Welcome to the Inspiring Women Series! My intention behind this series is for women of all backgrounds and stages of life to share what makes them love their life. My hope is that, through sharing this, you become inspired to live more of a life that you love. If you are interested in being featured in this series please send me an inquiry at danielle@danielleyeager.com and I will send you more information. I am incredibly excited about this series because I see so many women floating through life not feeling engaged, happy, or loving life. I want everyone to love the life they are living and live to the fullest!

The inspiring woman being featured this month is Dayna Mathews, here is her story:

Tell us how you are living a life you love? 

Living a life I love…it’s finally happening! Today, my life is 100% dictated by me – when I get up, what I wear, where I go, what I do, what I don’t do, who I spend time with, and best of all, what I focus my time and attention on. If that’s not freedom, I’m not sure what is. One of the things I love most about my life is that no day is ever exactly the same. I’d go nuts if that were the case. Most days, I’m woken up by my rescue Chihuahua mix pup while laying next to the love of my life and fiance, Steve. The first thing I do is chug cold water and then take Tuck (my dog) for a walk around our beautiful neighborhood in North Scottsdale. Depending on my schedule for the day, I’ll do one of three things: head to a workout class at LA Fitness (usually Zumba, BodyWorks, or yoga), get ready and meet a client for one-on-one, in-person or Skype coaching/strategy session, or sit at my desk and plan out my day while rockin’ it out to some coffee shop indie tunes on my iPhone and drinking my morning coffee.

Since I’m a biz owner, much of my days are spent doing business development and marketing activities. What I love about my days, though, is that I get to choose exactly what those activities look like for me. Some days, I choose to hang out in Facebook groups, Twitter chats, LinkedIn groups, and Periscopes all day, and others I get dolled up, prepare my 60-second pitch, and head out to some in-person networking events. I enjoy switching it up, as that’s my personality type. Doing the same thing every day drives me nuts (and I USED to do that when I worked for someone else).

What I love most about my life is that I’m living every single day with purpose, passion, and motivation to change the world through helping others. I get to spend my days helping women realize how amazing they are so they can better market and brand themselves to their ideal audience. I get to see the eyes of my clients light up when I give them the credit they’ve so long denied of themselves. I get to cry with my clients when they’re going through tough times in life and need someone to listen. I get to be the one who people come to when they need help, guidance, and inspiration. Truthfully, I never thought I would be lucky enough to live a life like that, but I now realize that I do live a life like that because I CHOSE to create it.

My days are spent coming up with ideas and executing on them to create experiences that my clients and audience will find valuable. Every single project I spend time and energy on is because I want to, because I’m motivated to, and because I know I’m serving a higher purpose in my life. No matter how hard I used to try, when I was working for someone else, I just couldn’t tap into that. Knowing that I was working to create and grow someone else’s dream, project, or company just didn’t sit well with me. Thankfully, now that’s not something I have to think or worry about.

Fortunately, though, not every moment of my day is spent working on or thinking about my business. At around 5 to 6pm each and every night (unless my fiance is working late or I have an event to attend, or a Periscope lesson to teach), I wrap up my to-dos and take the rest of my evening to cook dinner and enjoy spending down time with myself (reading, learning new stuff, or catching up on the latest episode of The Bachelor/Bachelorette/Bachelor Pad) close friends (happy hours, dinners, or sleepovers), or fiance and pup. I’m not the best cook in the world, but I can throw together a mean meal given limited ingredients!

What hurdles came up on your way to getting there?

In October of 2010, after graduating college and getting married to my high-school sweetheart, I moved to Phoenix from a small town in northern Minnesota to begin our married life together. We moved to the city with no jobs and no plan. For two months, I drove 80 miles round trip to a job I got paid ZERO dollars an hour for and absolutely hated. At the time, I didn’t have many options so I took what I could get (an insurance sales job). Six months after moving to Phoenix, my husband had to move back to Minnesota to take a well-paying job because he couldn’t find good work in the city. Three months later, I get a call from him letting me know that he no longer wanted to be with me. On our one-year wedding anniversary, August of 2011, I found out that he was cheating on me with someone else, and that’s why he wanted out. We divorced, and I decided to stay in Phoenix to continue creating a new life for myself.

