How to Live a Life of Freedom
Arivee with Navneet Mann
[00:00:00] We all deserve to have fulfilling careers and lives. We deserve to experience joy and peace, and freedom, and all of those things that make us feel truly alive.
[00:00:20] It takes a lot of courage for us to take the reins in our lives and take action that honors the deepest parts of ourselves in this current season of life. It takes a lot of courage to lean into growing and to lean into learning, and to know when it's time to make a change. I’m Arivee. I'm a first generation Latina, mom of three, and life and high performance coach to women just like you.
[00:00:50] And this podcast is for all of us looking to grow and learn and explore what a joyful and fulfilling life and [00:01:00] career can look like. And how to start living into that life right now. We're going to go deep and we're going to honor our truth in this podcast, and the best thing is we're gonna do it together.
[00:01:13] So welcome to the Humble Rising Podcast.
Whoa, am I excited for you to listen to this episode with Solo coach Navneet. Navneet is a business and mindset coach, and she is helping high-achieving women transform their lives by discovering their true purpose and learning how to monetize it. She's committed to helping all of her clients reach higher levels of alignment, freedom, and fulfillment.
She spent over 10 years dedicated to personal [00:02:00] development and she has a ton of knowledge and she brings a lot of expertise to her coaching, including her experience as a business owner, a business advisor, a lawyer, and a speaker. She is a certified coach and she really helps her clients bridge the gap between their unfulfilling work and a purpose-based business.
She has a signature program. It's called the Freedom Bridge Program, and that's where Nav helps ambitious women live their best lives by becoming super clear on their purpose and their values, gaining confidence in who they really are, and earning an income by doing what they love. And in this episode, me and Nav are digging into what it means to assess where you are honestly, thinking about and how to think about who you are really, and the masks we wear. We talk about what's up with our need for [00:03:00] control. Raise your hand if you are in the need for control and to know how everything is gonna turn out. I'm raising my hand sometimes, a lot, maybe.
We talk about how we navigate changes in our career, how we navigate changes within us personally. We delve into a definition of purpose that you'll want to hear.
Nav is the real deal, my friends. You're going to want to listen and take notes while you listen. I sure did. I have pages and pages of notes over here. Okay? I'm so glad you're here to join us for this conversation.
Navneet, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast. It's so good to have you here.
I'm so excited to be here.
Navneet, you know, I've been following you for a while and if anyone hasn't caught Navneet’s podcast, you need to catch that podcast, the ‘Align Freedom Podcast’. It's eye-opening, and to me it's not just for people who [00:04:00] are leaving a nine-to-five job to be an online entrepreneur or to be an entrepreneur. It's really for anyone who is doing some soul searching, is figuring out what they want, what they need, and especially for my first gen audience, you gotta check that podcast out.
So I'm giving a little bit away Nav, but can you just start and share with us your story, like your background and what led you to do what you do now?
Yeah. First of all, thank you. Thank you for having me. And thank you for the plug for the podcast. You did hit the nail on the head and we'll get into this, I'm sure. But so my journey, I never know how far back to go, but I'll give you, I'll give you kind of the overarching high points and low points.
So I am a former lawyer as you know. I am also a child of immigrant parents. My parents are Indian and immigrated to Canada, and I was born here. So [00:05:00] I kind of grew up between these two worlds of being Indian, having a traditional upbringing and household and expectations, but also being in this Western environment.
So I think my entire life has been kind of soul searching inadvertently without me really knowing it. And I ended up becoming a lawyer mostly because I thought I was gonna help other people, which I think a lot of lawyers say that, you know, we want to be of service, we wanna help other people, that's kind of what we see online or on movies actually ‘cause back then there was no online.
And then that kinda mixed with this traditional upbringing of kind of making almost like my parents' life worthy of making these changes. You know what I mean? Like that. There's this underlying pressure that I never recognized before. It's only been in my reflective moments that I realized this, but the fact that they gave up everything to come from a comfortable life to [00:06:00] Canada and uproot themselves to give their children a better life. That's what my parents would always tell me, “This is to give you kids a better life.” You know?
And I think there was always this underlying expectation or pressure, so to speak, to become something, to be successful. And that's what I grew up with like. My cousins are all quite successful. That kind of grew up in this household, so I became a lawyer. First, to help people, but also to kind of prove that I can, I guess, and of course there comes the status and the money and all of that as well.
