How To “Live Your Best Life” According To My 2023 Podcast Guests
Have you listened to my award winning podcast, “Live Your Best Life with Liz Brunner?” This past year, my guests came from all walks of life; professional athletes, cancer survivors, military veterans, distilling entrepreneurs and winemakers, chocolatiers, innkeepers, and a woman who started a movement of Good News around the world.
No matter what industry, each of them has recreated their lives, risen above challenges and fears to write their next chapter. Here are some of the lessons shared:
Be resilient: In life, there are often pivotal inflection points from burnout, to hitting rock bottom, grappling with poverty, or facing homelessness. When those moments happened, whatever they looked like, each of my guests discovered how fragile life can be and realized that if they truly wanted to change their life, they needed to be honest with themselves. That message was loud and clear with many guests, but Andrea Isabelle Lucas, founder of Barre & Soul, spoke to the heart of this message; “we must each take ownership of our life and where we are.” For many of my guests, including transformational life coach Pirie Jones Grossman, being resilient required doing the deep healing work in order to rise up from difficult circumstances.
Fight fear: Life is full of fear, especially when making any kind of change. My guest, motivational speaker Sterling Hawkins’ best advice: “When you are scared, you have to fight that fear. You have to make the commitment to move forward “no matter what.” Similarly, knitting enthusiast and founder of Sh*t that I Knit, Christina Pardy, fought her fears with the idea that, “In the end, the fear of regret of not making a change in your life may be bigger than the fear of failure.”
Keep dreaming: Too often we don’t give ourselves permission to dream or we are too afraid to follow dreams that seem too big, lofty or impossible to achieve. Suzy Welch, three-time best-selling author and a professor at the NYU Stern School of Business suggested: “We don’t need to edit our dreams. The world will do that for us.” And executive coach Tammy Gooler Loeb believes you have to “learn to trust your intuition” about those dreams and listen to that still small voice. It’s your internal compass, your own personal GPS.
Know “it’s never too late:” The average adult goes through 13-18 transitions in their lifetime. “What will you do with those ‘bonus years?’” Co-founder of the Modern Elder Academy Christine Sperber posed that question for all of us to consider and all of my guests have chosen to believe that it’s never too late to make the decision to change directions. Even if it feels as extreme as leaving the corporate world, changing professions entirely, or as former radio announcer Jack Lepiarz did, simply following his passion, and joining the circus.
Enjoy the journey: Gratitude and appreciation for the big wins and the small ones has played an important role in my guests enjoying the journey. With each passing year, their journeys now arc towards more authentic living by creating space for the things that matter. Former CEO, and now conscious growth strategist and coach Luke Iorio creates space and enjoys the journey by taking nature walks, and practicing meditation. For breast cancer survivor and fashion entrepreneur Gretta Monahan, her goal is to live in the present moment with daily gratitude. Through this, all of my guests share a passion for helping others change their lives so that they too can live their best life!
These are important lessons to learn from real people who have “been there,” harnessed the power of resilience, pushed through fear and learned how to live their best lives despite the temptation to give up big dreams or felt it may be “too late.” In the days and weeks to come, I hope you will enjoy the journey you are on to live your best life.
Get inspired for your next chapter by listening to these, and other stories, here.
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