We have been socialized to believe that having negative emotions is bad, and the goal is always to feel good. So we neglect and ignore these emotions, which compounds them and their effect on us. But I have created a visual way of understanding our experience in relation to our emotions so that you can allow your emotions to move through you. It’s called The Human Emotion Tank.

When we talk about goals or New Year’s resolutions, we often hear the advice to be consistent. Want to run a marathon? Be consistent with training. Looking for a new job? Be consistent with applying. Want less stress in your life? Be consistent with your meditation each day. So I’m here this week to offer my controversial belief: that consistency is overrated.

Goals aren’t a measure of you personally, and they are not meant to be used as proof of your value or worth as a human, who you are as a contributor, or your potential or abilities as a professional. Yet so many people still believe this to be the case. So this week, I’m giving you an effective concept that will help you think about setting goals and going after them in a completely different way.

This week’s episode is a little different from usual, as I’m sharing a big life update with you all: I moved out of California! This has been a huge shift in my life and not a decision I made lightly. I love California, and when I moved there, the plan was to stay for basically the rest of my life. But things changed, and I had to rethink my plan.

If you want a bigger, more fulfilling, and exciting life, you can’t just have a dream; you have to actively dream. They are two very different things. Many of us have dreams, but very few people actively dream about their dreams. So in this episode, I’m showing you how to dream and why doing so is essential to achieving what you want in your life.

Privilege means having a right, ability, or advantage that other people do not have. You might have this privilege whether you want it or not, but when you believe that rest is a privilege, you are telling yourself that some people have the right, ability, and advantage to take rest while other people don’t. And this just isn’t true. So why do so many of us still believe that rest is a privilege only available to certain people and not to ourselves?

Rest isn’t something that just magically happens; it is a lifelong endeavor and something you have to practice intentionally. The purpose of rest is not to disrupt your life but to integrate it, and when you create an intentional, purposeful practice of rest, everything thing else in your life changes.

We all have a theory of rest, whether we’re aware of it or not. This is the idea, belief, and perception of how we should experience rest in our lives. But sometimes, our theory of rest doesn’t match up with how we execute the rest, and this leads to us feeling overwhelmed and overworked and is the reason we’re not achieving our goals.

Many of the policies and procedures that exist in public health are in place as a result of the patriarchy, and the same can be said for the issues we face. If you want to address the challenges you face with overworking, feeling overwhelmed, and not having enough time for yourself, you have to first be able to understand, then address, and finally undo the internalization you have absorbed from the patriarchy.

Zoila Reyna is the Founder and CEO of Public Health Hired, which focuses on sharing best practices and proven techniques for securing employment in public health. She also works full-time for a reputable healthcare company as a Senior Consultant in strategic planning for philanthropy and is an expert in community engagement, chronic disease management, mental health services, and scaling best practices. She joins me this week to share her journey into public health and what rest means to her.

When we trust and listen to ourselves confidently, we go after big goals. We speak up, we leave unhealthy spaces, and we make things happen for ourselves. No matter what we do, we love and support ourselves unconditionally, we stop seeking approval from others, and we shake up the world.

If you have been socialized as a woman, so much of the fear, anxiety, shame, guilt, doubt, and judgment you experience around speaking up actually comes straight from the patriarchy. The worst part is so many of us don’t even realize it. But the more you contribute to the world in the unique ways that only you can, the more fulfilling your life is going to be. So this week, I’m showing you how to stop holding yourself back because of fear and shame, and start going for what you want in your life.