And as I got more and more into law, what I realized was it was nothing like what I expected. I wasn't really helping people. Maybe I was indirectly, but mostly it became about the billable hour. It became about filling the firm's pockets. It became about competition and proving myself and feeling uncomfortable in so many situations, and being a woman of color, being a young [00:07:00] woman of color, oftentimes the only one in a room, it was finding my voice, finding who I am, like giving myself permission to speak.
There were so many layers to all of this, and you know, I'm going into a lot of detail just because I think that this is a part of the journey that I never really realized while it was happening, but it was building upon this, I think already an identity crisis that I didn't realize.
So I personally went through a lot of hardships in law. I experienced a lot of stress. I don't know how deep to go into this, but there was bullying and harassment in many ways as well, and I was just really unhappy. And that coupled with the fact that I was doing something I didn't enjoy, kind of led me down the spiral of like, “What the heck am I doing with my life? Like, I have one life, I'm miserable, I'm unhappy. I'm spending so much time and energy just to do something I don't even want, you know?
So back in 2018 is [00:08:00] when this really became all to life. It started to manifest in my body as me being unable to breathe. Like literally I would be sitting at my desk and like gasping for air. My chest would hurt, I couldn't breathe. And when I told my boss this, he just kind of laughed it off, like as if it's some sort of joke that I can't breathe. And basically just get back to work. Like, you're just young and you're a girl and you're weak and all of these things like it's no big deal. It's just a little bit of stress.
So this kept happening for like weeks on and eventually I was like, “No, this isn't not okay. I can't breathe. Like I'm not, okay.” So I went to my doctor during my lunch hour. I had to make time during lunch to go to my doctor in my little blue skirt suit in my blazer and the navy blue.
And my doctor was concerned, he was quite worried if he was worried that it could be like a panic attack, an anxiety attack, it could be my heart. The fact that it was going on for a couple of weeks. So immediately he sent me for an ECG, [00:09:00] he told me to get tested right away, blood tests, everything, all the works, during my lunch hour.
So now I'm like emailing my boss, worried ‘cause I'm not gonna make it back on time. I'm laying on this bed like it. It was just insane and it was such a wake up call for me because I was like, “This can't be my life.” I cannot be this young and experiencing this level of stress and whatever it is, and how much worse it can get.
So basically what happened after that was that led to my decision-making process of what I really wanted to do and really just getting honest with myself, like, “What am I doing? What do I actually want?” So after a period of time, I decided to basically cold turkey quit that job. I had no plan. Okay. I don't recommend those people. I'm not saying that this is what you should do. This is what I did because I was desperate in that moment. I didn't know where else to turn to so I hadn't even talked to my partner who I was living with, my now husband. I hadn't talked to him about [00:10:00] it. I literally just one day sat my boss down. I was curing, you know, he had tears in his eyes. Like, I can't do this. I'm so unhappy. I can't do this. This sucks. I need to go. And I walked out. I didn't even give notice. I just walked out of my job and you know, I live in Vancouver. I'm like walking down the streets downtown Vancouver like so confused. It's like 11:00 AM everyone's working like, “What is happening?”
So it was that journey and kind of that I caught myself in that downward spiral. But now I needed to understand how am I gonna get out of this? What is next? And so I was watching TED Talks and YouTube and all of this motivational stuff and trying to understand like, “What the heck, like what am I doing? Who am I? What do I want?”
And in that moment I found these TED Talks and they were by coaches, and I was like, “what the heck is a coach? What does this mean?” I only knew like Tony Robbins, you know, the guy that stands on stage and like motivates people. And that's kind of what I thought it [00:11:00] was. So I first found coaching more as like a healing mechanism for myself and understanding myself. And right away I, these light bulbs on-off, I was like, “This is magic.”
Yes, powerful.
Everybody needs to know about this. Why haven't I learned about this before? Like my values and my vision for the future, like nobody taught me these things. So like I need to learn this. And that's when I decided to start to get certified as a coach and you know, always took a couple of courses and did all of this stuff.
So that was back in 2018 is when I started and if you know my story, I ended up going back into law later that year, mostly to sustain myself financially because I wasn't really sure if this coaching thing was lucrative. You know, I didn't know what it was. And I think also as an identity, I wasn't yet ready to let go of being a lawyer. So I dabbled in it again and then, long story short, I mean long story long, last year was when I eventually was [00:12:00] like, I'm done with law. I'm going all in on my coaching business. And what I do as a coach is so much more fulfilling and aligned and purposeful than law ever was.
