This post is originally found on Arielle Estoria’s blog: Chronicles of a Lioness
Today was the first day of the Yellow Conference, I have been looking forward to this day and tomorrow for months now.
I’m already recruiting for next year… if you’re interested holly at me! (If you’re thinking Maybe I should go, drop the “maybe” and just come.)
I am sitting in the apartment that my friend Karen and I rented for the conference with four other girls who we met through the yellow conference sphere of influence. These girls are such a joy to be around and are kindred souls to the absolute T, I love them and I’m already obsessed with them and I don’t say that lightly.
It is only the end of day one and I’m already overflowing [_hence the blog, so here we go]._
This conference, I can’t even begin to put into words.
We have heard several amazing speakers share their stories as entrepreneurs and artists of all different fields. It is humbling, life giving and inspiring to say the very least.
We are full of tacos and frozen yogurt but our stomachs hurt not from food but from laughter. Our hearts are overflowing and we (I guess I’m speaking on behalf of everyone, sorry not sorry) are just all kinds of excited for what tomorrow holds.
The aesthetics/ visuals of the conference are enough to make a girl feel like she’s in floral heaven. The team has done an amazing job creating a “Yellow” environment that makes you feel as though you’re entering an entirely different world aka MAGICAL LAND OF HAPPINESS AND BEAUTIFUL BLISS.
I had no intention of doing this but I came back and immediately grabbed my computer. When you need to spill, just spill.
So here are my takeaways from Yellow Conference day one:
ONE. It is not about the weight of “I can’t” but the power of “ I can.”
Sometimes we hear you can’t and other times we say it to ourselves, either way it is engrained in us somehow. The feeling of defeat that we experience is not about how heavy the I can’t seems but how strong the power of our I can is. “I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me” this is the Philippians mantra that the parents of the last speaker, Jeremy Cowart, celebrity photographer and hands down a wonderful human (what I gathered from his 30 minute keynote) engrained in him. The “I can’t” is only loud if we turn up the volume, so babes change the music and watch what happens.
The feeling of defeat that we experience is not about how heavy the I can’t seems but how strong the power of our I can is.
TWO. Community trumps competition.
Artists/creatives/everyone in that field can be kind of nasty, unapproachable and prideful sometimes…(gross). We are so wired in thinking that we have to compete, we have to fight, step on everyone and make them your ladder for success. FALSE! So much false there’s not enough caps lock for it. When we refuse to compete with one another and instead turn that competition into community —HOLY WOAH what magic we can create/BE.
If you look at any story, you will see that it never consists of just one person. Slowly characters start appearing…family, friends, teachers, mentors, strangers…they become a part of the narrative of the hero in the most amazing way.
WE ARE NOT MEANT TO DO THIS ALONE.
“This” as in anything. We are wired, created, formed to be in relationship with one another. That goes so much deeper than the relationships we think are started by, “hey let’s have coffee” or “hey I like you, let’s get married right now.” It is about the moments where the only response we have is, woah you have a similar thread and heartbeat to my own, let’s do something with it! Let’s create, let’s do something together to make this world a better place.
What if we saw one another like resources, assets and not in this _what are you going to do for me _kind of way but what are we going to do for each other and how does that transcend into the bigger picture of BOTH of our passions?
THREE. Fight for yourself.
At the heart of all entrepreneurs is the dangerous habit of losing themselves. Losing themselves in the work, the opinion of others, the comparison between others, the “I can’ts” and the “I’m not enough.” However we don’t realize it until we’re crying over someone drinking all the milk, telling us that we looked “good” instead of “great” or when the barista tells us to “have a good day” so earnestly that it turns us into a blubbering mess. It is when we have to dig ourselves out of whatever it is buried us in the first place to realize that we started to get tired, stepped on, taken advantage of or completely disappear.
Fight for yourself. One of the speakers, and founder of So Worth Loving, Eryn Eddy said that in her keynote, Fight for yourself. But in order to do that you have to believe that you’re worth fighting for. You have to believe that your truest self deserves the most radiant light instead of being tossed under whatever it is that has a tendency to bury you.
FOUR. People are awesome, they do awesome things and love others awesomely.
SHOOT. This was one of the most important things I took away from today. People are wonderful. I’ve always known this, I’ve always thought this. I am constantly so eager to devour the stories of strangers because they never cease to inspire the mess out of me despite how distant from my own they may be.
Every individual at this conference: speakers, guests, the yellow team, the four girls who I decided to call housemates for two days…they’re freaking amazing and they do amazing things with everything they are and, in return, they love so so well. I want to sit and know every individual within this yellow sphere because they’re just good people.
Does anyone find that sometimes in this world— when we encounter good people it throws us off? WHY IS THAT?! It shouldn’t throw us off when people are kind, good, encouraging and just overall solid because what is the point of being human if we’re not!?
Yeah there’s a lot of crappy stuff in this world but we were never meant to embody it, we were meant to be a reflection of the very opposite.
People make me giddy. Good people make me giddy, they make life beautiful and worth living.
It shouldn’t throw us off when people are kind, good, encouraging and just overall solid because what is the point of being human if we’re not!?
We are full of tacos and frozen yogurt but our stomachs hurt not from food but from laughter. Our hearts are overflowing and we (I guess I’m speaking on behalf of everyone, sorry not sorry) are just all kinds of excited for what tomorrow holds.
Ah.
&& all this from only one day.