Day 17 🌿 Leading by Example
Lately, I’ve been sitting with a simple but powerful question:
Who am I—and who do I really want to be now?
It echoes a familiar sentiment from James Clear in his breakout work on habits —
’Behave like the person you want to become.’
Not someday.
Not when things feel clearer.
Now.
And then I saw a reflection this morning from a fashion designer I love, Heidi Merrick, where she spoke about the pause—that moment when you’ve been doing something for a long time and suddenly realize: I’m changing. Everything is changing. And instead of pushing forward out of habit, what if we pause and consciously choose again?
Our relationships.
Our passions.
Our work.
Our purpose.
Even our clothes and our words.
And then a friend shared something that made me laugh and pause all at once. She was writing a book about relationships and she realized she’d spent years searching for a certain feeling in her partner—and she would try to equate it to a type of food.
She decided what she really wanted a hamburger. You know, a dependable meat always delivering of comfort, ease, and satisfaction.
During this time, she went on a writing retreat and met her future husband. When she returned to her manuscript, she had a realization that stopped her in her tracks:
Wait… I’m the cheeseburger.
I am the thing I’m looking for.
In other words, so often we’re searching outward for something we’re actually meant to begin embodying ourselves.
Today’s invitation isn’t about fixing or improving. It’s about leading by example, starting from the inside through embodiment. It’s about noticing where we might be waiting for permission, validation, or change—and gently asking what it would look like to go first.
Maybe this type of embodiment looks quiet today.
Maybe it lives in your tone, your breath, your boundaries, or the way you speak to yourself.
Maybe it’s less about becoming someone new and more about allowing yourself to be who you already are—on purpose.
Take a moment today to pause and reflect on the following journal prompts. Let this work live in you.
I love you. Keep going!
Journal
Who am I practicing being right now?
Not who I say I want to be—but who my daily habits, tone, and choices reflect.Where am I waiting for something outside myself to change first?
Approval, clarity, love, certainty, motivation? What happens if I go first?What does “being the cheeseburger” mean for me?
What quality, feeling, or experience am I seeking that I could begin embodying today?If I behaved like my future self for the next 24 hours, what would be different?
How would I speak, move, rest, set boundaries, or respond?Where can I lead by example—quietly, without announcing it?
In my body, my words, my reactions, my listening?
“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world.
Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”
