Speaker 1: Happy New Year, my friends. Have you recovered from the
Speaker 1: holidays yet? No me either. We had a big family
Speaker 1: birthday party this weekend and it definitely extended our festive moods.
Speaker 1: There's still bits and pieces of Christmas strown about my house,
Speaker 1: as well as leftover party supplies and the flotsam and
Speaker 1: jetsam of a busy family. But this is the first
Speaker 1: full week we're back to our regular routine, back to school,
Speaker 1: back to work, back to life, so I suppose we'll
Speaker 1: settle into this new year soon enough. Did you make
Speaker 1: a bunch of New Year's resolutions, and if so, how
Speaker 1: many of you already broken? I gave up that nonsense
Speaker 1: years and years ago, too much pressure, too much kicking
Speaker 1: myself when I failed in my resolve. Instead, as I've
Speaker 1: shared with you on social media and in my newsletter,
Speaker 1: I like to set some sweet intentions, be more present,
Speaker 1: react less, to love more. Inevitably, However, there will be
Speaker 1: things I need to accomplish in the coming year. Maybe
Speaker 1: it's something to do with work, or family or my farm.
Speaker 1: But there are always things to do, and I'm going
Speaker 1: to get some help this year from a little book
Speaker 1: I found and chose as my January Book Club Pick.
Speaker 1: It's called Once Upon a Climb, Five Steps Every Dreamer
Speaker 1: Should Know, by New York Times bestselling author Jennifer A. Nielsen.
Speaker 1: Jennifer has been writing books for a long long time,
Speaker 1: but once believed she wasn't very bright. She was even
Speaker 1: told she would never succeed as a writer. Well, she
Speaker 1: is very bright, and now she's published over twenty three
Speaker 1: books that include several series, the Ascendant Series, many historical novels,
Speaker 1: a bunch of other works. Jenn has won multiple awards,
Speaker 1: including the Sidney Taylor Notable Book Award, multiple State Book Awards.
Speaker 1: She's been the keynote speaker at writing and publishing conferences,
Speaker 1: inspiring countless readers and attendees. She's compiled her hard earned
Speaker 1: life lessons, her advice, her insights for achieving success into
Speaker 1: five simple steps, all for dreamers who want to reach
Speaker 1: their own personal summits. And she accepted my invitation to
Speaker 1: join me today on our first episode of Love Someone
Speaker 1: with Delilah season six, is that even possible will get
Speaker 1: caught up with Jin and hear what advice she's sharing
Speaker 1: with others about her own climbing experiences. Just as soon
Speaker 1: as we shine some light on one of our podcast
Speaker 1: sponsors that are helping to bring these wonderful, insightful conversations
Speaker 1: your way. As we welcome in the new year, I
Speaker 1: hope you plan on spending much of it connecting with
Speaker 1: friends and loved ones. There's no better way to do it.
Speaker 1: If you ask me, then over a cup of Constant
Speaker 1: Comment tea from Bigelow Tea. I recently toured the Bigelow
Speaker 1: headquarters and was treated to a tea tasting lesson given
Speaker 1: by third generation president and CEO of Bigelow t Cindy Bigelow.
Speaker 1: It was an amazing experience. I witnessed their state of
Speaker 1: the art blending and packaging operations and met their state
Speaker 1: of the heart employees. The Bigelow family has been blending
Speaker 1: tea for over eighty years, with top quality ingredients and
Speaker 1: a lot of love. My fave is Constant Comment, but
Speaker 1: with over one hundred and fifty varieties, they have a
Speaker 1: blend to suit every palate, for every season and every occasion.
Speaker 1: Maybe you're more of an earl gray or lemon ginger drinker,
Speaker 1: You'll have to go to Bigelot dot com and see
Speaker 1: all their many blends. Start your winter mornings with a
Speaker 1: steaming mug of Bigelot. You can find it at your
Speaker 1: favorite store and at bigelot dot com. Right now they
Speaker 1: have some brand new blends ready to share with you.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Love Someone Today, twenty twenty four, Jennifer Nielsen.
Speaker 1: Welcome aboard. You are our first guest, Jennifer on this
Speaker 1: new season. What is the season six?
Speaker 2: Sure? Well, wow, what an honor to be here. And
Speaker 2: happy New Year to everybody.
