How do you curate your life like a bold smart woman? To answer this question, let’s define what “curating one’s life really means.
At the very core, curating your life is a lifestyle of empowerment. It means to carefully choose what you allow to shape your identity (your passions and purpose), your atmosphere (your home, workplace and shoe closet), your relationships, your life’s work (your career or business) and your overall health and wellbeing (your wellness). You have hope for the future and you live your life in the present moment accordingly.
Now I want you to sit and close your eyes for a moment and imagine a life that has been carefully curated by you. What would that look like? Do you think that would have more joy? Do you think that you would be less stressed? Do you think that you would be more fulfilled?
I think you know the answers.
This may seem unattainable if you’ve been running around most of your adult life acting and reacting to everything and everyone around you. If you’ve been living with the chaos and distraction that our complicated world leaves at our front door, then yeah…this might seem impossible. But I’m here to let you know, it is very possible. Depending on your current situation things might not change overnight. But baby steps are powerful tools we can implement to ultimately change our lives.
Now, back to “imagining” our curated life. If you’re having difficulty grasping this concept let’s break it down into the following areas:
- Your Identity
- Your Atmosphere
- Your Relationships
- Your Life’s Work
- Your Wellbeing
Curate Your Life By Curating Your Identity
Curating your identity has absolutely positively nothing to do with your “brand” or “image”. It’s not how people “see” you, but how you see yourself, your true authentic self. Bold, smart women know who they are and what they were born to do. They have somehow honed in their purpose and are passionate about what they do.
Is that where you are today?
Do you know exactly what you were put on this earth to do?
Are you passionate about your work and your play?
Maybe you have been very successful in your career but sense a void somewhere. As you sit and imagine, let go of other people’s expectations of you begin to ask yourself a few of these questions:
- What is my true purpose?
- Why am I here?
- What am I supposed to do with my life?
- What am I passionate about?
- Who am I supposed to impact?
- Who do I admire?
- Who do I envy?
I know that last question is a little rough, but if you think long and hard about it, you might come up with some surprising ideas. In my free guide “How to Find Your Fascinating Life Purpose” I offer more suggestions to get you on your journey towards your purpose.
In the article, “10 More Surefire Ways to Uncover Your True Purpose”, I dive even deeper into this subject.
Finding your purpose is a game changer and will start you on your path of curating your life like the bold, smart woman that you are.
Curate Your Life by Curating Your Atmosphere
Don’t make the mistake of underestimating the effect that your living and working spaces have on you subconsciously. Bold, smart women realize that curating their atmosphere pays incredible dividends in joy, productivity and peace of mind. Curating your spaces starts with decluttering and cleaning up. Messy homes and work spaces leave us feeling anxious, helpless, and overwhelmed. Yet, rarely is clutter recognized as a significant source of stress in our lives. Fortunately, unlike other more commonly recognized sources of stress, clutter is one of the easiest life stressors to fix.” according to a recent article.
Curating your spaces goes a step further. You curate your space by carefully “culling and selecting” the best items that you own and get rid of the rest. It includes: Displaying only those items that are special, giving everything a proper place, and creating more open space by getting rid of unwanted or underused items.
The bottom line is that curating your space means pulling your space together with intention. It means to take charge of your living spaces and live by design, i.e., the design that you love and that allows you find rest and rejuvenation as well as be productive.
Curate Your Life by Curating Your Relationships
Let’s face the facts, people take up real space in our lives. This can be a good or bad thing. Life is too short to be spending quality time with people who are negative and constantly dragging you down. Smart, bold women curate their social circles and mainly associate with people of their choosing. You can do the same by mostly spending time with those that bring you joy and add to your life. In my article, SAFE people I teach how to intentionally create an inner circle of support. You can read it here.
While you’re imaging your curated relationships, ask yourself:
- What type of people do I want to be around?
- Who do I find inspiring?
- Who do I want to be in my inner circle?
- Who may be pulling me down or holding me back?
- Who is really toxic and may need to buh bye?
Curate Your Life By Curating Your Life’s Work
I strongly believe that cuarting your life’s work is strongly related to finding your identity (as discussed above). Curating your life’s work is usually rooted in your identity. In other words, your life’s work is where you find meaning and it is usually a combination of your passions and your purpose. Let me give you an example to simplify these concepts. Say for instance, you notice that everytime you turn around people are asking you for advice or help with solving some of their most pressing problems. Not only to do you give great advice, but, they actually get great results from following that advice. Not only do you do this for free, but you are passionate about helping others in this way. It doesn’t even feel like “work”. You may have stumbled on your life’s work. It may take the form of counseling, consulting or even coaching. This is exactly how I found my life’s work. As I look back, I have been giving advice and coaching, counseling people since my teens.
Curating your life’s work is indeed a journey that takes time. With the proper guidance that time line can be shortened.
Curate Your Life By Curating Your Well being
Bold, smart women curate their well being by being in tune with themselves physically, mentally, and emotionally. They’ve learned how to watch over their health not as a hypochondriac but as someone who loves and honors (not worship) their body with gratitude. I am not suggesting that you bat a thousand in this area, but you can start with simple awareness. Become an expert in what you need to be healthy and thrive. Here are a few areas that you can begin to pay special attention to and craft a plan for wellness:
- Sleep
- Stress
- Nutrition
- Fitness
- Regular checkups and screenings
- Self Care
- Scheduled Relaxation and Rejuvenation
Develop a health plan based on where you are and where you see yourself in the future. This is a great area to recruit an accountability partner or two. You can help one another stay healthy and get focused.
Your life is a beautiful masterpiece. It is a gift to be grateful for and cherished. Do yourself a huge favor and start the process of carefully curating it. Be bold and select the best for yourself, not at the expense of others, but in spite of others. Prioritize finding and living in your purpose, organizing and decluttering your living spaces, editing your friend group, finding your life’s work and scheduling the time for self care and wellness. Why, because you can make your life a work of art whatever that may look like to you. That, my friend is the essence of how bold, smart women curate their life.
All the best,
Elaine