If you’re ready to lead a more joy­ful and pos­i­tive life, this col­umn of­fers prac­ti­cal, ac­tion­able ad­vice root­ed in mind­set mas­tery, thought re­train­ing, and self-care prac­tices. To­geth­er, we’ll ex­plore how small but in­ten­tion­al changes can trans­form your well-be­ing and help you thrive.

Email your ques­tions on how to lev­el up your life to Dani at dj­da­ninet­work@gmail.com

Scared to make the next step

Dear Dani, I’ve been sav­ing for years to start my own dou­bles stand, but every time I’m ready to take the leap, fear holds me back. What if I fail? What if peo­ple laugh at me? What if my bara just doesn’t cut it? My heart says go for it, but my mind is a bat­tle­field. How can I push past this fear?

Dear Read­er,

Fear is nat­ur­al—but you know what else is nat­ur­al? Tri­nis and their love of dou­bles! Start small. Sell or of­fer sam­ples to friends and fam­i­ly first, or part­ner with a lo­cal event to test the wa­ters. If you fail? Dust off the bara and try again. Fail­ure isn’t the end of the world, so why not re­frame it as your “first at­tempt in learn­ing” and go again?

Not many of us get it per­fect on the first go, but tak­ing the first step gets you clos­er to suc­cess, and small wins boost your self-es­teem and help to qui­et self-doubt. I al­so en­cour­age you to put your ideas down on pa­per, name your dou­bles stand, de­sign a lo­go, think of pos­si­ble lo­ca­tions, and cre­ate the so­cial me­dia pages for the busi­ness; in oth­er words, get busy get­ting se­ri­ous about your dreams! Re­mem­ber, goals with­out a sol­id plan are just dreams des­tined to go nowhere. The on­ly way to beat fear is with ac­tion, and ac­tion builds your self-con­fi­dence. And as for peo­ple laugh­ing? Well, even­tu­al­ly, they’ll be laugh­ing and eat­ing your dou­bles, so who’s the re­al win­ner here?

Dani

Feel­ing stuck

Dear Dani, I’m in my mid-30s and feel­ing stuck in my ca­reer. I went to UWI and land­ed a “good” job, but now I feel like I’m just go­ing through the mo­tions. I want more, but I don’t know what that “more” looks like, and I’m afraid to dis­ap­point my fam­i­ly by mak­ing a dras­tic change. How can I fig­ure out what’s next?

Dear Read­er,

Feel­ing stuck is like dri­ving around the Sa­van­nah in cir­cles with no plan on where you’re ex­it­ing. You’re mov­ing, but are you get­ting any­where? Start by ex­plor­ing what ex­cites you; of­ten, tak­ing a look back at some of the things that you loved do­ing as a child are good cues as to what that could be. Now is a great time to al­so try some­thing new—vol­un­teer, at­tend a work­shop, or even take a class. It’s not about mak­ing dras­tic moves; it’s about ex­per­i­ment­ing with what lights you up.

My mot­to is “Try it, you might like it!” As for fam­i­ly, yes, they love you ... but this is your life; don’t be afraid to dis­ap­point them; they’ll get over it, es­pe­cial­ly if it brings you clos­er to do­ing some­thing you feel more aligned with. And re­mem­ber ba­by steps, my friend; take it one day at a time and one dri­ve around the Sa­van­nah at a time.

Dani

About me:

DJ Dani is an award-win­ning writer, well-be­ing strate­gist, and the first cer­ti­fied Chief Well-be­ing Of­fi­cer (CWO) in T&T. If you are pas­sion­ate about how to cul­ti­vate joy, build re­silience, and un­lock the su­per­pow­ers of your­self, your team, or your busi­ness, please log on to www.dj­da­ninet­work.com