The Road to a Better World- Part I

It all started here…

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step”- Lao Tzu

I've always had this unmatched passion to motivate and influence people to live a healthy lifestyle, mentally as well as physically. I can remember it all started back when I was seventeen years old. I motivated and influenced my entire family on a few mindful practices geared to promote positivity and enhance the quality of life. To this very day, over three decades later my family still uses these practices.

When I learned that the National Society of Leadership and Success had an Executive Leadership program, and the sole purpose was for individuals accepted into the program to do either a Better Me project or a Better World Project; I knew I had to jump on board.

When deciding which type of Better World Project to do Better Me vs Better World, I looked at what sets my soul fire. I used how I am currently showing up in the world to determine which type of better world project would be a good fit for me. I’m a Certified Nutrition and Wellness Consultant (creating digital products and services to inspire people to live a healthy lifestyle), an Influencer in several social media partner programs (Instagram, Facebook Reels and YouTube), executive board member of the University of Phoenix Chapter of the NSLS, and I’ve also been featured in several publications motivating and influencing people on my journey.

When I reviewed the key features of a Better Community project such as Focusing Outward by utilizing members of the community to assist me with defining a problem and potential solutions for my better world project. Next, was creating a positive impact and scaling how my project would have a positive effect on others. Lastly, incorporating service to the community and getting creative and realistic on how I could use my passion, gifts and talents to service others. The more I got into this rhythm of putting together what I currently do that sets my soul on fire, aligning with doing a Better Community Project was a no- brainer. Now let the games begin..

Seek Wise Counsel…

“A fool despises wise counsel, but a wise man takes it to heart.” - Confucius

Now, I’ve committed to start this journey and I was so excited. I can remember sharing the news with friends and family and how excited they were. But, then reality kicked in and I was horrified and wondering, what in the world have I gotten myself into? I knew I couldn’t do this by myself and that I needed help. My thought process was to create a “dream team” that would encompass different age groups.

I also knew I needed someone who was impeccable with Organizational Leadership, Business Processes and Management and someone who was somewhat ‘green” to the business side of their profession. It was critical I had experience, expertise, and a fresh set of eyes.

I knew that these specific skillsets from the group would allow me to leverage my leadership skills of open communication, strategic thinking, creativity, time management and positivity to truly guide others.

I held individual conversations with these amazing women, JoAnn, Despina and Sloan, they accepted my invitation, and the rest is history.

Before I met with my dream team I wanted to drill down to what problem I wanted to solve for and I did some extensive research and came up with the following, over the past two years, Americans have gone through a pandemic, inflation, gas price increases and the Russian-Ukraine war. According to a new poll from the American Psychology Association a large majority of Americans are reporting high stress levels due to these stressors. According to the poll, alarmingly 87% of the poll respondents said inflation was the significant source of the stress. On top of the struggles of dealing with the effects on their daily lives from the pandemic.

The poll conducted by the American Psychology Association, showed 87% of American adults felt overwhelmed and fatigued from the constant stream of crisis’, with no break over the last two years.

From this research I felt with much clarity that the community needed a virtual safe haven free of depressing news, judgement and critics; providing positivity and fostering safe and positive engagement amongst its members.

Let the games begin…

“What we do in life.. echoes in eternity”- Maximus

Our collaboration was phenomenal. Together we came up with so much thought-provoking information it made my head spin (in a good way). Based on my research and the route I wanted to go with in the project, we defined the project goal which was to implement a virtual space for inspiration. Next, we started charting out all the goals, requirements, and milestones and making sure everything was linking back to our ultimate project goal.

Now this is when it gets fun and intense.. Stay Tuned!