Rosie Ward: For years, my clients and colleagues have said to me that they just need a Rosie in their pocket. What they mean by that is reminders to bring them back to tools and resources that can help them be better in the moment, and a voice.

Challenges their thinking and encourages them to live their best and most fulfilled life. I always took it as a compliment and had a good chuckle about it, and after so much feedback and prompting, I have decided to bring Rosie in my pocket to life. Small doses of learning and inspiration to guide you through this journey of life.

Here's the teaching and inspiration that I want to share with you. You.

Are you operating from your core or are you operating from your circumference? What do I mean by that? Well, imagine you have this plate and the center is your core. That is your purpose, your values, what matters to you, who you authentically are on the circumference out here. , the ops, other people's opinions, other people's expectations, other people's attitudes.

And when we operate from our core, when we stand firm in who we are, if you imagine this plate, if I, in theory put one or two fingers on it, I can be balanced, I can put stuff on the plate and it's not gonna tip over. But if I try to operate from the circumference, It's not gonna work, it's gonna flip over.

And I know this is a goofy example, but when we operate from the circumference, we are running around and as soon as we try to meet one person's opinion or one person's expectation, we're not meeting someone else's. And it's exhausting. Brene Brown says that it is in human nature to care what other people think, but when we're defined by it, we lose our capacity to.

And so often we spend so much time running around trying to seek the approval and accolades of people's whose opinions really don't matter, and we steamroll over the people who actually matter the most to us. And so she encourages us to identify what's called our square squad. Take a piece of paper and literally draw a one inch by one inch square, and in that square, write the initials of the peoples whose opinions actually matter.

The people who care about you know, you have your back and want the best for you, and it is a one inch by one inch, because that tends to not be that many people and really think about is your square squad getting the best of you, or are they getting the crappy, leftover version of. And so often we're running around trying to seek the approval of people who really don't matter, who are on the circumference, who are not in our square squad, and it depletes the people in our square squad that we should be paying attention to.

So my challenge and invitation for you today is twofold. First start to do the work to get really clear about your core. Who you are, your purpose, your values, what matters to you, what you care about, and look at how you can nurture that in your calendar, in your time, in your energy, by saving room for things that are absolute yeses that fulfill and nurture that, and starting to set some boundaries and say no to the things that don't honor your core when we live from our court, becomes easier to say no to the things on the circumference without guilt and resentment.

And it also becomes easier to say yes to the things that matter to us because there's alignment. , my second invitation for you is to identify who is actually in your square squad and then look for. At least one meaningful way you can invest in and strengthen that relationship this week. Start giving your square squad the best of you rather than the leftover version of you.

I would love to hear what's opening up for you as you put this into practice. And remember, no matter how hard the world gets, never ever let anyone dull your sparkle.

I'm so grateful to be on your leadership journey with you, and even though I'm not physically in your pocket, I certainly cherish the opportunity to share my heart and learnings to help you. If this message inspired you today, I'd love to hear from you or gift me a review on Apple Podcasts.

Be well my friends. And now go add a little sparkle to your.