Speaker 1: Happy New Year. So, Jennifer, you have written several books
Speaker 1: and you are known as a motivator, as a life coach,
Speaker 1: as a speaker, kind of like a cheerleader, Like you
Speaker 1: cheer people on. You help them to reach their goals.
Speaker 1: You help them to reach the goal line.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, why else are we here but to
Speaker 2: move forward the best we can and then to bring
Speaker 2: other people with us. And so yeah, of.
Speaker 1: Course, So my question was when you we're in junior
Speaker 1: high or high school, did you did you have the
Speaker 1: pomp poms?
Speaker 2: No? No, I was the kid who, particularly early junior high,
Speaker 2: who I could walk down a hallway and not have
Speaker 2: anybody say hello to me. I could be missed entirely.
Speaker 2: And that was it. And then by ninth grade, I
Speaker 2: sort of got it figured out. And I wasn't the
Speaker 2: pomp pom person, but I at least started to understand
Speaker 2: that there was a path forward for me, and so
Speaker 2: at least I started to figure me out by then.
Speaker 1: By ninth grade, I had nothing, nothing figured out by
Speaker 1: ninth grade except that Wesley Henshaw was the cutest boy
Speaker 1: you know in my class. That's what I had figured
Speaker 1: out by ninth grade.
Speaker 2: Oh, I had that figured out. But I also, you know,
Speaker 2: I started too, not Wesley, right who I'm sure was adorable,
Speaker 2: but no, I just started to figure out that there
Speaker 2: were things I was good at and that there was
Speaker 2: something I could do in my life with the things
Speaker 2: I was good at. And I also realized there were
Speaker 2: things I was abysmal at.
Speaker 1: Stop right there, Confession session. Got to share what, Jennifer,
Speaker 1: are you most abysmal at? Like, what is something that
Speaker 1: used to bother you that you couldn't do and now
Speaker 1: that you've embraced it, you can own it and say
Speaker 1: I don't care. I don't care that I can't fill
Speaker 1: in the blank.
Speaker 2: You know, it's interesting. I do care, but not for
Speaker 2: the reasons that a person might think. And this this
Speaker 2: is the reality of it. I am abysmal with math,
Speaker 2: really really bad at it. And here's my illustration of it.
Speaker 2: In my junior year of high school, first term, I
Speaker 2: flunked math F and I've been a good student. And
Speaker 2: I got an F in math. And not because I
Speaker 2: missed assignments or because I was bowing out.
Speaker 1: Or because you were out of the with Wesley Hinshaw.
Speaker 2: No, none of that, and I would have gone. But no,
Speaker 2: it's I earned an F. My best efforts scored me
Speaker 2: an F grade. And so in second semester, I thought,
Speaker 2: I'm going to pick it up right. I can't. This
Speaker 2: is not acceptable, and I worked harder at it, and
Speaker 2: in my second term I earned a D minus. No,
Speaker 2: I shouldn't say that I didn't earn a D minus.
Speaker 2: I earned another F. The teacher gave me a D
Speaker 2: minus so that I could have credit for the class,
Speaker 2: and that was a charity give. And a third term
Speaker 2: I dropped it and I didn't take another math class
Speaker 2: for the rest of my junior year. I didn't take
Speaker 2: math in my senior year. I chose a college based
Speaker 2: on my major so that I didn't have to take math.
Speaker 2: My college is because they accepted my minimal Act score
Speaker 2: as you don't have to take the required math class
Speaker 2: with my minimal Act score. I have never had a
Speaker 2: math class since then, and I walked out of that
Speaker 2: first semester of my junior year in math convinced I
Speaker 2: was stupid because how could you be a smart person
Speaker 2: and earn an F How could you ever do that?
Speaker 2: And I was convinced I was not very smart until
Speaker 2: college when I heard this philosophy about intelligence and I
Speaker 2: thought it was brilliant. It's the idea is that every
Speaker 2: one of us is really great at some things and
Speaker 2: not great at other things, and so there's multiple intelligences.
Speaker 2: It's not a number, it's not an IQ. It is
Speaker 2: here's where I'm a genius, and here's where I'm abysmal.
Speaker 2: And that's okay. You can be brilliant. Your life is
Speaker 2: not a IQ number. And that revolutionized my life.