And here I am now helping women and professional than general really find who they are and understand their soul's journey and their purpose and what they wanna do, and to monetize that and to create a life out of that.
Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's so beautiful, Navneet. Like, I love that. That's so beautiful. What are you, with your work, and it could be even your experience too with your clients, what do you feel like are the biggest challenges and roadblocks to them doing this work of like, “Who am I? What do I want? What are my values? What's next for me?” What do you think are the biggest roadblocks they have, like the mindset roadblocks?
There's many, to be honest. I think when we first start to explore, like the “Who am I?” question, values is one of my favorite things to do. I often say, if I can just do, if I could only teach one thing forever, it would be like, how to discover and connect with your [00:13:00] values. I just think it's so deep. So I think a lot of people, because they're not asked these questions and they're not kind of equipped to think this way, that's a challenge. Oftentimes what I find of my clients, because a lot of them are trained professionals, they're very left brain, logical, analytical people, is that it's hard to drop out of the head and into like the heart, and really listen to, you know, what the intangible stuff that comes up.
So that's one of the challenges is like helping them get a little bit deeper because they're already feeling so blocked and they interpret what their values should be. Right? The things that have been fed to them by their family or their society or or their teachers. So it's letting go of the ‘should’, like how life should be and what's expected. I think that is really, really deep.
And the other thing that comes up, which can be a little bit surprising is that many, many people actually lack confidence in who they really are. Like they know how to be the lawyer, the accountant, the doctor, the professional, whatever it is, they know how to be [00:14:00] that. They know how to wear that mask and have that identity. But then when we start to get a little bit deeper and say, “Wait, but who are you really? What matters to you if we stripped all of this away?”
That's where the challenges happen. And now, like I often get told by majority of my clients is, “I'm not ready to show up online. I'm not ready to be on social media. I don't wanna be seen. I don't wanna show my face.” And these are people that are hard hitters in their career that, you know, speak up, that do all these things. But now when it comes to being raw and vulnerable in yourself and being seen as yourself, that's hard.
Yeah. Don't you think it's hard, generally, for people to be seen? It's like, I wanna be seen, but I kind of don't.
Oh, yeah. I mean, even for me, I make a living by, you know, if I'm not seen, I'm not going to grow my business. I'm not gonna help people. And even then I myself have those thoughts and feelings sometimes. You know, we talked about when we were offline in the beginning, a little bit about unlearning. And I think a [00:15:00] part of it is that we have learned to be so cautious about how we're perceived, right? We live in this world of living through someone else's perception of us, and if I can be accepted by others and I can portray this myself as what they are accepting of, then I'm happy.
You know what I mean? It kind of twisted and like, I heard this quote and I should really look up who said it because I quote it all the time, like, I don't know who says it. So, “I am not who I think I am. I am not who you think I am. I am what I think you think I am.” Kind of like it's boggling a little bit, but it's basically like I will live my life based on what I think you think of me. It's crazy. And so many of us do that because we want to be accepted by others. But if only we were able to open up and be who we are and allow other people to be [00:16:00] who they are, then that's true acceptance. It's really, it's really accepting yourself and being able to connect with somebody on that deeper level and to say, I see you, I am me, and I'm being transparent and I see you and your transparency, and we don't need to pretend it.
Yeah. It's a need to be accepted and liked and I think for women, especially, there's this need to adjust our behavior to be liked. Right? To where there's a joke being made and you know at work and it's not appropriate, but like you do the little like “uh-uh”, ‘cause you don't wanna say something. Right? Because I don't wanna make people more uncomfortable by saying something. It's things like that. It's how we show as.
It's interesting though, when you talk about we're so cautious of how we're perceived. And I think for everybody listening, you know exactly what Nav's talking about, right? Where before you say something, you're like, “Wait, so how will this person take this? And if I say this?” And if we're looking into, even if we're in careers where we're not totally enjoying what we're [00:17:00] doing and we wanna talk to our, like our manager or something about possibly doing something different, it's almost like, “Well, what will they think of me? What will they think of me as a lawyer? I'm a lawyer. What are they gonna think of my ideas of doing something different?”
