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Proof in the Poof: Why the Work Is Working Before You Can See It All summer it looked like the work wasn’t working. I ran for months in the brutal Texas heat feeling like I was going backwards. In the spring I could run three miles without stopping, and then summer came and I couldn’t, walking the hills, fighting my knee, soaked and questioning whether I’d ever finish the half marathon I’m training for. Everything in me wanted to call that failure. Then one morning a cold front dropped the temperature 50 degrees overnight, and what happened on that run I never saw coming. In this episode I get into what my body was actually doing all summer while it looked like nothing was, the line my mentee gave me that I can’t stop using, and why the moment you feel most discouraged is usually the closest you have ever been. The absence of proof is not the absence of progress. KEY TAKEAWAYS The work working and the work looking like it’s working are two different things. Absence of proof is not absence of progress.The hard reps build a base you can’t see while you’re putting them in. The payoff arrives later, often all at once.Discouragement is the most common place people tap out, and usually the closest they were to a breakthrough.When something stops working the way it did, modify the plan. Change the plan, never the goal.Your effort and your reps are real data even when the results are invisible. Trust the measurable over the mood.ACTION STEPS Name the thing you’re discouraged in right now and look for the progress that isn’t showing as proof yet.Don’t quit at the hard part. That’s the base building, not the failure.If the old plan stopped fitting, modify it. Keep the goal, change the route to it.Keep putting in the reps and let yourself get all the way to the poof.NOTABLE QUOTE “The absence of proof is not the absence of progress.” CONNECT Forged in the Dark is for people who’ve chosen to grow. Explore at forgedinthedarkpodcast.com Follow @newsoulrising on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Book Jaime to speak: bookjaime.com newsoulrising.com Music: @visacard_ on Instagram Until next time.

A wasp flew into my house the other day and reminded me of something I spent years getting wrong. At my old place, wasps would slip through the door and head straight for the one window I couldn’t reach without a two-person ladder. So they’d sit up there for days. That is exactly how a limiting belief works. You didn’t invite it, most of yours were wired in before age seven, and it heads for the spot that’s hardest to reach, then quietly runs a pattern you can’t explain. Here’s the part people miss: the belief isn’t your fault, but getting it out is your responsibility. Your brain is built to keep you safe, not to help you grow, so the familiar will always feel safer than the change. In this one I break down how to find the belief, where it hides in your body before your mind catches it, and why you sometimes need someone to hold the other end of the ladder. KEY TAKEAWAYS A limiting belief doesn’t knock. It slips in unnoticed and heads straight for the spot you can’t reach.Beliefs aren’t only built from trauma. Most of what you believe was wired in before age seven, from ordinary moments as much as big ones.The belief isn’t your fault. Getting it out is your responsibility.Your brain is built to keep you safe, not to help you grow. The familiar always feels safer than the change.The body knows first. It flags the belief in a tight jaw or raised shoulders before your mind catches up.ACTION STEPS Name one pattern you keep repeating that you don’t like. Just one.Trace it back. Treat the repeats like a roadmap pointing to the belief underneath.Run a body check. When it hits, notice what fires first and where.Call in a ladder-holder. A trusted friend, partner, or professional. Some beliefs sit too high to reach alone.NOTABLE QUOTE “The limiting beliefs you have developed are not your fault. But what comes next is your responsibility.” CONNECT Forged in the Dark is for people who’ve chosen to grow. Explore at forgedinthedarkpodcast.com Follow @newsoulrising on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Book Jaime to speak: bookjaime.com newsoulrising.com Music: @visacard_ on Instagram

You’ll drop everything for a friend who calls. You’ll figure out how to help on the fly, no hesitation, no questions. So why does the promise you made to yourself get treated like it’s up for negotiation? Showing up for yourself when no one’s watching isn’t a willpower problem. It’s an infrastructure problem. In this episode, Jaime takes you to the open door of an airplane — the exact moment every instinct said no — and walks you through why she went anyway. It has nothing to do with being fearless, and everything to do with two moves most people skip. If the quiet commitments no one else sees keep slipping, this one’s for you. KEY TAKEAWAYS You already show up for everyone else on instinct. That same loyalty is available to you, for you.Motivation isn’t the variable. The choice made ahead of time, from a calm state, is.Self-trust compounds. Every commitment you keep to yourself builds it; every quiet renegotiation plants a seed of doubt.Willpower fades at the door. Infrastructure is what carries you through it.ACTION STEPS Name one commitment to yourself you keep renegotiating. Just one. Small counts.Make the choice now, from a calm state, before the moment of resistance shows up.Build the system that makes it inevitable: set the alarm, lay out the clothes, put money on the line, add the accountability that removes the exit.Keep it small. Self-trust is built in tiny choices, not one dramatic moment.NOTABLE QUOTE “The choice was made in advance. And the commitment was strapped to my back.” CONNECT Forged in the Dark is for people who’ve chosen to grow. Explore at forgedinthedarkpodcast.com Follow @newsoulrising on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Book Jaime to speak: bookjaime.com newsoulrising.com