Speaker 1: Isn't that a beautiful thing to know? When I accepted
Speaker 1: that about myself because you and I are very much alike.
Speaker 1: It sounds like I was able to parent my children better.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because once I accepted about myself and embrace the
Speaker 1: fact that there are some things I am genius at
Speaker 1: but most stuff, I'm not not only am I not genius.
Speaker 1: I earn an F in many areas of my life
Speaker 1: and that's okay, that's okay. And once I could embrace
Speaker 1: that about myself, I went, oh, oh.
Speaker 2: Well, and that's the problem, right when we judge our
Speaker 2: ability to achieve anything based on what happens to get
Speaker 2: measured in school, and that's never fair. We're never fair
Speaker 2: to ourselves when we do that, or.
Speaker 1: Gets valued by our parents. If our caregivers are people
Speaker 1: that raise us or whatever, have a value system that
Speaker 1: values math, or values reading above all else, or values
Speaker 1: a college education or whatever, we can feel like a
Speaker 1: complete failure.
Speaker 2: Right, And that's why I think for me that I
Speaker 2: idea of multiple intelligences was so revolutionary because it gave
Speaker 2: me permission to be me and that I wasn't measured
Speaker 2: by the worst of myself nor the best of myself.
Speaker 1: I'm just me And that seems to be working out
Speaker 1: pretty well.
Speaker 2: Some days better than others.
Speaker 1: Right. So it's a new year. Share with us, how
Speaker 1: on this climb we can make it to the top
Speaker 1: and see that vista.
Speaker 2: Well, I think that's just it, right, is talking about
Speaker 2: what it is to make it to the top. So
Speaker 2: I do live in an area with mountains, and the
Speaker 2: thing is, you see what you believe is the summit, right,
Speaker 2: and you put your eyes on it, and you're like,
Speaker 2: that's where I'm trying to get to. That's your whatever,
Speaker 2: your resolution, your dream, your goal, and you put your
Speaker 2: eye on that summit. And the thing is when you
Speaker 2: reach that summit and you're like, now I have done it,
Speaker 2: what you realize is that's not the actual summit of
Speaker 2: the mountain. That there's something higher still, but you couldn't
Speaker 2: see it because your eye was on the lower summit.
Speaker 2: And so the idea is that every one of us,
Speaker 2: every one of us in life, we are climbing, and
Speaker 2: that's how it should be. We should never get to
Speaker 2: a point where we say now I've arrived and nothing
Speaker 2: more is required of me, because that's when our muscles atrophy,
Speaker 2: that's when we lose that hunger and passion. And so
Speaker 2: the idea of for twenty twenty four, it's not about
Speaker 2: having some resolution of like, Okay, now I'm going to
Speaker 2: reach this summit. You were climbing last year, and you're
Speaker 2: going to be climbing again this year and next year
Speaker 2: you will continue to climb. And it doesn't matter where
Speaker 2: you are at on the mountain. All that matters is
Speaker 2: that you say, if I can do nothing else today,
Speaker 2: I will hold the ground I have, and if it's
Speaker 2: a good day, I'll take a step up. And if
Speaker 2: it's a great day, I will discover an amazing view
Speaker 2: right where I stand. And that's okay. That's okay even
Speaker 2: if all you do is hold the ground you have.
Speaker 1: So you live in the mountains, do you actually climb
Speaker 1: the mountains? Like do you are?
Speaker 2: You?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah? But I absolutely am in the mountains as often
Speaker 2: as I can be there.
Speaker 1: So Jennifer, tell me how we can share with our
Speaker 1: listeners some steps they can take to find that pure
Speaker 1: joy in their life, in their marriage, in their relationships
Speaker 1: and their parenting in the new year. Kind of leave
Speaker 1: some of the negativity behind. Get some simple steps. I
Speaker 1: like simple.
