Speak: Find Your Voice, Trust Your Gut, and Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be

by Tunde Oyeneyin

Embracing uncertainty empowers you to take risks. The beauty of uncertainty, I’ve found, is infinite possibility.

We all have a body. It’s the first thing that belongs to us. It’s where we live and how we move through the world, and our experience within it guides us into the different paths we take as we grow. When we transform it, it transforms us.

Whatever it is that makes you want to hide, you have two choices—learn to love it or change it. We can’t let fear steer our course.

If you want to change things, you have to change things.

Rather than fight for a number on the scale, I decided to fight to maintain a feeling.

We work hard, train hard, and adhere to general recommendations, all to reach an end goal. Yet we don’t spend the same amount of time or devote the same type of attention to training our thoughts.

Your mind is your strongest muscle. It holds the key to your belief about the way you feel and the way you see yourself.

Every human interaction is unique, a moment in time in which we have the chance to understand the person standing in front of us.

Sometimes you don’t know when you’re turning to the next chapter of your life, but this time it was clear.

I believe we should live our lives in purpose, on purpose, and with great purpose. A life well lived is spent in service. Empathy is the root of service.

Resilience is the process of adapting in the face of adversity, trauma, or tragedy, having the ability to step up and say “yes” even when you’re under stress.

We don’t choose what happens to us, we choose how we react to it. Today’s a new day; choose to be new in it.

When your gut tells you one thing and your insecurities tell you another, you have to choose which voice to amplify.

We all carry around judgments of ourselves that we pull out in times of self-doubt. Every time we face something intimidating or scary, these insecurities step forward

“You’ve made it through 100 percent of your bad days.”

“Grab a coffee and decide what version of yourself you want to bring into the day.”

“Tunde, life comes in seasons,” she told me. “Everything shifts and changes. I try to get the most out of the season that I’m in, because I know I’ll never get it back.”

I’d been so busy doing, that I hadn’t stopped to acknowledge how far I’d come.

Just for a minute, think about what it would be like if we lived in a world where we had no option but to keep trying.

Your standards change as you do.

When we feel insecure, why do we allow ourselves to forget our expertise? You know what you know, and you can carry those skills no matter where you go, into uncomfortable new terrain.

Looking out for ourselves means not accepting less than we deserve—and we don’t have to sacrifice that for others. Once you put yourself on the sale rack, it’s hard to go back to full price.

But preparation invites opportunity.

I’m not anti-cop, not even close. I’ve been in situations where I looked to law enforcement for help and received it. When you put on a uniform, it makes you the “good guy.” Some people rise to that responsibility and some abuse it. History continues to show that those who abuse it aren’t held accountable, and when that happens, they deserve to be held up for all to see until there is justice.

What makes me rise? The knowledge that I can.

When the batteries in our phones drop to ten percent, we panic. We scramble to find an outlet so that we can charge it before it goes completely dead. But we let ourselves run down to ten all the time. We wait until the last possible second, when we see the shutdown most imminently, to find a solution. What if we had the same urgency when it came to taking care of ourselves? And what if we felt it before our own batteries get dangerously low?

We have to be good to ourselves so that we can show up for everyone else.