The GR8 Journey

The last thing I wrote was about growing pains

The last thing I published went up on September 20, 2023. It was about growing pains.

I told the story about my legs. How they used to hurt so bad, and my grandmother would say, “them growing pains. You just growing.” Then she’d pull out a bottle of that green alcohol and rub my legs down. I’m still not sure if it worked. I always felt better after.

I wrote that. I hit publish. And then I didn’t write another word for almost three years.

Welp.

There’s a version of this post where I explain that away. Where I list the things that happened and let you nod along and we all move on. Absolutely not. You’ve been reading long enough to know when someone is managing you.

Here’s what actually happened.

I quit my 9-to-5 during the pandemic because of mental health overload. I decided I was going to create the greatness I wanted for my life, on my own terms. That was the whole idea. That was the entire reason this thing exists.

And then life happened, and I went into survival mode. I poured into everybody else’s greatness. Clients. People I love. Work that needed me. Every single thing that was not mine.

I forgot about me.

Read that back. That is not a humble brag. That is not “I was just so busy helping people.” That is me telling you I built a whole platform around a sentence I stopped living.

"Becoming a full-time entrepreneur was the most significant time in my life where I have felt mentally uncomfortable." I wrote that in 2023 and I meant it. What I didn’t know yet is that the discomfort doesn’t announce itself. It doesn’t show up as a crisis you can point to. It shows up as three years of being useful.

Sound familiar?

I think it might. Because if you’re reading this, there’s a decent chance you’re the one everybody calls. You’re the one who shows up. You’re the one who handles it. And somewhere behind all that, there’s a thing you wanted to do — a business, a book, a room you wanted to set up, a version of yourself you keep meaning to get back to — and it’s been sitting there so long you’ve stopped mentioning it out loud.

I’m not going to tell you how to fix that. I don’t have a five-step framework and I’m not about to sell you one.

I’m just going to tell you that I’m back at my own table, and I want you to come sit at yours.

Because here’s the part that took me three years to understand. Coming back is the work. It’s not the thing you do before the work starts. There’s no version of this where I return fully repaired with the lesson already learned and a nice bow on it. I’m writing from the middle. I have always written from the middle. That’s the only place I’ve ever had anything true to say.

My grandmother was right about the growing pains, by the way. They hurt because something was happening. She just didn’t tell me the pains come back every time you grow again, at every age, in every form, and nobody hands you the green bottle when you’re forty.

So this is me, starting over in public.

Here’s what that looks like: I’m writing again on The GR8 Journey — real posts, from the middle, on a schedule I’m actually going to keep. I’m showing up. And The GR8 List is open, which is where the honest stuff goes first, before it goes anywhere else.

You don’t owe me anything for reading this. But I do want to ask you something, and I want a real answer.

What’s the thing you stopped doing?

Not the thing you should be doing. Not the thing that would look good. The thing you were actually doing for yourself, at some point, before you got busy being everything for everybody. What is it?

Tell me. I read every one.

Creating greatness simply means to wake up every day and choose the conscious effort to be the best version of yourself. Some days that’s a launch. Some days that’s drinking water and minding my business. Both count. It’s personal — this GREATNESS is Personal, and yours is not going to look like mine.

You are dope! Now it’s time to start acting like it.

I’m back. Let’s go.

And remember — it’s not just the greatness for me, it’s the greatness for you too!