125: How to Be an Optimist & Chasing the Bright Side w/ Jess Ekstrom
It's easy to be a cynic, to make excuses for doing less. It's harder to be an optimist. Optimism means choosing responsibility: to do more, to make positive change. So, do you want to be the person that makes excuses or the person that makes the world better?
We're kicking off Season 5 of the Lavendaire Lifestyle Podcast with author, speaker, and founder of Headbands of Hope: Jess Ekstrom. Jess is all about chasing the bright side in life. This doesn't mean making a pledge to be positive all the time – it means learning to be optimistic, to choose a life of possibility, and not live life in fear.
In this episode we explore:
- 1:41 – Starting a business in college & Why Jess knew that it would never fail
- 3:26 – Scammed out of $10,000: A sign that the business wasn't meant to be?
- 9:45 – Being the “token woman” in speaking lineups & Why women are afraid to speak up
- 13:36 – How to be a confident speaker: Diagnosing the butterflies in your stomach
- 16:15 – Chasing the Bright Side: How to believe in “better” & take responsibility for creating it
- 18:42 – “This is not a positivity pledge”: A different way to look at optimism, for the cynics
- 21:27 – The pros & cons of living on the road: Fulfillment, work & building community
- 25:36 – Jess's dream life, book recommendation, life-changing habit, best received advice & favorite part about life
Links:
Show notes:
- Mic Drop Workshop
- That Will Never Work by Marc Randolph
- Everything is Figureoutable by Marie Forleo
- 2020 Artist of Life Workbook
Quotes:
- Our failures aren't reflections of our worth. They're just reflections of growth.
- Every great movement, every great invention…started with optimism. It was one person who saw a problem and believed that it could be better.
- Optimism is when we choose to live our life in possibilities and not live our life in fear
- Hard times give us a choice. It's the excuse to do less or the reason to do more. Optimism is choosing to do more.
- We should see fulfillment as a choice to how we live our life every day.
- No one had it figured out from the beginning, so just get started.
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