Like a lot of lawyers do, they'll work at a firm, but then they'll end up in like personal development or they'll wanna switch it up and the fear of like, “If I say this, I'm no longer quote unquote a litigator.” And this is like this attack on your identity. I'm wondering for you, when you say like, “I had to finally let go of my identity as a lawyer,” to do what you're doing now and you're flourishing, do you remember if there was like a pivotal moment, or was that more gradual?
Oh, that's such a good question. I resonate with what you said about declaring that you're going to do something different. When I started posting online, at first, I was very careful about what I said because I needed it to be accepted in a legal community. I needed it to be accepted by my colleagues. So it's like, “Okay, sure, I can work on myself.” I can talk about bettering myself, right? But I wasn't [00:18:00] getting deep into what really mattered to me.
And I remember one time being out with a couple of colleagues for drinks once, and we were just talking about law and mostly probably about how stressed we were working, but some people were that stress is like a badge of honor. And I'm so against that. Like, oh my goodness.
Same here. Same here.
I'm so against that whole hospital and all of that. But one of these particular people and he definitely rewords it as a badge of honor. Like he would talk about how he missed his kid's birthday and cause he was working so hard. That's not good.
Yes. It's not cool.
No, it's not cool.
Like that's how life should be.
And we should not be bragging about that ‘cause that's sad. Sad for everybody. You know, nobody's winning here. And he drinks to me and he goes, “Well, we all know Nav's not gonna stay in law. Like she's not cut out for it.” And you know what? That actually bothered me. You didn't know at the time. You know, I was already exploring how to grow my business and eventually transition out. I wasn't sure what that was gonna look like or when. But yeah, like that was something [00:19:00] that bothered me because it started to make me question myself. And, you know, I went through a lot of imposter syndrome. I went through a lot of like, “Oh, this is probably all a mistake. I'm not meant to be in these places. I'm not meant to be a lawyer or working in these firms and doing all this stuff.”
And then when he called me out, that's all I could think about, was like the insecurity of me just, you know, woke up. It wasn't that I wasn't feeling empowered in that moment like, “Yeah, I'm meant to do something bigger.” I saw it as being less than and I think that that moment is when I started to dive a little bit deeper. Like why did that sting? What was going on? And that's when I realized my identity was so tied up into being a lawyer and being perceived as a lawyer. Like all of the clout that comes with like, you can walk into a room and say, “I'm a lawyer,” and people will have a certain perception of you, whether that's good or bad.
You walk into the same room and say, “I'm a coach,” and they have a perception of you, whether that's good or bad. And oftentimes [00:20:00] if they're putting you a little lower on the ranking. And I started practicing that. So when people would say, “What do you do?” It was easy for me to say “I’m a lawyer.” Or even as I was letting go of law. So this would've been like summer last year, September, I was fully in my practice. So I used to at first say, “Oh, I used to be a lawyer.” So when somebody would say, what do you do now? I'd say, “I used to be a lawyer, now I'm a coach.”
And I thought to myself, this is a part of me letting go of that identity. I was like, okay, well I'm still, obviously, I wanna be perceived as that. That's what my ego wants. That's what my identity wants because I'm not ready to own who I really am. So I stopped saying the lawyer thing altogether. If they're curious, they'll ask how, what led me here? But why do I need to go and put that out there? Because it's really saying something about my ego and my own insecurity. So I started to say “I'm a coach.” And just full stop. And allow that to happen.
In a sense, it was [00:21:00] gradual because I was reflecting on it for so long, but when I did it, I just kind of decided that this was gonna be it, and I'm just going to own it fully. And if somebody's really curious about how I came here, then I tell them my story, then I tell them my burnout, and you know, reflection of who I really am and things like that. But yeah, it was powerful the day I decided to own it. Definitely.
Yeah. Yeah, it sounds like that. You know, I always say there's an acceptance that you have to live. Like sometimes you know something inside, but you have to like do the thing to make it real, and that's when it becomes real. So when you're like, “I'm a coach, that's what I do.”
And sit in that discomfort, like sit in that releasing of the identity, sit in kind of unlearning some of the things that we've become accustomed to. I think the more we can sit in the discomfort of life and what it throws at us and what we're experiencing, the more we're actually growing as people because we're not avoiding the hard stuff. [00:22:00] You have to, you can't go around it, right? You either stop as soon as something hard happens and maybe start to retreat back. Or you decide to go right through it.