When you start growing, not everyone comes with you. The hardest part is realizing some of the people who’ve been closest the longest are the ones who can’t. This came out of a conversation so aligned it felt divinely guided, and I pulled four points from it for wherever you are on the climb. Why the sanctity of your inner circle isn’t optional when you’re growing. How to find real joy right where you are instead of at some finish line you haven’t reached yet. And why you don’t need the whole picture to take the next step. The fourth is the one it all built toward. That one, the ladder and the light, you’ll have to hear for yourself. Wherever you are, even still in the mud, this is your roadmap. Remember, we go forward and up. KEY TAKEAWAYS When you’re growing, not everyone will be aligned with you. The sanctity of your inner circle isn’t optional, it’s imperative.The people you’ve known longest aren’t automatically the ones who belong closest. Access to the real you is earned.The growth journey is isolating by nature. The right people hold your vision and hand you rocket fuel.Joy isn’t waiting at the finish line. It’s in the green-light day, the lizard on the porch, the ordinary moments you choose to notice.You don’t need the whole picture to move. Clarity comes from taking action and staying curious, not from sitting still.ACTION STEPS Survey your circle. Are the people closest to you helping you out of the mud, or keeping you in it?Protect access to the real you. Keep the ones who pour in, not the ones who only take.Catch one ordinary joy today and actually let yourself feel it.Take one action toward the thing you can’t fully see yet, and let the clarity come from the motion.NOTABLE QUOTE “You get clarity by taking action in the right direction.” CONNECT Forged in the Dark is for people who’ve chosen to grow. Explore at forgedinthedarkpodcast.com Follow @newsoulrising on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Book Jaime to speak: bookjaime.com newsoulrising.com Music: @visacard_ on Instagram Remember, we go forward and up.

There comes a point in your growth where the people closest to you struggle to understand it. Some reach for your hand. Some pick a fight. In this episode I break down two real conversations, plus a tricky moment with one of my own kids who was wrestling with how much I'd changed, and why the fight someone picks over your growth isn't about you. It's information. The hard part is reading which kind you're looking at, because one is someone asking to come with you and one is someone telling you who they are. You respond to them in completely opposite ways. Remember, we go forward and up. KEY TAKEAWAYS When you grow, the people closest to you either grow with you or resist. Both reactions are information."Where do I fit?" is not rejection. It's curiosity, and an invitation to reassure and bring them along.Picking fights with your wins isn't about you. That's resistance to your growth, showing you who they are.Reassurance isn't weakness. For the relationships worth keeping, it's fair to explain what you're doing and why.It's not your job to drag someone to the growth journey. For the ones who resist, you make peace or you make other choices.ACTION STEPS Look at your closest relationships and sort the reactions to your growth. Curiosity in one pile, resistance in the other.When someone asks where they fit, lean in. Reassure them you're not going anywhere and explain the why.For the relationships worth the work, have the hard conversation and compromise where it's warranted, not everywhere.For steady resistance, stop managing their feelings about your growth. Make your peace or make a change.NOTABLE QUOTE "How people treat your growth is all information. What you do with that information is up to you." CONNECT Forged in the Dark is for people who've chosen to grow. Explore at forgedinthedarkpodcast.com Follow @newsoulrising on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Book Jaime to speak: bookjaime.com newsoulrising.com Music: @visacard_ on Instagram Remember, we go forward and up.

