In this episode, I'm sharing my personal journey of triumph over high school anxiety and depression. Despite appearing successful, I was struggling. My father's words, "make it a happy ending," became my mantra, propelling me to realize that I hold the pen to my own story.

I'll take you on my path of self-discovery, finding purpose, and creating a supportive community that prioritizes long-term success. But it doesn't stop there! As parents, we have a daily opportunity to write our stories. After this episode you'll be inspired to take control of your life, break free from uncertainty, and live life to the fullest, setting an excellent example for your children.

What you'll hear in this episode:

[0:00] Overcoming struggles with anxiety and depression in high school.

[2:05] Finding purpose and building a community.

[3:50] Taking control of life's direction.

[5:40] Living life to the fullest and setting an example for children.

[7:40] Taking control of life and pursuing goals.

CONNECT WITH KELSEY

Follow Kelsey: @thisiskelseysmith

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Learn more at https://mommahasgoals.com/

Join our text list. Text "Goals" to (707) 347-0319

0:00

When I was in high school, I went through a couple challenging years, in the sense that I definitely was not living up to my expectation, I was really struggling with anxiety, probably depression, and feeling just really lost. What made this extra challenging is I was still checking many boxes that I needed to be checking. So I wasn't like a textbook case of someone struggling. I was in many honor classes, it was Captain it at the end steam, I was, quote, unquote, popular, I had a lot of other things that were working out for me. But I was also really struggling. And my dad, and remember, my senior year of high school, had this moment where he was probably looking back as a parent with a loss at what to say to me. But I'll never forget, I don't even remember what the context of the conversation was what we were doing. But I remember his response was, Kelsey, this is your move your writing, make it a happy ending. And that quote, has stuck with me ever since. And in the moment, I don't think I really processed it, who knows what happened from months to come. But years later, I can tell you, it's something that I have built on since that moment, because in that moment, what I realized was, I was in control. And it was my story that I was writing. And I did have the opportunity to change the track that I was on where I was going and what was going to happen. Now at the time again, there were many things that I was doing, right. But we all knew that I was not in a place of happiness or living up to my full potential. And it took a transition period following that for me to figure out what that was, because I didn't feel like I had this blueprint map in front of me of where I was going, I was super lost or super confused. And I didn't see a mentor or a person to help me figure out what I wanted to do. It didn't mean that I didn't have positive role models or influence in my life, but I didn't see myself in them. And that is something that I think is really common. I've been able to hear this now from so many people that we're are in that period of life of high school and college and beyond. And this happens a lot after motherhood too, because we now have this new title in this new version of ourselves. Or we're trying to figure out how the old and the future versions of us fit inside of that era. And this is something that I come back to a lot when we start making different decisions about our life. And we have to take a step back. And remember, that is our movie that we're writing. It is our story that we're in charge of. And I want to encourage you to remember that, whether it's where you're at in this season right now or where you go. I remember when I started mama house schools, it started as just this idea of communicating a couple of things that have worked well for me and my family. And it's expanded into this beautiful community. And I'm so grateful for you for being a part of it. And it's been so much fun. But when I started it, I sat down with my husband and I said, I don't know what the goal of this is. But if whatever that goal is takes 10 years, I'm okay with that. Yeah, and so many people asked me now that aren't in the community space, or the business space that aren't really sure what I'm doing, they'll say, How are things going? What's happening with the business. And it is a really fun way for me to explain that this is a lifestyle journey. There's been great success with this brand, if you measure it that way. But this was built to be a long lasting community. And a way for me to support myself and all of you and the women that I'm connected with, in so many different really cool ways. And that is how I think about my own life too. And I want you to think about your own life is no one is promised tomorrow is hard as that is to sit with is true. But each day, I want you to think of the opportunity to change the plot for your movie. And it is your movie that you're writing, it is your book that you're writing. And at any point you can change where you're headed. At any point, you can change the ending. And you can get the people to help you and support you. And you don't have to know what it looks like. You don't have to know where you're going to be in 10 years. You don't have to know who can help you and where you are going to go. But when I think about Kelsey, in that moment, when my dad said that to me. All I knew was that I didn't want to write my movie. I didn't know what it looked like I didn't know what the next steps were or have any idea what was next. And I can tell you what