with them, I was like them and that meant they wanted absolutely nothing to do with me. It reminded me of how young black boys must feel walking the planet, or how our LGBTQ brothers and sisters feel. It reminded me of how our beautiful special needs, or any other groups that are labeled as “different” must feel. It was a horrible feeling. It was an energy that was hard to shake off. No wonder so many of them struggle with not even wanting to be here and be subject to everyone else’s judgment. It saddens my heart how people can be towards others, especially when they are educators that are responsible for preparing our future leaders.
 
Here is what I am committed to…and I say it in every training. I am committed to creating a space of love and acceptance…a judge free zone where people can be themselves. Where they are treated with dignity and respect. I am not committed to being nonjudgmental…I am committed to being unjudgmental. The two are distinct. I am committed to living my life so that even my mental chatter is not judging. Striving to see the good in people, and accepting that so many people have experienced trauma and have cognitive distortions that have them behave in ways that I might not agree with. Doing my work and cleaning up my history so I don’t treat people unkindly because of what happened in my past. They are not them. I am not that person any longer. I am present. And you and I can connect without me seeing my past in you.
--
Here are 7 signs that you may be overly judgemental and might need to do some work of your own to grow:

Being judgemental puts on full display your own insecurities and inability to connect with people who are different from you. The beauty of life can be found in our differences. Our ability to give other people the freedom to be messy while still holding them in a space of love requires maturity, self-worth, raised consciousness, groundedness and a tremendous amount of love.

When in doubt...be kind.

Before I begin, I just want to make one thing clear. This discovery of your WHY is not going to be a quick fix or something that will pop into your head while you are in the shower. It's not an easy process but it is most definitely worth it! The discovery of your WHY can and should be an ongoing journey. You'll always need to remind yourself what you stand for, what makes your heart beat (literally) and why you do what you do on a daily basis. After all, how many people out there do what they love? If they are doing what they love, how many of their friends and family think it's just a hobby?

"How will I know when I've found my WHY?" You may have heard that the discovery of your WHY has to be emotional. It does! This discovery needs to touch parts of you that you haven't felt before. If finding your WHY doesn't bring up any emotions from deep inside, then you may not have found it yet.

When it comes time for writing this discovery of why, most people don't really know where to start because they really don't understand that their WHY is likely related to a painful area in their life. Most people don't want to reflect on painful experiences or memories. Human beings would much rather avoid it altogether. But, pain and purpose are best friends. They have an inseparable bond. So, you should work on this discovery during a time when your feelings aren't too intense because it may feel uncomfortable and quite possibly sad or even angry. You're going to want to avoid discomfort because of the emotional response they bring up for you, but in order to find your WHY those same emotions are necessary. Don't be afraid to revisit and reflect on your past pain. You will likely find your purpose in the midst of that pain.

The discovery process is a simple one that takes an average of twenty minutes to complete. If you follow these steps regularly, it will also take just under ten minutes:
Take some time and put some thought on those questions. Then when you find people that love what they do, ask them how they discovered their WHY and listen to their stories. You’ll likely hear about something they had to overcome before they found it.

Take some time and put some thought on those questions. Then when you find people that love what they do, ask them how they discovered their WHY and listen to their stories. You’ll likely hear about something they had to overcome before they found it.

I want to encourage you today to never be afraid to speak your truth.

Oftentimes we allow our fear of judgment to get in the way of our authenticity and vulnerability. But my choice to be vulnerable, transparent, and open is where I have found my greatest personal power. Sharing my story and sharing my truth has been so empowering over the years.

When I finally decided to share my story it was like giving birth to a new me. I was no longer entrapped by feelings of shame and I was no longer a victim to the events that happened to me. I was freed of it all, which opened me up to a new level of accountability and responsibility that I never knew was accessible.

Yes, my ego immediately got on the defensive, and I started thinking about what other people might think and whether or not I would regret it. But I never did, and even if people had their judgments, I realized that their judgments had nothing to do with me.

As William Ernest Henley wrote in his poem Invictus… “I am the master of my fate...I am the captain of my soul.”

I am waiting for the moment I can make the big ask...the “what’s in it for ME”. I am sure the other person can feel my discomfort and is just being kind to give me a chance. They're probably wondering why I am even being so weird about it.
 
Underneath that “weirdness” is usually a worthiness conversation. But when I am confident and I know my worth I have no problem asking for whatever I want. And I am not crushed by a “No”. Because I understand the “No” isn’t about me. It doesn’t mean they are saying no to ME. So I don't take it personal!
 
Manipulation is an unconscious approach to getting what we want because we don’t believe we can get it by being authentic. Manipulation is used to avoid rather than to create so instead be authentic.
 
Here are some tips:

Happy Warm Wishes Wednesday! Get out there and be authentic with your requests and when people choose to say “No”…don’t take it personal. Honor their “No” because saying “No” in that moment for them might just be one of their biggest breakthroughs in their own self worth.

Seeing one today reminded me to continue to shed the past like snakes shed their skin. And to walk gently upon the earth. So often we are haunted by our past traumas and live our lives making decisions based on what happened yesterday, expecting our future to be different. I wanted to stop in to remind you too, to let go of the past. There are many reasons to let it go...here are three of my reasons:

F - Forgiveness
I am not the same person then, that I am now. The people that I knew then have also grown on their life journey and they are not the same person either. I can forgive myself for everything that I have ever done, said, or thought and I can forgive everyone that has ever done, said, or thought anything negative about me.

U - Uniqueness
What happened to me in the past does not define who I am today. Those events and things that happened are distinct from who I am. That happened AND it does not define me. I have accomplished and been through so many other things. I am unique and there is nothing to compare myself to nor is there anything that can define me except for ME.

N - Nothingness
The past is gone and there's nothing I can do about anything that has already happened. It is there for me to learn my lessons and move forward.

Everything in the past resides in the Sea of Nothingness.

Happy Trails! Get out and walk through nature today. Let me know what you saw on your journey…