People are going to disappoint you. That part is inevitable. But what if the real question isn't why it happened? What if it's what you're still holding that you were never going to control in the first place? There's a line between what's yours to change and what isn't. Most of the disappointment that weighs us down lives on the wrong side of it. The replaying, the why did they, the grip on an outcome that already left your hands. In this one, three different traditions handed me the same answer on the same morning. Control what you can. That part is you. Release what you can't. The second you stop forcing what was never yours to move, you make room for what is. Until next time, remember, we go forward and up. KEY TAKEAWAYS Disappointment is a given. What you do with it is yours, 100 percent of the time.Draw the line between what you can change and what you can't. Most of the weight sits on the side you can't.What you control is real and it's enough. Your thoughts, your emotions, your actions, and whether you respond or react.Before asking why they did it, ask why you expected something different. Sometimes people just showed you who they are.Acceptance isn't excusing. Getting there faster is what makes room for the next thing meant for you.ACTION STEPS Name what's weighing on you and sort it into two piles. What you can control, what you can't.Take action on the one thing that's actually yours. Then release the rest instead of replaying it.Look at how you may have contributed, without turning it into fault or blame. Awareness, not guilt.Do the honest look in the mirror. You're the only one you can change, just as they're the only one who can change them.NOTABLE QUOTE "Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional." CONNECT Forged in the Dark is for people who've chosen to grow. Explore at forgedinthedarkpodcast.com Follow @newsoulrising on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Book Jaime to speak: bookjaime.com newsoulrising.com Music: @visacard_ on Instagram Until next time, remember, we go forward and up.

You can be eating clean and still not absorbing what's on your plate. Because it was never only about the food. The other day I stopped for lunch, sat back down at my computer, and the second my eyes hit that project I felt the pressure flutter. So I closed the laptop and ate in a quiet house. And I couldn't stop thinking about you. The one scarfing lunch at your desk. The driver I watched shoving a burger down while yelling at the car in front of her. Here's what almost nobody connects. You can't digest food in the stress response. How you eat, who you're being when you eat, matters as much as what's on the fork. And there's a breath for that, one I've used for over a decade, that can move you from stress to calm in as little as three to five rounds. So which one are you? The one at the desk, the one in traffic, or the one who finally sat down to taste it? Remember, we go forward and up. KEY TAKEAWAYS You can't properly digest food in the stress response. How you eat matters as much as what you eat.Who you're being at the plate is fuel or friction. Gratitude for the meal helps you take on the nutrients. Shame works against you.Digestion starts before the first bite. Looking at, smelling, and chewing your food signals your whole system that fuel is coming.One breath practice does double duty. It primes you for a meal and anchors you in any stressful moment, once it's a daily habit.Fuel and hydrate well and you move through life with more buoyancy, meeting hard moments with more ease and grace.ACTION STEPS Take three to five slow breaths before every meal. In through the nose, out through pursed lips like a bubble wand, all the way to the bottom.Close the laptop and pull out of traffic. Give the meal a quiet space with work and home turned off.Chew each bite 30 to 40 times. Set the fork down between bites, sip water, stretch the meal toward 20 minutes.Watch your thoughts at the plate. Trade the shame story for gratitude for the fuel in front of you.NOTABLE QUOTE "It is not just what you eat. It is who you are being when you eat." CONNECT Forged in the Dark is for people who've chosen to grow. Explore at forgedinthedarkpodcast.com Follow @newsoulrising on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Book Jaime to speak: bookjaime.com newsoulrising.com Music: @visacard_ on Instagram Remember, we go forward and up.

Burnout doesn't only come from the grind. Sometimes it comes when everything is going right. I had a similar conversation with two different people last week. One rides the momentum until it runs out. One walks the tightrope every single day, feeling like she's always on the verge of tipping over. Two driven people, both circling the same wall. Here's what almost nobody's doing. Building recovery into the day before the crash ever comes. Not the emergency vacation you scramble to book. The small daily tools that keep you off the floor in the first place, and pull you back faster when life knocks you down anyway. So which one are you? The one who rides it to the edge, the one on the tightrope, or the one who's ready to build a life you don't need to escape from. Remember, we go forward and up. KEY TAKEAWAYS The crash from the good is real. When everything is soaring and you hit the wall anyway, it's showing you your capacity to hold the good, not your failure.Recovery isn't what you do after you crash. You build it into every single day, before you ever hit the wall.The tools that prevent burnout are the same ones that help you recover from it: gratitude, breath work, prayer, meditation, intention.If your cup is full, there's no room for what wants to come in. Sometimes you have to pour something out to make space.Scrubbing your calendar for an emergency vacation isn't recovery. The goal is a life you don't need to escape.ACTION STEPS Prime the day before your feet hit the floor. Set your intention, breathe, practice gratitude before you get out of bed.Build in pit stops. Real meals, quiet time, a mindfulness beat spaced through the day, not saved for the crash.Have a crash plan ready before you need it, so recovery is a protocol and not a scramble.Learn the subtle shifts. Catch the early physical signals and stop for the break before the break stops you.NOTABLE QUOTE "It is my intention to inspire you to create a life that you don't need to escape." CONNECT Forged in the Dark is for people who've chosen to grow. Explore at forgedinthedarkpodcast.com Follow @newsoulrising on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Book Jaime to speak: bookjaime.com newsoulrising.com Music: @visacard_ on Instagram Remember, we go forward and up.

