Curating the Curious
Welcome to Curating the Curious, the podcast that celebrates staying curious in life and never settling into a box.
This show is for the creators, the seekers, the explorers, the truth tellers….and the forever students of life.
No matter what age or stage you’re currently at, this is not as good as it gets and it is never too late to begin.
Join me as we explore all of the questions that come with the idea of curiosity. A place where the possibilities are endless and you can always start again.
We expand our lives through curiosity. One of my greatest passions is finding ways to encourage and inspire others to keep pushing, sharing, living, and making things for the world to see.
Curating the Curious
Day 11- Here's My Definition of Success, What's Yours?
Welcome to DAY ELEVEN of our new 30-day COMMUNITY PROJECT where we make something with our hands every day in order to improve our mental health. We all realize that creativity heals...it's time to put that knowledge into action.
I'm going to publish an episode for you to follow along with several days of each week (I'll take breaks on Fridays and weekends in order to give you time to catch up as needed). These episodes will exist here, marked with the days numbered, in order for you to follow along at any speed that you like. Miss a day? Doesn't matter. Just pick up right where you left off and keep making things. These episodes will give us all some accountability, but if you need more, pair up with a partner. It really does help!
Join our creative community by making something today, whether it's for five minutes or several hours—your brain will thank you. Let's do this thing together and turn all of this sh*t into something beautiful!
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your new life is going to cost you your old one. It's going to cost you your comfort zone and your sense of direction. It's going to cost you relationships and friends. It's going to cost you being liked and understood, and it doesn't matter, because the people who are meant for you are going to meet you. On the other side, you are going to build a new comfort zone around the things that actually move you forward. Instead of being liked, you are going to be loved. Instead of being understood, you are going to be seen. All you're going to lose is what was built for a person that you no longer are. Let it go by Brianna Wiest.
Speaker 0:Before I talk about what I did for today's project, I would like to say that normally, every single day, an activity that I would be doing with my hands would be taking care of my monarchs, my caterpillars, my butterflies you name it, all of it and this year, sadly, I have not raised one monarch for the first time in six years. It's one of my favorite things to do every single summer, something I look forward to. It's a part of my life. I have had zero caterpillar work to be done this entire summer. It's very sad, but I also feel like maybe it happened in order to push me into this project and to do a little bit of creative cross-training that I was talking about and to push me towards doing these episodes, which have been incredibly, incredibly helpful in my life and, hopefully, some of yours. But the reason that I haven't raised a caterpillar or a butterfly this entire summer is that we went on vacation pretty early and we were gone most of June in Europe, so I decided to get no milkweed and I decided to not even start planting it or anything, because I just didn't know what was going to be going on. And when I returned, I found out that there was a huge milkweed shortage all over California. I don't know if it's happening in other areas, but in Southern California at least there's none. I tried to order it online. I got out some seeds that I had. I found out that the seeds would take so long that I would miss the entire cycle, so I gave that up. It's been a sad, sad thing for 2025, I can tell you that. But at the same time, I'm thankful because I have a feeling that this little podcast right here and this little project that I've been doing is part of the reason. So, however sad it may be, some definite positive things have come out of it. Positive things have come out of it.
Speaker 0:So on to today's project. I decided to write again, and my writing prompt for the day was my definition of true success is and boy did I have a lot to say. I mean, I kept writing and writing. It was just going on and on and on, in a totally unexpected way. And guess what? Not once did I write down anything that had to do with material goods, money, power, status, image. None of it, absolutely zero. And the things that I did write down made me feel so freaking proud of myself Because I have accomplished so many of the things on my list and I have worked so freaking hard to get there my relationship with my husband, my relationship with my daughter, my relationship with myself and the knowledge that I hold integrity as one of my highest core values.
Speaker 0:And I do not waver on that. The fact that, no matter what anyone has done to try and hurt me or spread lies behind my back, that I have kept my hands clean, that I do not hit below the belt, I do not retaliate, I do not come up with schemes to get revenge. I do not retaliate. I do not come up with schemes to get revenge. I live my life, stay true to my core values and I remember that my character will outweigh any lie that is ever told about me. It might take years, but I hold to the belief that the truth always comes to light Always, and I will never stoop to anyone's level in order to get even with them. I will just let them keep talking and talking until people start to wake up and realize what's really going on.
Speaker 0:Another part of my true definition of success spending time alone and loving being with me, spending time with my family and loving our time together because we've worked so hard on so many things. Waking up each and every day and committing myself to growing and being and loving the people around me, finding ways that I can contribute to their happiness and well-being. Looking back at the most difficult and painful chapters in my life and seeing the ways that I worked my ass off to get through it and bonded even closer to my loved ones, knowing in my heart that I am the one who gets to define who I am as a person. Anyone else's opinion is only a projection of their own bullshit. My true definition of success is looking in the mirror and liking what I see Complete self-acceptance and knowledge that this life is much bigger and more important than keeping up with anybody or receiving any public accolades or praise of any kind. The true definition of success is watching my daughter thrive, seeing her soar through this world in a way that I could have only dreamed of when I was a child, not caught up in appearances or public opinions or image or any of that stupid crap that weighs so many of us down. I have worked so hard to open that path for her and to keep her on it, and I will keep working as the world's volume turns itself up even louder.
Speaker 0:Another definition of success to me living this dream of a marriage and I'm not kidding with my best friend and husband, who only enhances every portion of my life. After years of having nothing but toxic and sometimes even abusive relationships, I woke up and I did the work. It took years, but I did. I reversed a lifetime of unhealthy partnerships and I found the kind of marriage that most people can barely even believe it's real, so much that they're constantly trying to find the chinks in the armor. But keep looking, because there aren't. We are equals, we have complete respect for one another, and we are two separate and complete individuals who come together as a team in the good and the bad.
Speaker 0:Saying that it's a dream of a marriage doesn't mean that we don't argue. It doesn't mean that we don't have our rough times, it's just healthy. There's so much more that I wrote down about my true definition of success, but now it's time for you to work on your project. You can obviously choose whatever you want, but if you want to use the writing prompt, you have it. So until tomorrow, stay curious.
