The Message in the Middle | From Messy to Self-Actualized, with Marianne Demello-Smith

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From corporate America to self-development innovator, Marianne Demello-Smith is creator of the Message in the Middle Podcast & BookClub, a place to explore life’s difficult lessons through interviews, self-development, book clubs, self-empowerment and discovery.

As our guest, Marianne has observed, life is messy. It darts this way, and that. And we don’t have a lot of quiet time for reflection. Sometimes we lose sight of ourselves as we move through life, pushing toward the next goal, whether that’s career, family, both. We push and push and just do the next right thing

The Talking Heads pointed this out a couple decades ago, “You may find yourself in another part of the world, you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile. you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife, and you may ask yourself, well, how did I get here?”

And like so many of us, that’s what happened with Marianne  Demello-Smith. But instead of spiraling down the drain, Marianne took the time for quiet reflection, and then moved forward, step by intentional step, into the life she envisioned in that quiet reflection. As a society, we too are at an inflection point, where we can decide where we want to go, as individuals and as a society. It’s a scary and exciting place to be all at once.

Marianne and I talk about this, and how all of us were forced into a quiet reflection during the pandemic. And even though this looked really different for some, and was not terribly quiet at all for some of us, it was a moment of disruption, of forced change that made us all look at ourselves. Why am I here? How did I get here? Where do I want to go? Where is there meaning?

We talk about balance. We talk about setting intentions, and having an intentional life. Of giving that gift to ourselves. And getting validation from ourselves, and not just relying on the external. How we find courage. How we get over ourselves, our egos, and move beyond perfectionism. And how we are all in this big messy life together.

Lean into this intimate conversation for some identification and some inspiration.

More about Marianne:

Check out Marianne’s website for Message in the Middle where you can access her podcast by the same name and her awesome virtual book club. 

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