We recently connected with Mandy Rogers and have shared our conversation below.
Mandy, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?
I think the journey of finding your purpose is truly never ending, if you’re constantly evolving and growing, it’s likely in some capacity so is your purpose. There’s no X on the treasure map that once you’ve located it you’ve unlocked the treasure chest of a purpose driven life, though I’d appreciate if I felt that was the case right about now.
I do however think that you continue to find clues along the way, you uncover pieces of yourself as you continue to further learn who you are, and grow into who you’re meant to be.
For me, a huge piece of my puzzle is how I struggled throughout my childhood to fit in. I grew up watching a sibling fight addiction, and in a small town where everyone seemed to know every detail about those struggles and that brought a lot of shame and struggle for me. I vividly remember going into my freshman year algebra class and the teacher saying, “Oh you’re his little sister? Here we go”. So not only was this adding stress to my home life, but now I had no escape at the one place that should’ve provided it.
This shame honestly derailed me from the age of 10 and nearly through my mid-twenties. I had no idea who I was or who I wanted to be, and couldn’t figure any of that out amongst the weight of it and the wanting so bad to just fit in. I wanted nothing more than to not feel ostracized, and to just feel like I belonged, and that made it nearly impossible to know what I even wanted or what my purpose was. I put an immense amount of pressure on myself, and assumed others were doing the same. I tasked myself with trying to nearly makeup for a reputation I hadn’t earned, just to escape the shame.
It wasn’t until I was able to work through the heaviness of my childhood trauma with a lot of therapy that I was able to start uncovering my sense of purpose. I realized that how I felt during my childhood likely wasn’t as unique as it felt at the time, and if I was feeling that way then there was likely at least one other little girl, teen, or woman also feeling that way and how many of them were still stuck feeling that way? This unlocked a huge understanding for me that my purpose lies in being who I needed at that age, in hopes that I’m able to provide others with a head start towards empowering themselves and finding their own purpose.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I now cohost a podcast MPowered, which is all about empowering women from all aspects of their lives to break unhealthy cycles, and develop new patterns that better serve them, and to find a community to support themselves in doing so. We interview guests who are breaking barriers and having authentic dialogue about the struggles they face and how they’ve overcome them. We also chat about our own struggles, and how we’re actively working to overcome them in real time. We release new episodes every Tuesday – available wherever you currently stream your podcasts!
Our podcast has become a community as well, hosting live podcast events in the Charlotte NC area with plans to eventually expand nationally.
I also speak about my own journey and share my story in hopes of encouraging others to be able to lift their shame and be proactive in their cycle breaking journey and have had the opportunity to speak with girls, teens, and women alike.
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?
Among the three qualities that I think have been most impactful, an ability to just figure it out has been the most beneficial. This sounds incredibly broad, but I credit nearly all of my success to being able to lean on this and I think it’s a highly underrated skill set. Often times if we don’t know how to do something, we’ll throw our hands up and say I don’t know how to do it and I can’t. Fun fact; we have access to more information via the internet than we’ve ever had and if you don’t know how to do something you likely have the tools and resources to figure it out, you just have to want to. I launched a Chief of Staff consulting business with no idea how to do many of the things I was doing, but a knowledge that I can figure anything out if I want to badly enough. My biggest tip here, listen to your self-talk, when you come across something you don’t know how to do instead of feeding into the negative thought patterns, reframe this as an opportunity to learn something new. If you can’t figure it out by using Google, ask someone to teach you, but do not give up.
Resilience is the second quality I think has been a key. Life is going to throw endless curve balls your way, they truly are never going to stop. Instead of letting a challenge be consuming, look at it as a wave. We’ll have difficult waves that roll across the ocean but they’ll continue to roll through and pass and there’s calm on the other side of that.
An ability to trust myself has made the resilience and ability to figure it out possible. I know where I’ve come from, what I’ve accomplished, and all that I’ve made it through, which statistically tells me I’ve got whatever’s next covered, even if I don’t know how yet. Allowing myself to be okay with not knowing, not understanding, and struggling, but knowing at the end of the day I’ve always got my own back and I will always make it out the other side has allowed me to continue to persevere and move in the right direction.
My best advice to master and hone the above is to make sure you’re taking time for your mental health, I’m a huge advocate for therapy, but meditation, journaling, movement, creative time can all also be beneficial in keeping your mental health in check and I think that’s really the foundation to any strong skill set.
Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?
I’m actively learning how to best handle this in real time.
I’m learning to say no, and this has been advice I wish I would’ve taken a long time ago. No is a complete sentence, and when you’re feeling overwhelmed you have to be able to set boundaries to ensure you’re not continuing to add to that feeling by taking on more than you’re capable of handling.
In order to process the overwhelm I find that trying to give myself a routine that is maintainable and not extreme is incredibly helpful. I’m learning that I have to be as gentle and loving with myself as I am with everyone around me. My routine involves trying to avoid things that make the feelings of overwhelm worse and incorporating things that help me to run at my best.
Some examples would be, ensuring I’m limiting my screen time and taking breaks from social media, moving my body in ways that don’t feel overwhelming like walks, yoga, and low intensity workouts, getting enough sleep and nourishing my body with nutrient dense food and food that makes me happy and lastly making time for silly and creative play that allows me to disconnect from the stress.
For me if I’m really focusing on taking care of myself it’s much easier to handle any sort of overwhelm that comes my way because I’m able to be emotionally stable and sound through it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://mpoweredpodcast.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com
Image Credits
Caitlin Elizabeth Photo
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