☀️ The Nicole Magnusson Newsletter

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📆 Issue 102 | ⏱️ Read time: 2 min

The High of Empowerment: How One Woman’s Success Sparks My Dream Chasing

A girl in one of my college writing classes just wrote a fiction book attached to an A-List celebrity. I read the news and I couldn’t believe it.

This is my first friend to reach “celebrity status” and I couldn’t be happier for her.

Her success triggered a small part of me, but after a 5-minute session of jealous tears, a well of awe, amazement, and encouragement emerged.

It's an INCREDIBLE feeling for someone you know to achieve something almost impossible in a field where you’d like to achieve something yourself.

There is a second-hand high that I have experienced from her success and it has taught me a lot about achievement.

So often I find myself jealous of high achievers. I find myself feeling worse about myself. I find myself shrinking. I find their greatness to somehow be equated to my weakness.

So what’s the difference between her and the other celebrities who make me want to hide under the covers and never see the light of day?

It's her integrity and how brightly her soul shines through her work.

We can all intuitively feel on a deep level when someone’s success is superficial or soulful. And something about her work, which focused on the liberation of women, spoke deeply to my soul.

I’ve realized that TRUE ART invites more artists into the world and superficial art makes people want to hide.

This woman’s bravery to follow her own dreams is lighting the way for me to follow my own.

The failures she divulged on her path to success make my failures seem less scary.

Her success is MEDICINE.

What I’ve learned about shining our light is that our light will affect people differently. For some people, our light will be the sunshine that completely nourishes their souls and allows them to blossom. For others, our light will shine a light on their shadows. For others still, our light won’t be felt because it can’t cut through all the overcast clouds.

But none of that is our concern. All we can do is shine our light. All we can do is heal and be a vessel for our God-given gifts. All we can do is never, ever stop following our dreams.

Keep inspiring,

Nicole