During the 3 years after my divorce, I had three different jobs (all in the career coaching/counseling field), and always felt like something was missing. Despite not having a solid savings account, not ever having taken business courses before, and not really knowing what I was doing, I decided to start my own business and leave my full-time job. I’m not gonna lie, it was NOT easy and still isn’t. The first 8 months were full of unknowns, crying, working extra part-time jobs on the side, feeling vulnerable, and overall emotionally taxing days. But you know what? ALL of those days – the emotions, the crap, the uneasiness I felt – it was all worth it because it got me to where I am today.

What has been the biggest help in living a life you love?

Honestly, the biggest help in living a life I love has been learning to master myself. What I mean by that is owning a business has a way of throwing your weaknesses (weaknesses you didn’t even know you had) in your face. By unveiling those weaknesses, becoming aware of them, and then deciding to change yourself in order to succeed, you can create a life you live. I’ve found that WE are our own worst enemy. We’re the ones who stop ourselves from taking action toward the things that truly matter to us – because we’re scared, full of self-doubt, and we can’t handle the thought of not knowing whether or not it will work out. In going through the process of learning how to overcome those fears and moments of self-doubt, I’ve only then been able to do what I needed to do in order to create this beautiful life I love.  To help me through this process, I found solace and learning in joining other women-focused entrepreneur groups, Facebook groups, and reading LOTS of books.

What is the best lesson you have learned along your journey?

I’d say the biggest lesson I’ve learned along my journey is this: it’s not about what happens to you, it’s how you react to it. Unexpected things happen all the time. In your personal life, in your business, at school, at work…everywhere. You aren’t defined by ANY of that.

What DOES define you is how you choose to react to your circumstances. During the tough times in life, you can either let it break you or make you. You can let them make you bitter, cold, and untrusting, or you can let them teach you lessons that help you become a better, stronger, and happier person.

Without this lesson, I’m not sure I would have made it through my life alive.

What would you say to someone who feels like living a life they love is impossible?

If you believe it’s impossible, it is. If you believe it’s possible, it is.

Your life is what you say it is. You HAVE to closely watch what you say about yourself and your life. Your thoughts and your feelings will inevitably create your life, and the sooner you become a master of them, the sooner you can create a life you truly love.

You don’t have to let your circumstances, up-bringing, and background define you and the potential for your life. YOU get to do that all on your own.

How are you continuing to ensure you love your life every day?

I ensure that I’m living a life I love every day by choosing to be present and mindful as often as possible. Sometimes I get bogged down in the details and the flow of life/business, and I forget to slow down to ask myself if what I’m doing is truly what I want to be doing or if it’s something I feel like I should be doing. The “should” can really get us into trouble if we let them.

I do my best to pay attention to how I’m feeling on daily basis because I’ve learned that our feelings are the BEST indicator of whether or not we’re living a life that’s true to us. By learning to pay more close attention to how I’m feeling, when something is off, I can then ask myself the important questions to get to the bottom of things. By asking myself reflective and sometimes deep questions on a regular basis, I can make sure that I’m living a life I love at all times. Like most of us, though, I’m only human and forget to do it sometimes.

Above all, I’m my own best monitor of whether or not I’m living a life I love. Others will sometimes try to convince you, knowingly and unknowingly, that what you’re doing isn’t right. That what you’re doing doesn’t make sense. That what you’re doing is “safe” or “smart”. What you need to remember, though, is that your opinion is really the only one that matters.

Dayna Mathews, Career & Personal Branding Strategist for heart-centered, sparkly women (and sometimes men) at Dayna Marie Coaching, has helped more than 700 people since 2009 on their path to creating a successful career and personal brand. Through a unique process of her own, Dayna gets down deep to help bring forth your unique value proposition so you can better personally brand yourself and stand out in the crowd. Dayna is a die-hard LinkedIn junkie and has created more than 50 personally branded profiles trained more than 1,000 how to get what they want from it. Dayna is a hockey-obsessed, northern Minnesota native with a love for writing, laughing ‘til she cries, using a LOT of heart emoticons, and inspiring women to play the lead role in creating the lives they’ve always wanted. You can sign up for Dayna’s freebies via her website: www.daynamariecoaching.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/lifelovecareer
Twitter: www.twitter.com/kickasscareer
Instagram: www.instagram.com/daynamariecoaching
Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/daynamariecoaching
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/daynamathews

I hope you enjoyed Dayna’s story of being mindful and present to her desires. Did you gain any insights from her story? If so, please share them in the comments and if you are looking to connect with other women going after their dreams join the free facebook group Your Life. Your Way. 

Much love, Danielle