We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Raiza Noelia a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Raiza, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.
I found my purpose as I focused on learning, growing, exploring and discovering new things. The book The Alchemist is a beautifully written story that depicts the voyage of someone looking for their purpose and is the perfect example of what I did myself. As I lived life asking questions and searching for answers, I found that connections made with others and conversations I had with people of all ages, really impacted my understanding of my purpose. I read books and listened to podcasts, I worked on myself and focused on doing things that I loved all in pursuit of the answer to that big question, what is my purpose? I discovered that our purpose is like a wave, there is an ebb and flow and it is ever changing like the different seasons of life we are in. I learned that at the core of all of our purposes should be love. The idea that all that we do , we should do with love, was a powerful compass for me. If I felt misaligned or that what I was doing I wasn’t loving anymore, I’d reflect and ask myself if it was time to shift. We evolve and change as different things happen in our life which made me realize that purpose is the same. Purpose can evolve and change too. It’s okay if in one season of your life your purpose is ABC and then in another season it transforms to XYZ. That is how I found my purpose and better understood what purpose really is. In a nutshell I’d say ask a lot of questions, search far and wide, explore and try try try everything that peaks your interest, listen and learn, and don’t marry yourself to the idea that purpose is a concrete block that stays the same.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I am Raiza Noelia (Ra-Issa or Rye-Sa) and I’ve been living in San Diego for 6 going on 7 years! There’s a lot you can learn about me but I’d say the most important thing I’d like readers to know is that I am a person who went through hardships in life, like anyone else, and wanted to incorporate those lessons into my business by creating a brand and business that focuses on making a positive impact within the community. San Diego is home for me and connecting to my community is very important. I am a Photographer, Visual artist, and creative. I love working with companies and brands that focus on helping our community. There’s so much darkness in this world so I’ve always just wanted to be as bright of a light as possible. I capture images, design content, and create in a way that shares the love and heart of the person, company, product, etc. I create memories and spread a bit of love and light with all that I do. What I do is special to me because I was always told that I couldn’t do what I loved growing up, so to be able to be doing what I love means the world to me. I also get to spend more time with family and friends which is also really important to me too. I do have a fun project coming up that I hope to breathe more life into, and it’s centered on creating merchandise that is intertwined with communities in San Diego that need a bit of extra love. My goal would be to host future community events that spread some love and light and be able to inspire others to pursue their dreams too! That is how I’d love to expand my current brand and business.
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?
I’d say the three most important qualities for me were being flexible, having determination/perseverance, and being a sponge when it came to everyone I met or anything I did. Life is ever-changing, that is one thing we cannot control. I learned that it is crucial to be able to “roll with the punches” so to speak. Being flexible and able to respond/react on your toes, can take you quite the distance in your career and in life. Sometimes things don’t go as planned. Sometimes we need to make shifts in life. Being flexible helps build skills to manage that. One way to develop this would be to challenge yourself to find a creative solution to a problem or issue that you are currently having anytime you think “there’s no other way” or “this is the only way.” We learn and grow when we are challenged outside of our comfort zone, and any moment we say to ourselves, nope there is nothing that can be done, is the perfect opportunity to practice being flexible and finding a different solution. When we are open minded and come to an understanding that there are so many beautiful ways to do things differently, it stretches our minds to never see a situation as the door is sealed shut.
Determination and perseverance also takes practice. It’s the ability to get up and try again over and over and over again and that can be hard. I learned that it’s okay to have a moment of rest. It’s easy to think that persevering means doing it over and over nonstop. Sometimes it can mean realizing you need a moment to rest and regroup before trying again. Or that you need to tap in some insight from friends who might be able to help and encourage you. Being flexible and determined are skills and qualities that intertwine. You need to be determined to be flexible in order to learn to be more and more flexible throughout life. Just like you need to be flexible when it comes to being determined, knowing it’s not always going to look the same all the time.
