If you don’t know Rachel Hollis, I totally suggest finding out who she is. Then take it a step further and read her books, attend her conference, whatever it is, immerse yourself in her. I will talk a little bit about her movement and then delve into her 5 steps of the foundation for success.
This week, my girlfriend and I went to watch the encore of her movie. It’s one of those “one time, one day only at the theaters” type thing. It had played once before a few months ago had such and overwhelming demand for those who couldn’t buy tickets that they screened it again for an encore.
The movie is called, ‘Rachel Hollis: Made to be More’, a movement teaching women that they are and are capable of so much more than they think or limit themselves to be. Her goal was to create an environment such like a women’s study group at church but for everyone, both faith and non-faith based women. She never could find groups outside of church that provided the same type of love, support, and comfort but knew it was something all types of women from all backgrounds needed to experience. Thus, her conference/movement, Rise.
I promise I’ll get to the founds for success. I just need to preface everything first.
Rise is a two-part, two-day series that teaches you to embrace your past so that you can embrace your future. Essentially, you cannot successfully embrace your future without first embracing, accepting, or acknowledging everything that has happened to you previously – the things that have gotten you to where you are in life today. The movie truly touched me. Nothing else I’ve seen has really ever tackled the nitty gritty of the common woman’s flaws, insecurities, shamefulness, scars, and battles, etc. I teared up multiple times watching the women stand up for each other during an exercise. Rise should be something every single woman attends at least once during their lives, and definitely sooner than later.
Anyway, there’s so much I can talk about, but at the end of the movie, she gave a teaching lesson that she brushes on during the movie, and that’s the five steps for the foundation of success. Let’s begin.
1. PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT: You cannot succeed if the space and environment around you/where you live is trashed. Your home, your room, your car… if you want more for yourself in life, it’s starts at there. If you don’t have a clean space around you to start fresh, a space that doesn’t stress you out or worry you or nag you that you still have to take care of it later, you can’t properly succeed. So begin by decluttering. Throw the old, useless stuff out. Clean up the space. Make your bed everyday. Those small little successes are a catalyst effect for conquering more and more task throughout the day. And well, if nothing gets accomplished, hey at least you come home to a clean space that you don’t have to worry about cleaning so that the next day, you can jump right into tackling whatever it is you want to achieve. You’re already one step closer than you were yesterday.
2. PERSONAL ENVIRONMENT: This one is my favorite. Your body, your physical health and well-being… how is it? Do you feel good? I’m not talking about your clothing size, the number on the scale, or how you look. How do you physically and mentally feel? Do your back or hips hurt? Do you have anxiety or depression?
You must take care of yourself first before you can succeed. You must love how you feel and feel mentally healthy and physically able in order to succeed. She gave an AMAZING analogy of a tall glass vase under a non-stop flow of water (nutrients, self-care, love, time, wellness) pouring into it. Women are so quick to want to tip (and tip, and tip) their jars to pour into their boyfriends’, husbands’, parents’, kids’, or friends’ jars that before they know it, their half empty jar tips completely over and shatters. INSTEAD what we need to do is stand tall! Don’t let your vase tip. Why?? Because eventually, we will be filled with so much water that soon enough, the water will overflow out of our vase and seamlessly into the vases of others. If we take care of ourselves first, it will be much easier to care for others moving forward.
3. COMMUNITY: I’ve known this one for a long time and always keep it in mind. You are the product of the 5 people you spend the most time with. Period, done, finito. So who do you kick it with most? If you’re the smartest one in your group, you’re hanging with the wrong group. If you’re the most driven and motivated one in your group, you’re hanging with the wrong group. In order to grow and succeed, you need to surround yourself with people who are better than you. You not only learn more but your learn so much faster and thus succeed quicker. PROXIMITY IS POWER. Now.. people always ask where they could find a mentor or how find these people. Y’all. They don’t even have to be physical meetings. Some of the most successful people I’ve ever known, I’ve never met. GOOGLE, BOOKS, PODCASTS, there is information and knowledge everywhere. It is endless. Be SELF-TAUGHT. Successful people aren’t necessarily self-made, they’re just self-taught. If you’re too lazy to google information to better yourself, then *shrugs*, I don’t know what else to tell you.
4. MORNING ROUTINE: Every successful person has a morning routine they follow every. single. morning. Set your day up for success! For some, it’s prayer and devos, for others it’s working out, or meditation, or making your bed and cleaning up yesterday’s mess. Everyone has a morning routine. Find your own, find what gets you going, makes you feel good, and do it everyday.
5. HABITS: Most of the decisions we make throughout the day are not conscious decisions, they’re things we’ve done so many times everyday that eventually become habits. It’s great when they’re good things. What throws us off is when we have bad habits, when we’re emotionally eating, not getting enough sleep, getting angry, etc. Those are bad choices that aren’t actually choices. Take a good look at the habits you’re crushing; then, take a look at the habits that are hurting you. There’s a great book called The Power of Habit and in that book, a habit is explained as 3 things: 1. It’s a cue. It’s a trigger that allows you to take an action that has a reward. Cue, action, reward. Cue is we get in the car to go to work. Action is going to Starbucks to get coffee. Reward is drinking coffee – we are happy. You cannot change your trigger/cue.
Here’s an example. Your bad habit is drinking when you’re stressed. You get stressed (cue), your action is to drink, and your reward is that you feel good for a moment but then, you realize it doesn’t solve anything. You cannot change your cue. You can’t change the stress in your life, what pops up. What you CAN change is your action, how you react. So instead of drinking, go on a run, blast your favorite song, make out with your man. When you do that enough times, it becomes your habit! Settle into those new, good habits. Make the conscious choice and decision to be better.
Without these 5 things, you cannot see yourself up for success. You are WORTH the time to take care of yourself, to have a good morning, to spend the time to examine what is preventing you from success, from good habits. YOU ARE WORTH THE TIME!! It’s beautiful to show up for others and to pour into them but you’ll have nothing to pour into yourself if you’re not first taking care of yourself.
So let this be something you implement in the new year. 2019 just started, you can kick off for new year on a good number. You can do this. Build those foundations of success for yourself and become the best version of you. New you, new mood.
Check out my favorite book of hers, Girl Wash Your Face (only cause it’s the only one I’ve read so far) here. She’s got plenty more!
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