I have a question for you, and I want you to really sit with it for a moment.
Did you ever feel like you didn’t quite fit in?
One of my favorite Christmas shows growing up was Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Not because of Rudolf, although I loved him too. But because of the Island of Misfit Toys.
I was obsessed with that island.
The toys that didn’t work the way they were supposed to. The ones that got set aside because they were different. And the dentist elf who just wanted to be a dentist, not an elf, and couldn’t figure out why that was such a problem.
I related to every single one of them.
I was the kid getting blocked from getting on the bus every morning. Big ears, big teeth, curly hair that nobody else had. The one who couldn’t stop sticking up for the kids getting pushed around, even when it made things so much worse for me. I collected the misfits. I led them on adventures. I got us into trouble more times than I can count.
And every single time that part of me showed up, I got the message that it was too much.
So I learned to disappear.
It wasn’t until years later, sitting in a room full of thousands of women at a leadership conference, listening to a woman tell her story of rising from the projects as a single mother of three boys, that something cracked open in me. I felt it in my whole body. A fire I hadn’t felt in years.
That was the moment I found my why.
And it has been the thread running through everything I have done since.
Here is what I know now that I didn’t know then.
The thing that made you a misfit? That is not your weakness. That is your genius. The part of you that never fit the old model is exactly the part that is being called forward right now.
The old structures are collapsing. You can feel it. And something new is trying to emerge through the people who were never quite comfortable with the way things were.
I secretly always wished there was a real island for the misfits. A place where the ones who thought differently, led differently, and saw what others couldn’t see could find each other and build something new together.
I believe that island is being built right now. And I believe Soul Guided Leadership is part of it.
I am writing a book about this, and before I go much further, I want to hear from you.
Do you relate to the misfit identity? Has that thread shown up in your leadership or your business? And does Soul Guided Leadership feel like something that speaks to where you are right now?
Hit reply and tell me. I read every single response, and your answer genuinely shapes the work I am bringing forward.
To all the misfits out there. You were born for this time.