What does it actually take to become someone you've never been before? A million small choices, most of them made when no one is watching. This episode was meant to be about the fall equinox. Then a conversation changed the plan. A woman sat across from me, sad and overwhelmed, and asked me that exact question. The hard truth is she already knew the answer. She just wasn't willing to do it. So this one is about the gap between knowing what to do and choosing to do it, and what the trees teach us about letting go. Every fall, trees pull their nutrients back, seal off what's done its job, and release it. The color you see isn't a show. It's strategy. KEY TAKEAWAYS There is no single method that changes your life. It is a combination of tools that work for you, found through trial and error and dedication.Someone can hand you the exact formula, the playbook, the manual, and you would still have to be the one to use it.Knowing what to do and being willing to do it are vast distances apart. Most people know. Few are willing.The tree survives by letting go. The color you see is the tree pulling nutrients back and sealing off what it no longer needs.Becoming someone new is supposed to be uncomfortable. It is possible, and necessary, to be uncomfortable and take action anyway.ACTION STEPS Name one leaf you're ready to drop, a thought, habit, or story that has done its job.Get honest about the gap between what you know you need to do and what you have been willing to do.Make the choice the night before. When the alarm goes off, you are not deciding anymore, you are keeping a promise to yourself.Expect the discomfort and take action anyway. Treat it as the process working, not a sign to stop.NOTABLE QUOTE "I could hand it to you as a workbook, as a playbook, as a manual for your life. But you would still have to use it." CONNECT Forged in the Dark is for people who've chosen to grow. Explore at forgedinthedarkpodcast.com Follow @newsoulrising on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Book Jaime to speak: bookjaime.com newsoulrising.com Music: @visacard_ on Instagram Remember, we go forward and up.

You already know your sticky spots. The project you keep pushing to tomorrow. The place you keep telling yourself you'll deal with next week. Not stuck, exactly, just stalled. I sat with two of mine this week. A creative project I'd been circling and avoiding, and a run where I kept measuring myself against people who've been running their whole lives instead of the eight and a half months I've got. Both broke open the same way, and it wasn't more grind. I pulled the project apart, started ripping out every piece that wasn't working, and somewhere in the tearing down I slipped into flow, on my feet, circling my kitchen island, jazzed for the first time in weeks. The run cracked open the second I let myself be exactly where I am instead of where everyone else already got. That's the whole thing. Change the plan, never the goal. This isn't quitting. It's giving yourself permission to remove what's flat and out of alignment until what's left is a lump of clay you actually get to mold. KEY TAKEAWAYS Sticky spots are not the same as being stuck. They are the areas you already know are flat, that you keep pushing to tomorrow.When something is not working, break it down and remove the pieces that are out of alignment, not the whole thing.Change the plan, never the goal. Adjusting your approach is not quitting, it is finding alignment.Give yourself permission to be exactly where you are, not where everyone else already got. You only have to be where you are.Celebrate what is already working before you go looking for the sticky spots. Be your own biggest cheerleader first.ACTION STEPS Name what's on fire first, the areas that are working, and let yourself be proud of them.Step sideways and find one sticky spot you keep avoiding.Pull it apart. Remove the pieces that feel flat or out of alignment instead of scrapping the whole thing.Give yourself permission to change the plan, keep the goal, and mold what's left.NOTABLE QUOTE "I'm not giving you permission to change your mind. I am giving you permission to give yourself permission to change your mind." CONNECT Forged in the Dark is for people who've chosen to grow. Explore at forgedinthedarkpodcast.com Follow @newsoulrising on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Book Jaime to speak: bookjaime.com newsoulrising.com Music: @visacard_ on Instagram Remember, we go forward and up.