Speaker 2: I think you look at who your team is. So
Speaker 2: I was in a writing conference once and it was
Speaker 2: just this huge conference. You know, you're sitting in a
Speaker 2: room of seven hundred other people, all of them trying
Speaker 2: to get published. And I overheard this woman once and
Speaker 2: she had come with all of her big dreams and
Speaker 2: hopes and excitement, and then she sat in a room
Speaker 2: with six hundred and ninety nine other writers and she
Speaker 2: said why me, Like, why would I ever presume that
Speaker 2: I could have my dream? Because six hundred and ninety
Speaker 2: nine people in this one room are trying for the
Speaker 2: same thing I am. And she just thought, there is
Speaker 2: no way I could ever get to where I want
Speaker 2: to go in life. And I heard her, and I
Speaker 2: thought that was so heartbreaking because she was walking away
Speaker 2: from something she had entered that writing conference passionate about,
Speaker 2: and she was checking out so quickly, and so I
Speaker 2: wanted to do something that spoke to her and to
Speaker 2: say that somebody else's success will not cause your failure,
Speaker 2: and that there is room for everybody on the mountain
Speaker 2: because we're not all headed to the same spot. And
Speaker 2: so how do we find success? I mean, number one,
Speaker 2: we stopped comparing right that it if somebody is a
Speaker 2: little further along the trail than we are, well that's
Speaker 2: not keeping us behind on the trail. It means they
Speaker 2: are where they are. And what we hope is that
Speaker 2: if you are higher on the trail than somebody else,
Speaker 2: you have a responsibility to reach behind you and say, hey,
Speaker 2: I don't know if you saw this rock in the trail,
Speaker 2: but I stumbled over it, and I want you to
Speaker 2: notice it because I don't want you to stumble there too.
Speaker 2: I think that's our obligation. And I think if we're
Speaker 2: a little bit behind on the trail, it's our obligation
Speaker 2: to reach ahead and say, I'm struggling here, can you
Speaker 2: take my hand and just pull me for a little bit,
Speaker 2: And that we each have those obligations to each other
Speaker 2: in life, and that's how we all continue to climb.
Speaker 2: And so if you are listening as a parent, it
Speaker 2: is okay to reach out and say, look, I need
Speaker 2: a hand up, I am exhausted, or I don't know
Speaker 2: what to do, because I guarantee there is somebody. Whatever
Speaker 2: you're facing, somebody is ahead of you on the trail
Speaker 2: and they can help answer your questions, or they can
Speaker 2: just sit with you and enjoy the view where you
Speaker 2: are and let you catch your breath. If you're aspiring
Speaker 2: to a certain dream, then stay on the trail and
Speaker 2: keep your eye fixed on the summit that you are
Speaker 2: headed to. And if you don't know what you want
Speaker 2: in life, well then at least get on the mountain.
Speaker 2: Because sometimes we think if we're busy that that means
Speaker 2: we're making progress, and sometimes all we're doing is walking
Speaker 2: in circles. So get on the mountain and move uphill.
Speaker 1: I was talking with a young lady who's a part
Speaker 1: of my extended family yesterday and she's twenty and she said,
Speaker 1: I just I don't even know where to start, Like
Speaker 1: I don't even know what I'm supposed to do.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, and sometimes we change a lot, right where
Speaker 2: things priorities to us when we're eighteen years old. We
Speaker 2: might have different priorities at twenty five, and so then
Speaker 2: we're like, well, did I waste that time? And of
Speaker 2: course not, there's there's no waste of anything we do
Speaker 2: that you know has personal growth. So it's like she'll
Speaker 2: figure it out. But in the meantime, do things for you.
Speaker 2: And if you get to school and it's the wrong
Speaker 2: school for you, change schools. And if you get into
Speaker 2: a major and it's the wrong major for you, you're not
Speaker 2: locked into that even if it's like your postgraduate work. Fine.
Speaker 2: You know, we all know people in this life who
Speaker 2: hit a reset button and said, you know, the path
Speaker 2: I was walking, it wasn't taking me in the direction
Speaker 2: I wanted to go. Fine, So one of the things
Speaker 2: I talk about in this book is about your climbing
Speaker 2: team and who you choose for your climbing team. And
Speaker 2: so I had published, like I was on book number four,
Speaker 2: and somebody really close to me in my life at
Speaker 2: book number four said, so, so are you actually serious
Speaker 2: about this writing thing? And I'm like, well, I mean,
Speaker 2: I have spent now nearly fifteen years of my life
Speaker 2: pursuing this so and I was so frustrated, and I thought,
Speaker 2: how could she say that she loves me and not
Speaker 2: understand this is one of the top priorities in my life.
Speaker 2: How could she really love me? And it was really
Speaker 2: frustrating for a while. And then one day I realized
Speaker 2: she does. She does love me, she does care about me.
