fbpx
LoginSHOPshop

Learning to 'Be Better'

I’ve come a long way in the last five years.  In March of 2016 I wrote my first Optimists Journal blog at a time when I was only putting my thoughts down in hopes that my kids would understand who I was and what I was thinking when they were old enough and ready to […]
By
Wendy Jones
January 23, 2022

I’ve come a long way in the last five years.  In March of 2016 I wrote my first Optimists Journal blog at a time when I was only putting my thoughts down in hopes that my kids would understand who I was and what I was thinking when they were old enough and ready to understand.  Thanks to my awesome technical knowledge at the time, I lost the first 10-20 while updating my website…on my own, bad idea. From the start, my writing was a mix of sports, relationships, and mindset.  Since then I’ve gone down many rabbit holes to discover the facts behind mindfulness, sleep, nutrition, recovery science, and how they relate to telling an optimistic, and ultimately triumphant,  life story.. I have proven to myself that telling stories is an amazing way to heal, learn, teach, and encourage others to reflect on their own story to celebrate the good and learn from the challenges.  Writing gives me clarity where I didn’t have it before, and helps me see where to step next on the path ahead. Over this time, the process has proven to be fulfilling in ways I didn't know when I started. At that point I just knew I had to do the next right thing. I’ve learned all about the depths of imposter syndrome and how to trust my gut.  As I’ve moved through, one day at a time, my confidence and knowledge of myself and what I am meant to say and do on this journey has been a transformation from feeling small and unworthy to aligned and connected with my own gifts and talents and recognize how to connect them with all of the good and passionate people in the world.

I believe that the greatest gift we can give to the next generation is our own self awareness, so I work to do things that build mine, set an example, and teach them how to extend grace to themselves and others when things get dicey.  If you have signed up for a membership, I wanted to thank you for being a part of this inner circle, for emailing me when something I say resonates or even telling me when you disagree.  I don’t believe we all have to see the world the same, or that if you don’t agree with me, it’s a mark on your character.  I wish I felt that sentiment throughout our society when discussing so many important issues of the day. My new site has ways we can keep up this conversation and learn how to be better together.

As always, I have a few takeaways and things I’ve learned through this process over the last five years:

  • Building a team of like minds, with a myriad of talents, allows everyone to do what they do best.  No one is meant to walk this road alone. We are all connected.

  • I know real healing has happened when my inner life, outer life, and online life have massive synchronicity. The lessons that I have learned are also the lessons I can teach, and yet I continue to feel them again on a bigger stage with even deeper meaning.  There is no point of arrival, just the continual pull to learn more and do better with the knowledge gained.

  • When I write, I feel a deep connection with my purpose: to connect generations  through understanding of what makes us whole and create relationships that leave legacies.

  • Every moment of this journey, from second guessing, learning to be seen, letting go of the fear of what other people think, and even the days spent sitting in pajamas on the couch paralyzed with fear that I couldn’t say what I wanted to say on my own were an integral part of this journey.  Like everything else it’s all connected and it all had to happen to Be Better.  Nothing has been wasted.

Now you will get to see my vision to connect generations of athletes and parents and inspire them to be better, one day at a time, and create a community of excellence and inclusion.

What I know to be true today is that the process really is the dream, and every day I enjoy the process that I have created. Your process will create room for you and everyone around you to shine.  And that is exactly what I want to bring forth in this new space.  Are you ready? I am.

With love & optimism,

Wendy

Because music is always telling us a story…

1 2 3 13
hello world!
About the author:
Wendy Jones is a mother of four, lifelong athlete, writer, and optimism & resilience coach and speaker. Through 20 years of parenting and relationship struggles, she believes that vulnerability and our willingness to share our stories is a way to heal ourselves

Related Posts:

The Healing House

There are a million reasons why people find it difficult to be themselves. Between codependency, people pleasing, FOMO, FOPO, traumatic experiences and relationships, getting to the essence of our being and feeling free enough to express ourselves is life’s greatest challenge and gift. Being that it’s almost the 4th of July and post that tragic […]
Read More

Is It Co-Parenting or Control?

Some days it seems there isn’t enough hot tea in the world for my life because learning to honor the slowdown and keep pace with adulting is so hard. My kettle is getting tired, but herbal tea is often my best solution for the chaos that comes through.  My life lets me live the precept:  […]
Read More

So He Left…Now What? Six Ways to Embrace Healing and Avoid Burnout Post Divorce

I wouldn’t have been able to write this eight years ago when he left. So much goes into rebuilding a life and it’s not linear. There have been many missteps and a lack of understanding of where I was at the time and why, but from the time it happened, I always had the question […]
Read More

What Is Generational Healing?

March 19, 2023 I don’t remember the exact date, but it was a Friday afternoon in 2014.  Clear blue skies, volleyball practice had been canceled for some reason I can’t remember, and our family was on the beach. There were four kids running around in the sand with nowhere else to be.  I remember thinking […]
Read More

One Generation Away

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.” - Ronald Reagan As a kid, 4th of July was my favorite holiday next to Christmas.   Staying in my bathing suit all day, feet burning on hot pavement, and popsicles and fireworks in the street are among my favorite childhood memories.  This holiday weekend […]
Read More

The Real Sisterhood

"What if the world was already good? What if what you seek, you find? What if everything wasn’t an emergency? What if we cared more about stories and less about labels? What if we stopped shouting so we could listen?" -Chrissy Kelly greatest mom, friend and writer Her words put a lump in my throat.  […]
Read More

How To Inspire BETTER

I saw Top Gun this week. It’s so weird to see the actors of my youth get older. Like so many of us, it took me back to 1986,  getting dropped off at the movie theater at least 3 different times to see it. Although I loved the story and cinematography, what struck me most […]
Read More

The Top 10 Things I Want my 17 Year old to Know.

Kate turned 17 on Thursday. For anyone who hasn't followed her story, she's the one who stopped playing volleyball to be a theatre kid. And man does she blow my mind on that stage. It's so fun to see her risk, I would have been terrified of that at her age. Maybe she is, but […]
Read More

Is Competing Actually Keeping You from Success?

As a writer, I am thankful that I have a good memory of my early life.  So many of my thoughts take me back to places and days from long ago.  When I am able to feel those feelings of the younger me, it gives me perspective for what I’ve learned and fills me with […]
Read More

My America

Our country is hurting. As much as I am an optimist who looks for the good and the growth in all things, you can’t have a week like this one and not feel like you have been kicked hard in the gut. When you attack anyone’s child, the horrific trauma of an unimaginable situation knocks […]
Read More

Alchemy Over Strategy

I usually don’t have the title of  a blog when I sit down to write, generally speaking it comes last.  But I have leaned into something new that has given me so much peace in the hardest moments of transition  that I knew it was time to write about it.  I’ve been working with Emily […]
Read More

Everyone Needs a Song

Hi.  I’m Wendy.  Even though I’ve written over 200 blogs, you don’t really know me.  I show you glimpses of me in my writing, if you have seen it.  But even though I write openly about my life, you don’t know everything; I suppose that’s how it should be.  I worry about exposing too much. But […]
Read More
1 2 3 18
crossmenu
linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram