Your mind can be a powerful weapon.

Sometimes it’s sharp blades are aimed towards your goals and slicing through obstacles on your way to reaching them. Fueled by dedication, creativity, and passion you can find yourself achieving things that were once literally just a thought. 

Although at times, often influenced by fear and self doubt, you may also find those daggers unfortunately pointed in your own direction. 

Negative thoughts can creep in to poison your mood and cloud your judgement. In today’s world of instant gratification and constant access to manicured social media personas, the pressure to be excellent or even just “fit in” continues to rise. 

It’s not hard to find someone or some website that makes it seem like you’re not living up to your potential. It’s easy to get swept away by this raging river of expectations for what your life at a certain point is supposed to look like. Who decides these rules anyways? 🤔

Instead of attempting to live up to these unrealistic one-size-fits-all ideals, I encourage you to do a deep dive within your own mind and determine your own path. 

So, your Uncle Timmy says you’re supposed to be married with 2.5 kids by 30? Who cares, he was always the last one invited to the family reunion for a reason. 🤷🏼‍♀️ 

You read on Buzzfeed that you’re not living right unless you travel the country in a remodeled van while surviving off fresh berries and a can of tuna that you nearly fought a bear over? No, thank you, I prefer my meals to be anti-altercation. 🐻 

Forbes insists the only way to prove your worth is to work the longest hours, climb the corporate ladder, and become a self-made billionaire by the time you’re 40? Absolutely not, I’ll be utilizing my PTO for more important things like…drag races. 🏎

If any of those make you happy and are the goals that you want to strive for, then by all means, I’m rooting for you! But if you are truly happy with being single, the stability of a brick-and-mortar home, balancing your mid level work position with your family, or training penguins for the next season of America’s Got Talent…then I’ll be your cheerleader as well. 

The most important takeaway is to make sure that what you are doing or want to do are your own ideas of success. Something that may sound amazing to you, may not be your neighbor’s cup of tea, and that is perfectly normal. 

Y’all still with me? 😂

My point is that I believe we should all be living our lives in a way that makes us happy. It’s awesome to have goals and plans for the future, but don’t forget to live in the present. You only have one life, so make it count. 

All too often we are reminded that our time on Earth is not guaranteed.

Life is too short to spend time at a job that makes you miserable. Or waiting to take that vacation when things settle down. Neglecting to make that phone call to admit you were wrong. Procrastinating the start of that project that you know will bring so much joy when it’s finished. 

Start now. Don’t wait. Use that big, beautiful, bold mind to begin chasing those dreams. Breaking away from minuscule things that don’t matter and instead driving straight towards a spark that ignites a fire within you.

Don’t let insecure thoughts, worrying about the opinions of others, or the sabotage from your own brain deter you from existing in a way that you can be proud of. 

When your days on this wild, wonderful and weird world are all said and done, you want to leave behind a life well lived. At least, I know that’s what I want. 

It’s time that I stop spending time on things that bring me down and instead prioritize my happiness. Whether that means spending more time with my family, traveling with Cody, taking time to write more, working behind the scenes at races, or whatever feels right at the time.

When my time comes, I don’t want to have any regrets about how I should have been spending my time.

Echoing the chorus from one of my favorite One Republic songs says, “I owned every second that this world could give, I saw so many places, the things that I did. Yeah with every broken bone, I swear, I lived.” 

At the moment, my mind is telling me that is the most important goal of all….to truly live. 

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If you’ve stuck around this long to the end, thank you! And no worries, I’ll get back to the racing content soon. 😉

See y’all at the track,