Speaker 2: But she's not on my climbing team. She is not
Speaker 2: that person. And it doesn't make her evil. It just
Speaker 2: means she's not on that team that I'm taking. You know,
Speaker 2: I do need cheerleaders, I do need guides, I do
Speaker 2: need people, you know, porters to help me carry the weight.
Speaker 2: And there's a place for her in my life, but
Speaker 2: just not on my climbing team. And so if you
Speaker 2: decide to shift gears entirely, and you're like, you know what,
Speaker 2: this is actually the direction I want to go. Of course,
Speaker 2: there will be people who are not going to get it,
Speaker 2: and they love you, they care about you, and they
Speaker 2: want what's best for you, but they just may not
Speaker 2: be on your climbing team. And that's okay. Just listen
Speaker 2: to the voices who say I will walk this with you,
Speaker 2: and they are out there.
Speaker 1: Do you have any clues for young people who need
Speaker 1: to switch out members of their climbing team and need
Speaker 1: to distance themselves, Like, how do you gracefully say you
Speaker 1: know what?
Speaker 2: Great?
Speaker 1: You stay here or head back down to the bottom.
Speaker 1: I'll catch up with you, but I need somebody who's
Speaker 1: gonna be helping, not pulling me down.
Speaker 2: There will always be those people, right, And usually the
Speaker 2: people who pull you down are the people who tried
Speaker 2: and failed, or the people who never tried because they're
Speaker 2: convinced they will fail. And I heard that once somebody
Speaker 2: just say, I never listen to the failures. In other words,
Speaker 2: and it's not like a life failure. But if somebody,
Speaker 2: for example, is like, hey, you know what, I want
Speaker 2: to be a dancer. You know I want to be
Speaker 2: a professional ballerina. And so then they talk to people
Speaker 2: who tried to become a professional ballerina and they didn't
Speaker 2: make it, and they're going to say, oh, you'll never
Speaker 2: make it, and they can be your friend. You just
Speaker 2: know they are not the ones you're going to turn
Speaker 2: to for tips for success. But also, I firmly believe
Speaker 2: that we whatever our passion is or our interest is,
Speaker 2: wherever we find joy, that the reason we find it
Speaker 2: is because we've already been given all of the tools
Speaker 2: to succeed. We might need to refine them, we might
Speaker 2: need to work on them, but to understand that you
Speaker 2: are given everything you need to succeed in the thing
Speaker 2: you want to do, if only you will use what
Speaker 2: you already have. And then to be content with the
Speaker 2: idea that as you are, you are already enough. You
Speaker 2: don't have to prove yourself. You don't have to do
Speaker 2: anything other than to say, as I am, I a
Speaker 2: good enough for this world.
Speaker 1: Right there, right there, somebody needs to make a T
Speaker 1: shirt with that on it. Great market, It isn't that beautiful?
Speaker 1: Because it's the truth. It's the truth. And for me,
Speaker 1: because I'm a person that believes in a higher power.
Speaker 1: I'm not a cosmic accident, you know. I'm not just
Speaker 1: a bunch of cells that happen to come together accidentally.
Speaker 1: I'm an on purpose, and I believe everybody I meet
Speaker 1: is an on purpose. They're here on purpose.
Speaker 2: I think that's beautiful. I agree with it.
Speaker 1: So, if you're an on purpose and you come to
Speaker 1: the realization that you're enough, you're smart enough, you are
Speaker 1: capable enough, you have enough gifts and talents that are
Speaker 1: uniquely you to do that thing that you were meant
Speaker 1: to do, why do we waste time and energy worrying
Speaker 1: or fussing or feeling insecure or like we're not enough?
Speaker 2: I you know, because we're listening to the wrong sources.
Speaker 2: And very often I feel like we are. We are
Speaker 2: our own worst critic. We stare in the mirror and
Speaker 2: we criticize, and we disparage, and we say things to
Speaker 2: ourselves we'd never say to anybody else in the universe ever.
Speaker 2: You know that one woman out of a group of
Speaker 2: seven hundred in a room would never say to another writer,
Speaker 2: you could never make it because of everybody else in here.
Speaker 2: That would never enter her mindset. But she was perfectly
Speaker 2: willing to discredit herself in a way she never would
Speaker 2: not for another six hundred and ninety nine people. And
Speaker 2: I think we have to be so careful about the
Speaker 2: script that we write for ourselves, because if the script
Speaker 2: is I will never make it to the summit, then
Speaker 2: you'll never make it, and not because you can't, but
Speaker 2: because why would you bother doing all of the client
Speaker 2: if you're telling yourself there is no summit for you.
Speaker 2: So I think the biggest thing is to say yes,
Speaker 2: of course, and I might stumble, and I might go
Speaker 2: downhill as often as I go uphill, I might fall
Speaker 2: and land in a very dark place. But then to say,
Speaker 2: at the end of the day, I will I will
Speaker 2: continue climbing.
Speaker 1: How many books have you published now?
Speaker 2: I think I'm at twenty three.
Speaker 1: Perhaps, Wow Wow, Okay, so you said choose our climbing team.
Speaker 1: We got there. You've got a few more points. And
Speaker 1: I think that the next two, especially especially number four
Speaker 1: on the list of notes across the crevass and choose
Speaker 1: your root. I think these are kind of important for
Speaker 1: somebody who their resolution or their decision this year is
Speaker 1: to stop being my worst enemy, stop being my worst critic,
Speaker 1: and start pursuing that thing with passion that I've always
Speaker 1: wanted to do. They're assembling their climbing team.
Speaker 2: What next after we assemble our climbing team, choosing our route,
Speaker 2: understanding that there are a lot of different ways to
Speaker 2: get to any specific point. And I think this speaks
Speaker 2: to this young woman you are speaking to over the holidays,
Speaker 2: that everybody in her life says, well, this is the
Speaker 2: route you have to go, This is the one acceptable route,
Speaker 2: and to acknowledge there are a lot of different routes
Speaker 2: to the place we want to get to. And yet
Speaker 2: at the same time, you will always get this beckoning
Speaker 2: to accept a lower summit than what you really want
Speaker 2: and to say is that good enough? And so you
Speaker 2: look at the job you have, Is that the job
Speaker 2: you want? Is that the thing that lights up your
Speaker 2: imagination and you just know you are where you landed?
Speaker 2: Or are you just doing the thing that brings in
Speaker 2: a few dollars? And what that means is, maybe did
Speaker 2: you accept a lower summit than where you deserve to be?
Speaker 2: And we don't have to do that. And so you
Speaker 2: choose your route and understanding that for very big dreams,
Speaker 2: often it is a bumpy route filled with a lot
Speaker 2: of places where you can fall and fall hard. And
Speaker 2: by choosing that summit, you've accepted the likelihood of you falling,
Speaker 2: even the guarantee of you falling. But if that's your summit,
Speaker 2: then you just know that's going to be your route.
Speaker 1: All right. Now the next one, which I think is
Speaker 1: so precious and so priceless, especially for young people.
Speaker 2: It's about so if you are climbing any high altitude,
Speaker 2: if you're climbing Everest, you will encounter the crevasse. And
Speaker 2: some of them are small enough you can step over
Speaker 2: them and it's no big deal. Some of them are
Speaker 2: so wide and so deep that you cannot see the
Speaker 2: bottom of them. And the way that they cross it
Speaker 2: on high altitude mountains is they'll take a ladder or
Speaker 2: strap two ladders together. In some instances they'll put one
Speaker 2: end of the ladder on good solid ground and lower
Speaker 2: the other ladder on the other end of the ground.
Speaker 2: And it is your job as a climber when you've
Speaker 2: got those crampons that you talk about, those spikes on
Speaker 2: the bottom of the boot, when you are walking across
Speaker 2: that ladder stretched out horizontally, you've got to put your
Speaker 2: boot down in the exact right place, because you mess
Speaker 2: it up just a little bit, and that spike is
Speaker 2: going to land on a wrung of a ladder. It's
Speaker 2: going to send you tilting over the edge. And so
Speaker 2: you've got to put your feet down exactly when you
Speaker 2: cross that ladder. There are no walls around you, there's
Speaker 2: nothing to keep you from falling. There is nobody holding
Speaker 2: your hand. You have a rope, and you put that
Speaker 2: crampon down in the wrong place, you will go over
Speaker 2: the edge and you will fall. And sometimes we fall hard,
Speaker 2: and it's called a failure. Right you're trying. And in
Speaker 2: real life it would never if we're climbing that mountain
Speaker 2: and we fall, we would never think, well, I tried
Speaker 2: to climb this mountain and it failed. Therefore I will
Speaker 2: live out the rest of my life life down in
Speaker 2: this crevass. You would never do that. That's why you
Speaker 2: have the rope. It is meant to get you out.
