We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Liz Simmons a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Liz, so happy to have you with us today and there is so much we want to ask you about. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others developed certain skills or qualities that we are struggling with can be helpful. Along those lines, we’d love to hear from you about how you developed your ability to take risk?
I remember when I was getting ready to leave my job in the Environmental Lab field to pursue a career in the health and wellness field as a yoga teacher and personal trainer I asked myself the question “What’s the worst that could happen?” I mean really happen and that answer was that I wouldn’t succeed and I’d be back to doing what I was already doing, in some form. So, if taking the risk and failing only essentially left me where I already was than how much was the risk really.
And I also knew who was responsible for everything and I had confidence that person would do whatever they could to make it happen because that person was me. I had no problem tightening my financial belt, no more dinners out, no more haircuts or highlights, no more getting my nails done no more going on vacation but none of that mattered, because I was doing something I loved and well you just don’t need as much when you’re happy with the life your living.
Once you’ve taken a risk, once you jumped and landed it gets easier to do it again and again. Another thing that makes taking risks easier is to not just know your minimums, but be happy with your minimums. What’s the minimum amount of wealth you actually need? What’s the minimum amount of health you need? What’s the minimum amount of social interaction you need? If you can find happiness at your minimum than anything more is just more and you appreciate it but you don’t get attached to it because you know your happiness doesn’t depend on it.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Most of my time spent these days is writing, when I’m not writing I’m coaching and training my current clients. Did I ever envision myself to be an author who writes fiction? Nope, I did not see that coming at all. Do I love it? Hell yeah, I do!
When Covid hit I was working in the gyms as a yoga teacher, personal trainer and health coach while writing health and wellness and mindset blogs. Gyms closed I lost my job….so I started my own business. Took my clients virtual, expanded my knowledge and my services by becoming a certified life coach and mental fitness positive intelligence coach. I was doing really well, but anyone who runs their own business knows there’s lot more to it than working in the business you also have to work on the business.
I got burnt out and for the first time I let myself rest, let myself sit back and breathe I silenced my hyper-achiever worked with my current clients, kept up my own health and wellness commitments and read. And read then I couldn’t find the book I wanted to read so I wrote it. Because really why not? I consulted my elder wiser self and she told me I’d never regret writing that book, so I did. And I kept writing, and then I had others read the first part which would turn into my first book in The Billie Mahoney Series. I hired an editor/literary coach, and we released Piccola Volpe Little Fox in September 2023. The second book in the series Volpe Reale Royal Fox just released this February 2024. It’s for adult readers, it’s different than most books in the genre of Paranormal Romance/Reverse Harem. It’s fun, smexy, coaching. This series allowed me to write about judgment of love, the power of levity and owning your story, standing in your truth. I take the knowledge I’ve learned through my life and education and weave it into a story with characters that have faced challenges, learned and grown on their own and then how they grow together and individually when facing new challenges.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
First own your FDA. Own your feelings, decisions and actions. Take ownership of where you are even if you had limited choices available you always made the choice. We always have at least two choices. The more ownership we take over our lives and our feelings the more power we have. When we blame others for things we give our power to them.
Second, best equation ever! E + R = O, Event + Response = Outcome. The event is never really the outcome, the outcome can be what you choose it to be based on your response. If something happened that you didn’t want to happen ask what would be the outcome I’d want from this? Then figure out the response you want to take in order to achieve that outcome. Also know that time is part of the equation, the outcome of an event may not be clear until years later, but asking the question will get the brain working on how to achieve it.
It’s not so much about what you do but who you are. You control you. You determine who you are based on the decisions and actions you make and take. If you want to do something figure out who you get to become in order to be the person who does what you want to do. Get real with yourself. See all of yourself without judgment, shame or blame. Then change who were to who you want to become.
Awesome, really appreciate you opening up with us today and before we close maybe you can share a book recommendation with us. Has there been a book that’s been impactful in your growth and development?
The first book that literally had my brain tingling where I felt like what I was reading was revealing innate truths within me was The Yoga Sutra’s by Patanjali. The idea that there is no good or bad only opinion, that the tree you looked at yesterday isn’t the same as the tree you look at today, that everything is new in a way because because everything is interacting with their environment. That life is miraculous and yet much of what we consider life doesn’t really matter.
A few others Power vs Force by David R. Hawkins MD PhD, The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandino, The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle, Atomic Habits by James Clear, Positive Intelligence by Shirzad Chamine
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.lizsimmonsauthor.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lizsimmons.author?utm_source=qr&igshid=MThlNWY1MzQwNA%3D%3D
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100094715406431
Image Credits
Elizabeth Simmons