The last quality is being a sponge. This one is probably my favorite. We can all be sponges in each area of our life. To me being a sponge means never thinking you know everything, always taking a moment to listen to others perspectives and experiences and absorbing it all even if you don’t agree. It’s about really taking in your own experiences and absorbing what you’ve learned. If you’re a sponge about life, it’s really amazing what you can learn about yourself and the world. Being a sponge also helps with being flexible and determined. As you learn about yourself and others, it gives you knowledge and experience to be more flexible and determined. It’s all interconnected.
For anyone who is early in their journey, I’d say aside from what I mentioned above, remember to take it easy. This is your journey and voyage in life and we only get one. Truly live it in a way that every year you can look back and be proud of what you’ve done, what you’ve explored, where you’ve gone, etc. There is nothing too big or too small in life. Every moment in life is beautiful and has the power to bring you places you never imagined. And it’s never too late or too early!
What would you advise – going all in on your strengths or investing on areas where you aren’t as strong to be more well-rounded?
I love this question! I’d say there’s a time for both. I see life like seasons. There are seasons in life where I feel its beneficial to go all in with our strengths, fine-tune them, expand, grown, learn, etc and then there becomes seasons in life where our areas that need improvement are interfering with our ability to move forward with our strengths and so it becomes vital to improve an area you aren’t as strong in , in order to make progress with your strengths. I have a few examples. One example is regarding a half marathon I recently ran. It was on my bucket list of things I’d like to accomplish and decided to finally go for it. Fitness and living an active lifestyle is a huge part of my life and have become strengths for me because of how long I’ve put energy into them. I focus on eating healthy, training, and living a healthy lifestyle because it’s supportive of my physical health and mental health. Because of my active lifestyle I have injuries I’ve sustained in both my knee and shoulder but they’ve never become a huge issue although they are weaknesses my body has. During the race, I did great until I hit the halfway mark. Halfway I started to get pain in my knee but it wasn’t the end of the world. I was able to walk some of the race to take breaks then start running again shortly after. But towards the last 1/3 of the race, my knee was in so much pain I could barely walk. I proudly finished the race although I had to walk the last 4 miles or so but it was a reminder that there are times in our journey that we need to focus on our areas of weakness. If I continue to only focus on my areas of strength, I’m never going to improve my knee which means that I’m always going to face a situation where my knee is going to interfere with my progress. Now that I know my knee is an issue at a certain distance, it gives me the knowledge that I need to begin training my areas of weakness so that I can run a further distance, and even accomplish running a marathon which is another goal of mine. It doesn’t mean that I need to perfect this area, just that making it a bit stronger will help me build a stronger foundation which will then help my areas of strength that I already have.
Another example I have falls under running my business. As a photographer and creative, I find that my personality and skillset is a strength that I have. I feel confident in what I am able to do creatively and in the relationships I build with the people I interact with. I found that one of my areas of weakness are extensive knowledge behind indoor studio lighting. I started realizing that although I was shining in the creativity and personality area, I found moments of insecurity when it came to discussing any potential client that had indoor studio lighting needs. It came to a point where I felt it was interfering with my professional growth. I could continue to focus in the ares of photography I always focused on which didn’t need any studio lighting knowledge, or I could push myself to learn enough to feel more confident in myself. Sometimes strengthening your areas of weakness isn’t to perfect them but just to build a stronger foundation so you have more room to move forward. There’s nothing wrong with focusing on your strengths until a weakness comes along that interferes with you moving forward. It’s important to know yourself well enough to know when it’s time to focus on just your strengths to improve them, and when to shift gears when a weakness begins to interfere with your progress.
The flip side would be when we pour in all of our energy into trying to get our weaknesses to become strengths, sometimes our strengths won’t get the fine-tuning they need to continue to shine. We only have a finite amount of energy and so investing in just our weaknesses can result in our strengths becoming sub-par. Or we feel pulled in a million different directions because we are focusing on too many areas which can be draining. Finding the balance is hard but I think really important.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.raizanoelia.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/raizanoelia
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/raizanoelia