Speaker 2: But in real life we do it all the time.
Speaker 2: In real life, we fall into that crevass and we say, well,
Speaker 2: this is my life now.
Speaker 1: This divorce has wrecked me. I will never be anything more.
Speaker 1: Losing this job has wrecked me. Closing my business has
Speaker 1: wrecked me. I'm never going to overcome this.
Speaker 2: And we live in the crevass. And if you think
Speaker 2: about and if you recognize, are you doing that in
Speaker 2: your life? Now you've got to look for the rope
Speaker 2: and somebody will pull you out, or you will climb out,
Speaker 2: or most likely it's a bit of both. But we
Speaker 2: do not stay in our failure ever, because that is
Speaker 2: not where we are meant to be. I can fail
Speaker 2: a thousand times in each direction every day. That's fine.
Speaker 2: I know how to do it, because I've had to
Speaker 2: climb out of that hole hundreds of times. I know
Speaker 2: how to do that. I find a way to get better,
Speaker 2: and then I try again. And if I fall, that
Speaker 2: is fine. I will find a way to get better
Speaker 2: and try again. The only reason I ever became published,
Speaker 2: the only reason I ever hit New York Times or
Speaker 2: whatever success I've obtained, is not because I have natural talent.
Speaker 2: I don't. It is because every time I failed, I
Speaker 2: got stronger and climbed out again and again and again.
Speaker 2: That's all we'd have to do, just get that rope.
Speaker 2: But we don't live in our failure because it doesn't
Speaker 2: wreck us when we fall. It wrecks us when we
Speaker 2: live in the crevass. That's when we atrophy and it's
Speaker 2: not where we're meant to be.
Speaker 1: We're spending time with best selling author Jennifer A. Nielsen today,
Speaker 1: who's going to help us get some big task accomplished,
Speaker 1: maybe something you've been putting off, or maybe a new
Speaker 1: opportunity that's coming your way, or maybe just a dream
Speaker 1: in your heart. Unif he's got some great advice, we'll
Speaker 1: get back to it after I share some information about
Speaker 1: another sponsor. I'm proud to have a relationship with. Mercy
Speaker 1: Ships has been transforming lives for over forty years. Many
Speaker 1: people in our world have no access to healthcare, and
Speaker 1: as a result, they must endure pain and suffering. But
Speaker 1: with the support of volunteers and donors, Mercy Ships can
Speaker 1: go to these communities and perform free surgeries, surgeries that
Speaker 1: help mothers see their babies for the first time, surgeries
Speaker 1: that allow little boys and girls to run and play.
Speaker 1: They change lives through the work they do. Now, thanks
Speaker 1: to the launch of the Global Mercy, the first custom
Speaker 1: built hospital ship of its kind, they can help even
Speaker 1: more people. The Global Mercy is projected to serve one
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty patients over the next five decades. Four
Speaker 1: year old Amato from southern Senegal was the first to
Speaker 1: receive surgery on the global mercy Born with one windswept
Speaker 1: leg and one bode leg, he missed out on so
Speaker 1: many things kids love, but thanks to the treatment he
Speaker 1: received from Mercy Ships, Amatu can't wait to run around
Speaker 1: with his friends and he dreams of all that lies ahead.
Speaker 1: Learn more about Mercyships at mercyships dot org. So many
Speaker 1: people need to hear that.
Speaker 2: And let's not forget there are realities of life, right
Speaker 2: There are things that there are challenges that some people
Speaker 2: have to overcome that I would not wish on any
Speaker 2: enemy that I may ever have. There's mental illness and
Speaker 2: struggles like that. There are a thousand different challenges that
Speaker 2: I've never had to face in my life. So I
Speaker 2: don't want to come from this place of superiority as
Speaker 2: if to say that you know, nobody is facing something
Speaker 2: harder than I've ever faced. That's simply not true. For
Speaker 2: some people. It is a very deep and very dark crevasse.
