I ran my first online masterclass on Tuesday, 30 March 2021. I was looking forward to completing it and sitting in my happily ever after moment. It never came!

The run-up to the masterclass was intense. Creating relevant content, marketing, and networking, took up a lot of my time and energy. 3 weeks ago, the thought of my masterclass gave me the butterflies. I knew this was normal.

Back then I could not see past the first day of my masterclass. I had tunnel vision. The focus was the class.

As the day of my class came closer, I felt calmer. I was prepared, and I was feeling centred in myself. I found that interesting. My tunnel had opened, and I could see the light and I was approaching it at pace!

I was already thinking of the meetings and appointments that were scheduled for after my masterclass.

I was out of my masterclass tunnel. Kudos Yoga, I thought to myself.

But half an hour after my delivery I was in a different tunnel. The post-mortem tunnel. Lucky, I understand my brain and its overthinking capabilities. I managed to work through the myriad of thoughts and emotions to distill the information I needed to move on.

But the following morning I woke up thinking about this notion of happily ever after.

For me, it’s where I am sipping my drink of choice on a tropical beach, cruising on a boat, carefree. Sound far-fetched? I don’t think so. It is what I want for my future self.

That made me think about where the notion of happily ever after even comes from.

Cinderella!

We are conditioned in all that we do. We are born free thinkers, but that kind of ends as we get past 6 months of age. The conditioning that starts then increases in intensity as we grow older.

A part of that conditioning is the messaging from the fairy tales we watched or read growing up.

Take Cinderella, for example, she is banished to the basement, then saved by her fairy godmother, marries her prince, and lives happily ever after. Really? Is this even true? There was no ‘Cinderella the sequel’.

This happily ever after is ingrained in our minds in our early years. Then reality hits us with a capital R. A reality that can sometimes leave us feeling like we are facing challenge after challenge with few or no, happily ever afters.

So, how do we interpret and experience this reality so that we are in control and find our happily ever after in between challenges?

Choice certainly helps. How we choose to experience reality is key. I am a firm believer of life is what we make of it.

But also, we need to rethink the notion that we have isolated or one-off challenges. When in reality we go from challenge to challenge.

Waiting for the fairy godmother who makes all other challenges go away may be futile.

Commitment

Commitment definition – the state of being dedicated to a cause.

Passion doesn’t produce commitment, commitment produces passion – Roy H. Williams

Perhaps the way to experience reality is by seeing our challenge as a commitment.

Because when we are driven by a cause, the effect is our happily ever after?

And my happily ever after is going from commitment to commitment! Because my commitment is what gives me energy! (Passion is an emotion and emotions are the energy that moves us to action).

And then it hit me! If something I am committed to makes me feel like I can do more, perhaps I am in the right place?! This is how it feels. It is passion I am feeling.

When I am driven by a desire to make a difference, commitment energizes me.

And my brain has been happy to consume the calories to keep me going. Literally. I have lost 3 kgs over the last 6 months. Not intentionally either.

While the brain represents just 2% of a person's total body weight, it accounts for 20% of the body's energy use. That means during a typical day, a person uses about 320 calories just to think. Different mental states and tasks can subtly affect the way the brain consumes energy. [Source time.com]

My fairy godmother

I believe it is passion that helps us see our commitments through to fruition.

And, if commitment is doing what matters to me, passion becomes my happily ever after.

So, reality is finding our commitment and passion is our happily ever after.

What I need to learn is to execute each commitment with stoicism and grace and in the integrity of who I am. I am not there yet but I think I have found my fairy godmother. She is a part of me, and she is a bit of a rebel.

I am here to help!