There's no other way. And I'm like, I am tired of stopping and going backwards. I'm just tired of that cycle. It's not helping me grow and I need to start going through all the things that are making me uncomfortable. And I think that's been the most liberating thing that I've done. But also it's just, it's put me on a trajectory of growth that I never have experienced in my life.
Someone like you, Nav, right? And there's so many people that we know who engage in this work and who help others engage in this work. And you see that exponential growth and it's a constant journey like we're not, we don't know everything, you know? It's a constant learning journey. What do you think is the primary reason why people don't do this work, where they're like, you know, you know, the people that are on the treadmill who are just trying [00:23:00] to, every day, they're not in survival mode, because to me, survival mode is like, you don't have the means to like do basic things. Survival mode is to me more of like our parents, right? Like I think that's a little bit different than maybe this generation, if again, that that resonates with you as the audience, but what do you think is that biggest barrier to people actually engaging in the work? Because what I hear a lot of is, “I don't have time for that. I mean, I don't even have time to process yesterday. You know, like, I don't have time to do this.” What is your take on that?
They don't do it ‘cause it's freaking hard. You know, we will make time for things that matter. If we have time to scroll on our phones, have you ever looked at the analytics of how much you actually are on your screen or looking at social media and each app? It is scary, you know? And we can all make our own excuses on why we're doing that, or we just wanna shut off our minds or whatever people will say. [00:24:00] But if we can make time, even a couple of hours a week to scroll mindlessly on social media, we can make time to work on ourselves and change our lives.
So it's not the time, it's not the energy. It's not that I can't process it, it's that it's gonna feel freaking hard and uncomfortable and it's going to suck. And I am okay, right now I can live with this level of discomfort because, you know, when you're in your comfort zone, I always say anything but comfortable because it's just kind of mad. Like you're, you're okay, right? You're not really thriving and you want more, and it's easier to look on the outside and say, make excuses or justifications for why other people have your dream life, right?
Well, this person didn't have this hardship. This person didn't experience this. This person got this handed to them. It's so easy to sit in, you know, inside of your comfort zone and look out, and make all the excuses for yourself. What's [00:25:00] hard is to say, “Wait, where am I actually lying to myself? Where am I hiding the truth? Where am I hiding myself? Like, what is actually going on?”
And I think that's the work, and people don't want to do that because it's not fun. Like, there's been times where I have felt so lost. I've literally just been like, I don't know what I'm doing. I wanna curl up in a ball, and, you know, and I do the work. And because it gets hard, there's been times where you, like I was literally on my kitchen floor bawling my eyes out because I was like, “What the heck is going on? I don't know what to do.”
And I think in a world where, especially people that have become lawyers and have done so much with their life, we are used to having the answers, and we're used to having a level of control, and knowing, and when you don't have that, it feels like crap because you feel so alone. You feel like you mess something up and you don't know how to get control back. And if we can give [00:26:00] ourselves permission to let go of control and to know that it's going to be okay, even if you don't have the next immediate answer right now, that I think is where that exponential growth happens that you just referred to. I think that's where we not only grow as human beings, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, but we also grow as individuals. We grow in our relationships. We grow in our work, right? There's so much more that we start bringing to the table and sharing with the world because we've done that work on ourselves.
Yeah. Oh no, that's really powerful. I think that sometimes people have this perception of coaches as people who have like, figured life out, and so they're your life coach because they've figured out life, and I know Nav and I mean, I can agree with you on this, like, “No, we are on our journey. We may be like some steps ahead, right? Like we've done a lot of work, we have a lot of education and training.” But when you said about bawling on the kitchen floor, I'm like, “Yep, been there too.”
And you do feel so [00:27:00] alone because when you face yourself, it can hurt because then you question a lot of things about yourself. And when you confront lies you've been telling yourself, I always say, you can't unknow what you know. Like when you confront that truth, you, and especially people that are like you are a high-achieving professional, you have to do something with knowledge. Like when you learn something, you have to apply it. Like that's it's literally in our, you know, in our bones, in our blood to do that.
