Standing in the kitchen of my 3 1/2 apartment in Montreal, I hung up after a conversation with my mother. Tears had made my eyes red and puffy. The advice she had given me made “sense” yet didn’t sit right. It wasn’t what I wanted to hear.

As I stood there, hands pressed onto my counter as if to help hold up the pressure I felt on my shoulders, something dawned on me: I wanted her to validate what I was thinking but did not have the courage to act upon. If I badly wanted my mom to guide me, what if I was a mother?

What came next is a question that has inspired me over the years and has now become a central element on my inner compass.

What would I tell my daughter to do?

In answering the question then I made the important decision to resign from a safe high-paying position and to jump into a pool of uncertainty by focusing on my coaching biz full-time.

Answering this question has completely changed my life by doing things I otherwise would not do.

I travelled to beautiful places, left that Montreal apartment, moved across the country, followed my heart in order to find my soulmate back home, and am now blessed with a beautiful daughter of my own.

She’s sitting in her swing at the moment alertly observing her surroundings and now her eyelids are closing—that’s how quickly she’s changing!

I’ve been wanting to write more. To openly share the journey of motherhood as I have dreamt of this for so long. I have always felt it would be central for the difference I have come here to make. Yet I’ve been putting it off. Doing other things that could be deemed more important—mop the floor, start another load of laundry, marinate the salmon so that it’s ready for tonight’s dinner, watch last night’s Bachelor Recap, journal, put the bowl the smoothie bowl I just ate in the dishwasher, perhaps put on more deodorant as this heat wave makes it impossible to stay “fresh” without regular showers and underwear changes.

Thing is, these are distractions. I’ll get to doing them later because I always find time to do these things somehow. But right now, what is most important is to write. To stop putting off what is often top of my priorities list but that’s hard to do because it’s scary to show up.

If my daughter were in my position and she were to ask me for advice, here’s what I’d tell her:

As I write, another question arises;

Who do I need to BE, what do I need to DO, & HOW do I want to go about doing it to inspire and empower my beautiful baby girl?

I need to BE brave to pave the way for her. To lead by example. Meaning, that I will live authentically and do what scares because it makes me feel alive when I do. I need to BE loving. Healthy. Strong. I need BE all parts of me. To embrace my weirdness.

I need to DO as Rumi says: “let the beauty of what you love be what you do.”

I need to do this with grace, presence, focus. To show up even when that little voice says not to.

So here we go. I’ve got a blogs to write, a newsletter to send, and a post to publish. And I’m gonna do it for her.

Now let me turn the question over to you:

What would I tell your (current or future) daughter to do? *insert person that makes your gut vibrate most.

Who do you need to BE for them?

What do you need to DO for them?

HOW will you go about doing it?

Leave a comment below, but most important BE and DO what you know you are being called to do.

With love & light,