Introduce yourself -- Lola Cole enters the Steemit world!

Allow me to introduce myself. You can call me Laura. Or as I’ve affectionally become known as, Lola.

I’ve had this introduction post building inside me for awhile now, and I’ve watched myself continuously struggle to pinpoint the angle in which I wanted to introduce myself to the Steemit world. How does capture the essence of their character and life story in a single post?! And then it dawned on me - it doesn’t matter! (well, of course, it matters). It doesn’t mean anything. And it means everything. It brings me back to a particularly noteworthy book I read in the last year called Big Magic in which Elizabeth Gilbert pointedly details the magic of the creative process - your creation means everything, and it means nothing. Essentially all of which to say — let’s all get out of our own way so this tremendous creative force can work through us and we can share with the world.

whew It really takes the pressure off anything we creatively produce, doesn’t it? It became another reminder to myself that none of this has to be so serious! Let's let the overthinking and perfectionistic tendencies go so we can flow from the heart :)

So, without further adieu, here’s a semi-brief glimpse of me:: what Lola is about, why she’s here, and her overarching intention for joining this beautiful community.

I’ve certainly walked the unpaved path in this life journey thus far

Well, to be honest, it started out quite paved. Well into my college years, I had the vision painted in my mind that I was well on my way to Law School, as this was the natural next step due to the family I grew up in.

But as my college years steadily progressed, it became abundantly clear that the “traditional” route - at this stage - was not going to work. A whirlwind of unexpected choices and a giant leap of faith led me to the other side of the world, where I picked up and transported my entire life to a place I didn’t know a single other soul. Fast forward to now, nearly 4 years later, and I’ve spent the majority of that time in Southeast Asia. While I lived in rural Thailand for half a year, it wasn’t until I moved up to Chiang Mai that my world forever changed. ((There will be more to come on this shift in my life in a future post... stay tuned)).

And after several years of walking the road less traveled, it has guided me back to the West. I fully believe as those of us who are seeking and awakening, we must choose to awaken others with the truth we’ve discovered for ourselves. There is undoubtedly a need for this work in the Western world, so I feel ready and prepared to be a force of sharing and spreading the necessary messages, as I have been so blessed to learn and receive through my time in the Eastern world.

I’m pretty much obsessed with the entire world of personal development

And this truly isn't an understatement. Believe me, you get me talking anything close to the realm of self-growth or methods to improve ourselves and our lives and I promise, I will not stop. Some keywords that you can be sure will light me up::

Growth, empowerment, expansion, love, collaboration, expression, vulnerability, authenticity and truth.

For the majority of my life, this has been my unyielding passion. But it’s a perplexing passion in that because it’s so broad and all-encompassing, it is difficult to define. “What’s your passion?” “Oh, mine’s art!” “I love music” “Everything related to the culinary arts.” and for me — “Oh you know, just the entire spectrum of human betterment. But you know, I’ve grown quite okay with that — while we certainly live in a day and age where people mainly want to classify and quantify so our brains can categorize our surrounds, I’ve grown comfortable not fitting in any such box. Instead, I’d rather categorize myself with all the other passionate, life enthusiastic and muse on anything as logical or as abstract and other-worldly as the flow may take us. I'm all about growing together.

The next phase of my growth undoubtedly lies in sharing more of my story and my authentic self with others

As my commitment to personal growth shows, I am constantly seeking new ways to level up my life and become a more aligned, more purposeful version of myself. I am very aware our greatest desires are most often clouded by our loudest fears. For too long I have noticed the way my fear of being seen and exposing my true self with the world is disguising the much deeper yearning ::: to fully share and authentically express my truth. And in doing so, my greater intention is to serve as a catalyst to hopefully touch, influence or inspire others in their personal journey of growth and evolvement.

So that’s essentially what allllll brings me here. To this point where I am committing to sharing my authentic self with others. I couldn’t be happier to have found this platform to do so. I so deeply believe in the greater purpose of blockchain as a whole - so it’s a pleasure to join this community now as we create a power empowered future for ourselves and each other.

I am truly looking forward to sharing more and getting to know and learn from more of you throughout this process. <3

With love and gratitude,

Lola