Speaker 2: All I am saying is find the rope. There is
Speaker 2: a rope. You've got to find it. You've got to
Speaker 2: get out. You are not meant to be where you
Speaker 2: are now. And number five, oh, your summit, Your summit,
Speaker 2: it's where you're meant to be. It's where you're meant
Speaker 2: to be. Every gift, every action of your life is
Speaker 2: for you to stand on top of the summit. And
Speaker 2: in real life, when you know, we cannot drop somebody
Speaker 2: on a summit of Everest, right, you can't just helicopter
Speaker 2: them there and they just parachute down. You would die
Speaker 2: on Everest if you did that, because your body has
Speaker 2: not acclimated all of these things that we go through,
Speaker 2: all of the hardship, all of the struggle, all of
Speaker 2: the failure. You think, think you're just wasting time, you
Speaker 2: think you're going nowhere, But you are changing, and you
Speaker 2: change literally to do a climb, and we change figuratively.
Speaker 2: It is the climb that makes us worthy to stand
Speaker 2: on top of that summit and breathe in the air
Speaker 2: and live. That is where you are meant to be,
Speaker 2: And there is no bypassing that summit climb. It's the
Speaker 2: climb is how we get there. But the view is
Speaker 2: worth it. And when you are there, start looking around
Speaker 2: and figuring out where am I going next, because even
Speaker 2: greater things are yet ahead.
Speaker 1: Jennifer Nielsen, Once Upon a Climb? Where can folks find?
Speaker 1: Where you're speaking? Where can folks find this book and
Speaker 1: all your other wonderful little tidbits on how to have
Speaker 1: a better future, a better present, not even future, but
Speaker 1: a better present.
Speaker 2: Yeah, just yeah, life that we live. It's twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2: We have a new fresh start. You can find Once
Speaker 2: upon a Climb at any of your online favorite resources.
Speaker 2: Please support your local indie booksellers. If they don't have it,
Speaker 2: ask them to order it in for you, and support
Speaker 2: local wherever you can. If you want to know more
Speaker 2: about me or about any of my other books, my
Speaker 2: website is jen Nielsen dot com j E N N
Speaker 2: I E L S e N dot com, which should
Speaker 2: give my schedule and anywhere that I might happen to be.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Thank you. It has been delightful talking to you,
Speaker 1: learning from you, and hopefully especially young people will we'll
Speaker 1: grab Once upon a Climb and drink it in and
Speaker 1: start setting their goals, choosing their path, choosing their climbing
Speaker 1: partners and go in for it.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, this is going to be a great and wonderful year.
Speaker 2: Thank you for having me on your show.
Speaker 1: Jennifer A. Nielsen set out originally to write a book
Speaker 1: to inspire other writers to keep writing, to keep doing
Speaker 1: all the things necessary to reach the summit and become
Speaker 1: a published author. She soon realized that her advice worked
Speaker 1: for many achievable goals. Once Upon a Climb Five Steps
Speaker 1: Every Dreamer Should Know is a slim, hardback volume with
Speaker 1: realistic and relatable advice. She will demonstrate how to set
Speaker 1: yourself up for success, how to surround yourself with those
Speaker 1: who will support your vision, how to map out your assent,
Speaker 1: what to do when you face obstacles, and the importance
Speaker 1: of keeping your eye on the prize. The book jacket says,
Speaker 1: it's like having a heart to heart talk with a
Speaker 1: life coach, and after hearing our conversation, you know that's true.
Speaker 1: She's genuine and caring and here to cheer you on
Speaker 1: to your personal mountaintop. She's going to help me and
Speaker 1: you turn our to do list into tada list. You
Speaker 1: can catch up with Jennifer on our website jen Nielsen
Speaker 1: dot com. J E n n I E l s
Speaker 1: E N j E N n I E l s
Speaker 1: E n dot com. You can find Once Upon a Climb,
Speaker 1: published by Shadow Mountain Books, it's your favorite bookseller. I
Speaker 1: don't know what twenty twenty four holds for us. My
Speaker 1: hope is that it contains some laughter, more laughter than tears,
Speaker 1: and that we spend much of our time with those
Speaker 1: we hold dear. It's January, so that means I'm currently
Speaker 1: plotting and planning and dreaming about my gardens this year.
Speaker 1: One thing is for certain. This year there will be
Speaker 1: lots of flowers.