You are the key. But a key only works when you turn it. I showed up to my run group ready to run and found out we were walking, slow, because someone was injured. I was frustrated the whole two miles. Then I went home, started my own timer, ran three miles on hills, and felt zero knee pain. The morning I was annoyed about handed me the exact information I'd been missing. That's the whole thing. Getting what you want takes reps, but if the reps aren't working, doing more of them just spins your wheels. The move isn't to force it harder. It's to get curious, look at what's actually happening, and change the plan without changing the goal. If you've been standing at a door that won't open, this episode is a reminder worth sitting with: the lock might not be broken, and the key has been in your hand the whole time. KEY TAKEAWAYS You are the key, but a key only works when you turn it. The reps are how you turn it.It is not just about doing more reps. It is about the quality of the reps and whether they are actually getting you where you want to go.When results flatline, it is your responsibility to break the reps down and see what is not working.Change the plan, not the goal. A setback is often information, not failure.A season where the reps do not seem to be working may just need more time, a small tweak, or may be preparing you for what comes next.ACTION STEPS Audit your reps. Look honestly at whether your daily effort is producing results you actually want.When something is not working, get curious instead of forcing it harder.Change the plan, keep the goal. Try one different approach toward the same outcome.Treat setbacks as information. Ask what this frustrating moment is actually showing you.NOTABLE QUOTE "We change the plan, we don't change the goal." CONNECT Forged in the Dark is for people who've chosen to grow. Explore at forgedinthedarkpodcast.com Follow @newsoulrising on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Book Jaime to speak: bookjaime.com newsoulrising.com Music: @visacard_ on Instagram Remember, we go forward and up.

There is a song I hated for almost thirty years. One mortifying high school moment had fused itself to it. For decades, the first note dropped me straight back into it, cringing, every single time. Then three weeks ago, life cued that exact song up again, in front of a full room, with no warning, and handed me a choice most people never realize they have: stay in the old memory, or build a new one right on top of it. You have that same choice, and it's more powerful than anything your thinking mind can talk you into. This is about the moment you stop reliving the version that hurt and start rewriting it on purpose. What would you take back if you knew you could? KEY TAKEAWAYS A painful or embarrassing memory does not have to live in you the way it happened. You can give it new meaning.The reframe is not a thinking exercise. It is putting your body into a similar situation and creating a different outcome.You get to choose which memory the trigger pulls up. Same song, same date, a new experience layered on top.This works for the small and the heavy alike, from a mortifying memory to a friend who now celebrates his dog's birthday on the day his best friend passed.You are far more powerful than you know. You can stay in the old memory or choose to create a new one around it.ACTION STEPS Name the memory. Identify the moment, song, or date that still pulls you somewhere you would rather not go.Create a new experience on purpose. Put yourself back into a similar situation and choose a different outcome.Let the trigger become the doorway. The next time it surfaces, choose the new memory over the old one.Look for the heavier ones too. Ask what painful anniversary or association you could give a new meaning.NOTABLE QUOTE "You can stay in that old memory, or you can choose to create a new experience around it." CONNECT Forged in the Dark is for people who've chosen to grow. Explore at forgedinthedarkpodcast.com Follow @newsoulrising on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Book Jaime to speak: bookjaime.com newsoulrising.com Music: @visacard_ on Instagram Remember, we go forward and up.

You can water a plant every day and still watch it die. I found that out on a Sunday, hands in the dirt. My social plans had fallen through, and instead of chasing another one that would have looked like fun and left me in the deficit, I made soup, baked banana bread, took a long walk, and finally repotted the plants I'd been putting off. One of them, a kangaroo paw, I'd had for two months and never potted. Every time I watered it, the water ran straight through and it still couldn't stay hydrated. And when I freed the root ball, I understood why. The roots had grown in circles so tight around everything that I'm lucky it was still alive. That's when I stopped thinking about the plant and started thinking about you. Because where in your life are you circling and circling, but the whole area is malnourished? Where have your roots grown so bound they can't even absorb water, let alone grow? This one is your soil test, and the only question that matters at the end of it: are you the one that's root bound, and what are you willing to do to get new soil? KEY TAKEAWAYS When the water runs straight through and nothing stays, the problem is the pot and the soil, not how much you are pouring in.Roots can grow in circles so tight they can't absorb water, let alone grow. You can look fine on the outside and be root bound underneath.Replenishing does not always mean a bigger pot. Fresh soil and a freed root ball are their own kind of growth.Hands in the dirt, feet in the grass, a walk in nature, these are legitimate and grounding on a soul level.Choosing what feeds you over what only fills the time is self-care. Fun that drains you still sends you into the deficit.ACTION STEPS Take an honest inventory and test your own soil.Notice where in your life you are circling the same space, malnourished and root bound.Repot yourself, free the roots that are stuck, and give yourself fresh soil.Choose one thing that feeds your body, one your mind, and one your soul.NOTABLE QUOTE "Where in your life have roots become bound so tight that they can't even absorb water, let alone grow?" CONNECT Forged in the Dark is for people who've chosen to grow. Explore at forgedinthedarkpodcast.com Follow @newsoulrising on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Book Jaime to speak: bookjaime.com newsoulrising.com Music: @visacard_ on Instagram Remember, we go forward and up.

