01/03/2026
This picture says it all. Not everything is as it appears, especially on social media.
My new year hasn’t actually begun with fireworks.
It began quietly—inside.
As the Year of the Snake closes and the Year of the Fire Horse opens, I’m not rushing into resolutions or reinvention. I’m noticing what’s still tender. What’s unfinished. What’s asking for honesty instead of performance.
I’m shedding the old and getting ready to gallop....and some moments I am licking the wounds of my mistakes while still moving forward.
However, most of the meaningful things in my life weren’t born from certainty.
They were built in the unglamorous middle.
Here’s what that middle has really looked like as I open the next chapter:
What you think it is:
-Living the dream in Costa Rica.
-Freedom, flow, confident leadership, expansion.
-Having it all together.
-Getting a tan.
-Eating fresh fruit daily.
Sounds pretty good, eh? Especially at -30 in Alberta, Canada.
What it actually is:
-Missing my family, my clinic, my dog, my friends, and instead learning how to hold joy and grief at the same time.
-Missing important celebrations
-Missing funerals
-Long days, decision fatigue, and showing up even when I’m exhausted.
-Leading while scared, uncertain, and still choosing forward.
-Stretching past comfort daily without guarantees.
-Exploding water pipes, flooded rooms, mud on my shoes, renovation delays that lead to upset customers, and cleaning out grey water drains.
-Struggling in a new language, asking people to slow down—again.
-Going back to school while self-funding everything, with no safety net.
-Learning when strength means softness and when asking for help is the bravest thing I can do.
Most dreams aren’t built in the spotlight.
They’re built right here.
And here’s the confession part:
I don’t always show the soft side. People don’t often see my scared parts, or the moments where I don’t know the next step. The asking-for-help part gets squished more often than I’d like to admit.
But this year reminded me that self-leadership isn’t about having it all together.
It’s about staying present, even when you don’t. By being authentic and showing up, raw and unapologetic. By letting people in, and risking the judgements.
So, as we step into this new year, I’ll leave you with a few questions—not to answer, just to notice:
🌱 Where are you being authentic—and where might you be hiding out of habit or protection?
🌱 Where in your life are you doing the unglamorous work for something you believe in?
🌱 What assumptions might you be making about someone else’s journey—or your own? Where might you be wrong?
🌱 What would it look like to be just 5% more honest with yourself and vulnerable with others this year?
If you’re in the messy middle too, you’re not alone. I’m there too. As I type this, at 2:42am because I can’t sleep with all the to-do’s running through my head.
This kind of self-leadership—rooted in compassion, honesty, and resilience—is the work I care about most. It’s not theoretical. It’s lived. It’s practiced. It’s messy and meaningful.
It’s also what shaped SAGE.
SAGE isn’t about fixing yourself or becoming someone new. It’s about learning how to stay self-led and aligned while you build the life you’re actually here for—even when it’s uncomfortable, uncertain, and asking more of you than you expected.
So if you’re craving:
• someone to walk beside you
• a tight, intentional community that gets the stretch
• a place to unpack what’s heavy and leave lighter and clearer
• support in turning the thing you keep dreaming about into something lived
This may be your invitation.
The 12-week Soul Aligned Growth & Embodiment (SAGE) program, beginning in March, includes a week together in Costa Rica—stepping out of routine, into nature, into clarity—plus integration support to help you bring what you uncover there back into your real life.
This is for the people who are ready to stop waiting. To be more authentic and raw. To move forward, even when you are scared. Uncertain. Alone.
To trust yourselves more deeply.
We’ll do the damn things together—some days in the trenches on Zoom, some days in the sun in Costa Rica, all of it side by side.
Pool, fresh fruit, authenticity and real life included.