And so when you get into this work, if you apply the same kind of methodology and hunger, like in be small that you do to your work, if you apply it to your own self, it feels real bad because well, it feels great eventually, but the work, when you're really deep in it, it kind of sucks. Because you're saying to yourself, “Shit, now I have to do something with this.” And now I can't stay where I am because I can't unknow what I know, and it's gonna feel really bad to continue on the way that I am when I know this is not where I need to be or what I need to [00:28:00] be doing.
Absolutely. And I say that all the time too. I think you just put it so beautifully. You can't unknow what you know. And I think that there's something so much, there's so much power behind that because I mean, what's the alternative? The alternative is knowing that I have more potential and I can have this amazing life, and actually feel whole and fulfilled and happy. But I'm going to choose just to live 50% of that and just be mediocre, and I'm going to choose to live this life instead of what I know is possible. So it's like, well, what's worse? Is it the pain of going through that hard work, or is it the pain of staying exactly where you are?
Because most people, when I ask them a question, like in one year, do you wanna wake up and have the same life? Do you wanna do this for another 365 days? Or you know, and then we all know that one year snowballs into two, into five, into 10 real quick. And is this the life that you wanna have? And most people are almost brought to tears because it's not. [00:29:00] Yeah. And I think that right there is evident that, you know, we forget that we have so much choice.
And I mean, I'm so grateful because we really are privileged to be growing up with this choice and you know, to be brought up in North America where we have so much opportunity. I don't take that for granted. I know that not everyone is this privileged but at the same time, it's that choice also comes with responsibility. Plus, why aren't we living to our highest potential? Why aren't we doing what we're capable of doing? And that's not just, you know, reaching the corner office in your career. It's also reaching those highest levels of yourself within, and we're not doing that. Why is that what we're neglecting?
And it's almost like to hide behind all of the accolades. Right? To hide behind all of the achievements. But so yeah, I think like when we work on ourselves and who we truly are and do that work and understand right, those values and our purpose and what makes us feel alive, everything [00:30:00] else tends to fall into place. It almost conspires to work out for you.
And what do you say to people who say, because I've heard this a lot too, as people are like, “Oh, purpose, I don't, that's, uh, my purpose. I don't have a purpose.” Like, what do you say to people who, when they hear that word, it's overwhelming? And they feel bad? That they feel like they don't, quote unquote, have a life purpose.
Oh my God. So I'm so glad you asked me this because this is something I kind of went back and forth with. So as you know, like now, a lot of the work I do, I'm really bold about talking about purpose, but I've shied away from that for a long time. And that's because when I would speak to lawyers and other professionals, they would tell me that they either don't resonate with the term purpose, and that's because they don't think that they have one likes purpose and it just doesn't work for them, and they don't like that.
But something within me kept saying like, no, there's something here. There's something here. I wanna talk about purpose. And really, I had to trust myself. It was again, right, the identity shift and re-trusting [00:31:00] myself. So I just went all in and I said, no, this is what I'm gonna talk about. So now the way I tend to explain it to people is that it's not that a light beamed down on you when you were born and you were like, you know, programmed with your one life purpose and your entire life is about figuring that out.
This is not a game like that. What it is is about coming to a juncture where you're looking for more purpose and meaning. It's more about deciding that I want my life to be purposeful. I want it to mean something. I want it to be important, and how am I going to bring that meaning and impact into this life? And purpose is not dictated. It's decided. And you can have a certain purpose right now, that's your North star that really lights you up. And then as you evolve and reach a new baseline in your old life, maybe your purpose will evolve with you. It's not just one thing that you are always meant to do, and if you steer away from that, you failed. That's not it at all.
We get to choose what [00:32:00] purpose means to us first of all. And we get to choose what feels purposeful and then start to move towards that. So that's usually what I tend to explain, and I think that mostly resonates. It resonates a lot more than having one life purpose.
Yeah, because it's more tangible and people can think about, “Okay, what am I doing in my life to generate that? Like what am I doing in my life and what do I have to be thinking about more of?” Yeah. No, I think that's beautiful.
To be honest, I was going to say that it's not equally important to everyone, and that's okay. It's also about me learning that not everyone's gonna want this because maybe they're not ready for it. I maybe would not have been ready for it five or 10 years ago either, because I was more like, no, I'm gonna become a lawyer. I'm gonna make money, I'm gonna do this, I'm going do that. Like my dream was the corner office. My dream was to just money and status and all of that, and I'm not ashamed to admit it because that drove me at that juncture.