You think nobody around you understands what you're going through. Yours is different. Harder, or just not the same as theirs. So you carry it alone. What if the only thing keeping you alone is that story? I was buying air filters at Lowe's when a stranger named Marty and I figured out we had walked in through completely different doors and ended up in the exact same place. Two lives that looked nothing alike on paper, standing in the same aisle, rebuilding from the same ground. Because here's what almost nobody says out loud: the details of your hard thing matter far less than what you do next. And whatever you're rebuilding from, there is someone close by rebuilding right alongside you, kept apart from you by nothing but the belief that you're not in the same boat. This episode is about the door you came through, the destination you share with more people than you know, and why "but mine is different" might be the loneliest sentence you tell yourself. KEY TAKEAWAYS Different entry points, same destination. The specifics of what you are rebuilding from differ, but the rebuild itself is remarkably the same.What you do next matters more than how you got here. The work of starting over does not care about the details of the loss."Mine is harder, ours is different" is a story, and it is the exact thing keeping you isolated from people who understand.Rebuilding is hundreds of choices you once made with someone and now make alone. Some feel freeing and still carry sadness.You are far less alone than you think. Someone near you is walking through something almost identical, separated from you only by a story.ACTION STEPS Name your door. Get honest about the change you are rebuilding from, whatever form it took.Question the "we're different" story. Notice where you have decided no one else could possibly understand.Let someone in. Stay open to the person whose circumstances look nothing like yours but whose destination is the same.Honor the small choices. Treat the ordinary solo decisions as real steps in the rebuild, not just errands.NOTABLE QUOTE "The reason they're gone matters a lot less than how you handle it." CONNECT Forged in the Dark is for people who've chosen to grow. Listen at www.forgedinthedarkpodcast.com Follow @newsoulrising on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Book Jaime to speak: bookjaime.com Music: @visacard_ on Instagram Remember, we go forward and up.

A rainbow that ended over my house. A varsity football game washed out by lightning. A Starbucks we only ducked into because nature called. And a birthday I was never supposed to be part of. I almost missed all of it. If my friend and I had left that parking lot twenty minutes earlier, we would have come and gone and never crossed paths with her. But we didn't. We ended up inside on a pouring rainy night, and a couple walked in with a beautiful chocolate cake. I watched the husband push it toward his wife, watched her almost cry, watched her push it away. And I said the thing most people would never say to a stranger. What happened in the next ten minutes changed the entire trajectory of her day, and honestly, it changed mine too. There is a reason this whole story started with lightning and a rainbow. This one is about paying attention to your environment, and the power you have to change a stranger's day, week, or life in the time it takes to finish a cup of coffee. KEY TAKEAWAYS You never know who needs you. Ten minutes of attention can change the entire trajectory of someone's day.Pay attention to your environment. When the signs show up, lightning, a rainbow, a feeling, stay awake to where the day is trying to take you.Timing is not always an accident. Being in the right place at the right time often means you were exactly where you were supposed to be.The pain you have lived through becomes the reason you recognize it in someone else. Your history is what let you read her face across the room.Celebrating yourself matters most. When the people you love forget, the most important thing is that you do not forget you.ACTION STEPS Look up from your own day. Notice the person nearby who is quietly struggling, the way you would want to be noticed.Say the kind thing out loud. The comment most people swallow is often the one that changes everything.Read the signs and follow them. When your environment is speaking, let it move you instead of talking yourself out of it.Celebrate yourself, especially when others forget. Do not outsource your worth to whether someone remembered.NOTABLE QUOTE "You never know how you are going to either negatively or positively affect someone." CONNECT Forged in the Dark is for people who've chosen to grow. Follow @newsoulrising on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Book Jaime to speak: bookjaime.com Music: @visacard_ Remember, we go forward and up.