If you listen to conference speakers, coaches, podcast hosts, teachers, you hear a recurring theme: mastery comes from mental strength. I like to think of that statement when I’m putting in miles, running.

I can train my body, but it’s nothing without training my mind. That kind of training means really looking inward, and listening to the messages you say to yourself.

What is your self-talk?

I’ve learned that there are endless self-defeating thoughts that race through my head on a daily basis. Tiny little things that chip away at confidence and strength. That’s where the work is, because those negative statements are what can stop me. It doesn’t mean those words are the truth.

I know that there’s no way I’m alone in this. Especially as women, so many of us have heard those social messages that say we are supposed to be perfectly pleasing at all times. Meaning, the perfect shoes, the perfect weight, the perfect makeup. None of which add up to who we are, or where we are going.

Let’s stop this, shall we? So far, my approach has been to counter those messages. Okay, I don’t have that perfect airbrushed magazine body, or face, or hair. But I’m a wife, a mother, a writer, a runner, a swimmer, a publisher, a curriculum designer. Lara and I often say that together we are unstoppable. And we are. Each of us is unstoppable: a force to be reckoned with.

We are athletes, creatives, lovers, friends, beautiful. Tell yourself that, every time you feel doubt creeping into your mind. You are infinitely powerful, magic made into a living creature.

It’s time for us all to plant rich seeds, instead of the seeds media has given us.

Blessings to you all. Be the unstoppable force you are!