did come next is so different than what I'm doing now. But I knew that I needed to be in charge and I want you to be in charge I want you to take control of your book, your movie, your next steps. Don't let life just pass you by, don't just sit in life, design your life, be a part of your life. Because before you know it, you can look back and be like, Wow, each day passed, there was some good, there were some hard, but I didn't really design it, I didn't really take control of it. And you've probably seen this and people in your life, and we love them. And I don't want to put anyone down. But I don't know about you, I don't want to live a life that I'm just in. I want to be able to really experience life, I want to feel like I'm going after whatever's on my heart in that season, that I'm really taking the opportunity of life and making the best of it. And that doesn't mean that every day I'm going to crush it. But that as a whole, I want to look back and I want to say you did it, you did your best, you put your best effort out there. I want to show whoever is giving me the opportunity of life, that I'm utilizing it, that I'm giving it my all in whatever that means for that moment. And I want to encourage you to do the same. Because the alternative doesn't feel very good to me, I don't know about you. The alternative of knowing that we're not taking the opportunity of life, the alternative of sitting in it and saying I didn't write my story the way I wanted to, I just went with the motions, I moved through it, that doesn't feel good. And as parents, we have the opportunity to showcase the ability to write your story to our children. When our kids watch us write our story when their kids watch us take life, and really create a life by design and go after our dreams and our goals and really pursue happiness and joy in presence on a daily basis. They're learning from are doing. In every parent, I talked to you in this community, you want that for your children, you want your children to be happy, you want them to pursue your dreams, their goals, you want them to go after life, take life by their own reigns and lead themselves to whatever it is that they desire. So you have to do that, too. You have to want that for yourself. So I want you to take a moment today and just think about it. Are you writing your story every day? Are you taking control of the life you've been given? To take action on what feels right? If you don't now then when at any point, you get to make that decision. At any point, you get to stop and go Well, you're right. I'm not really taking control. I'm just here. And look, most people I know of how to season love that most people I know, have had a season of just being and trying to make it through. And if you're in that season, that's okay. But how long do you want to stay there? Because I can promise you that when you make it through that season. And when you start to make the shifts to go back to writing your journey and your story, not just reading it and being in it. Life gets way more fun. It gets way more fulfilling, you're way more present. You get to truly feel life. If you've never felt alive, if you've never felt the feeling of wow, look, I'm pursuing this as life I'm full, then this is your opportunity to feel that because it's available for everyone. But it's your job to go after it and to find it. And I don't want you to waste any more time. And if you felt that way before, but you're realizing listening to this, wow. I've been in this mode of pause. I haven't really been pushing play on my own life. I haven't really been designing it and really going forward. Why not? It's typically just because life happens and things get hard. But when you can realize that you're in that state, that's the first step. And then think about okay, what would it mean to write the next couple chapters? Because if you don't write the chapters, then the you don't get created in that way. Right. So sometimes people say I'm gonna push play, and then they push play, but they're they haven't written where they're going. You have to write where you're going before you can get there. So that means utilizing community support resources. Maybe you can find it within our free mama housecalls app.

9:56

Maybe you can find it within one of the programs that we offer. chatting with a community member. Or maybe it's completely outside of on the house goals. And that's great too. I don't care how you find it, but find a way to write your next chapters. If you sit down and you go to write those and you're realizing, I don't know what I want to write, I don't know where I want to go. I need help. I need support, then find it. Don't just push pause. Because pause isn't actually paused. You're it's playing. It's just like you're sitting there wondering why there's nothing on the screen. I love you so much Baba. And I want nothing more than for you to live the life you were meant to live. But I can't do it for you. And so I want you to take action today. Sit down and think about your next chapters. Sit down and think about what is next what is coming. What are you creating. And create it to it, live it go after those goals wherever they are. Mama has goals means having a goal. That goal could be feeling more present. That goal could be moving up in your career going to stay home with your kids, finding more fulfillment and joy for yourself traveling and cleaning your house. Whatever is on your heart. But don't be paused. Push play, create what is next right the remainder of the plot for what you can see so far. And then when you get to that spot you'll write more. Sending you so much love model. Remember, this is your movie, your writing. Make it a happy ending, as Greg Baldwin would say