So if you asked Nav 10 years ago, she would've said her purpose is totally different. And I think there is something really [00:33:00] beautiful in that evolution. And now it's more about, “Wait, what feels good to me? Do I want to be purposeful? Do I want to be of service?” And I do. Right?
And some people may not want to ‘cause they're not at that juncture yet. And that's okay too. I'm not here to force anyone to believe that this is for them. Yeah. But the people that are searching for it. The people that are feeling empty or feeling like something is missing or like, I've got all the check marks, I've done everything right, yet, something just doesn't click and doesn't feel good. Those are my people. Those are the people I wanna talk to and help and support because I know I can help them answer some of those questions that they have. You know?
Yeah. It's like they need that meaningful pursuit, right? That's the piece that may be missing.
Nav, are you ready for a rapid fire round?
Okay. Okay. Okay.
Favorite book?
The Power of Now. That's what I'm reading right now.
Can I just say a single, with that book? I had to read some pages twice and three [00:34:00] times, sometimes. It's not a book you can rush through. It's not like there's this book called, You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb. That's a book that you just keep reading ‘cause it's so compelling. And The Power of Now is compelling, but you gotta take it slow. Right?
And honestly, again, you have to be ready for it. Like this is a book I picked up years ago and I never opened it and I wasn't ready for that message. And because I've been doing so much more work on myself at present, it's speaking to me like loud speakers. So, I mean, if it's something that you've come to this juncture where you're like, I need that, then to me, it's been so powerful. Yeah. I mean, I only started reading it a couple of weeks ago. I'm almost done, and it’s blowing my mind.
Yes, yes. Power Of Now Eckhart Tolle. Yes. Yeah.
Person who inspires you the most?
The hard one. You know who actually inspires me the most, I think about every day is my grandma. She passed away in 2014, so she was just a very strong and very loving woman. Just go in [00:35:00] her feminine energy, but also had this authority to her and she's just my biggest inspiration for sure.
It's beautiful. Okay. Now, favorite mantra or saying that it could be something that helps you, helps motivate you, inspire you, get you up, get your energy up.
I think again, inspired by The Power Of Now, is that there's only ‘now’ when I get myself into thinking about the future and like stressing about something I need to do or something I did wrong in the past, it's that what's very overwhelming for me and very stressful. So now it's just like, okay, well I'm just gonna be in this moment because this is the only moment that exists and let's just make it the best that it can be.
Yes, yes.
There's only ‘now’.
There’s only ‘now’.
What does humble rising mean to you?
Oh, I like this question. I think it really is twofold. One is about yourself and having really this deeper sense of knowing and like humility to who you are. But it's also [00:36:00] about rising together. Like I see this like vision of people that are releasing those masks that I've said, right? And just becoming who they are and that transparency and seeing one another and supporting one another. I think that's what it is. Like when one person is up, we can all rise together.
Yeah. Yeah. I can see that visually. That's a nice visualization.
Okay, Nav, so how can people find you? Where can they find you? How can they work with you?
So you can find me on Instagram or LinkedIn, which is where I hang out the most. So I'm sure you'll probably link it in the show notes, my handle. And you can work with me, I've got a program called the Freedom Bridge Program, which helps bridge the gap between your unfulfilling career and your purpose-driven business and life. So if you're interested in hearing more about what that entails and how I support my clients, then just feel free to either shoot me a DM on social media or check out my [00:37:00] website and that will take you to the Freedom Bridge or send me an email, like my email as well.
Okay. Sounds great.
Nav, this was such a great conversation, such a needed conversation. I know. I know the listeners will resonate with it, so I just wanna thank you for the work that you do and all that you are. I'm so glad you're doing this. You're doing your business full-time and you're stepping into this purpose fully. Like, I'm excited for you. And anyone who gets to coach with you is so incredibly fortunate and lucky. So thank you so much for being on the podcast and sharing all your wisdom with us.
Thank you. That's so sweet. And thank you so much for having me. This conversation was just amazing. I really enjoyed it. Thanks.
Thank you so much for listening. If you are a woman lawyer or a woman working in other [00:38:00] fast-paced corporate environments, and you're looking to feel less overwhelmed and unsure and more empowered and fulfilled in your career and your personal life, join my Women Empowering Women email community by going to ariveevargas.com to sign up. Or you can click the link in the notes of this episode.
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