Trust yourself and believe in your abilities. It is okay to make mistakes and that's how we learn.

You are proof that courage grows in the places where life demanded strength. Keep rising. Your resilience is building a future brighter than anything you’ve survived

Influence is not about being seen but it’s about creating pathways where others can rise. True leadership leaves doors open long after you’ve walked through them.”

One day you’ll look around and realize you built a life you don’t even like just because the misery felt familiar. And in that moment, you have to decide. Stay where it’s comfortable, or choose yourself and the life you know you’re meant for. Because bravery isn’t the absence of fear, it’s being scared and doing it anyway.

There was a moment when I realized I did not need to have everything figured out to move forward, and that moment came when I stopped trying to be the smartest person in the room. During my residency, I learned very quickly that I was never the expert in someone else's life. The patients and families I worked with knew themselves best. My role was not to arrive with all the answers, but to ask better questions, observe the systems already in motion, and learn from the people living within them. I began to see that having solutions does not always mean understanding the problem. I remember sitting with a patient who gently corrected an assumption I had made early in our conversation. That moment stayed with me because it reminded me how easy it is to confuse expertise with authority. Their lived experience held far more insight than any framework I brought into the room, and my ability to listen mattered more than my ability to respond. That realization changed how I approach growth. I stopped talking to fill space and started listening to learn. I shifted from focusing on my intentions to paying attention to impact, because when I listen only through my own intent, I miss how my words, actions, or decisions land. When I listen for impact, I am able to reflect, adjust, and grow. I no longer believe growth requires certainty. I believe it requires curiosity, humility, and collaboration. I am not an expert in any field. I am an expert in myself, and even that understanding expands when I learn from others. Inviting people to share their experiences with me has become one of the most meaningful ways I grow, both personally and within the organizations I am part of. Letting go of the need to have everything figured out eased the pressure I felt and opened the door to something better. Shared learning, collective progress, and moving forward together toward a common goal. To me, influence is not about having clarity ahead of others, but about creating spaces where listening, learning, and collaboration can take place.

Everything changed the moment I stopped waiting for certainty and chose to take one disciplined step forward at a time, using my 10 Commandments of Habit Building as my guide, because growth doesn't come from having all the answers, it comes from having the courage to begin.

The pressure to have everything mapped out before taking a step is very real, especially when you're carrying multiple roles and know the margin for error can feel smaller. A turning point for many women, particularly single mothers in leadership roles like myself, comes when reality makes it clear that "perfect clarity" is not coming! Decisions still need to be made, children still need stability, and opportunities don't wait. That's when a shift happens: from needing guarantees to trusting one's ability to adapt. When realization tends to change, you start to value momentum over perfection. Progress becomes more important than standing still waiting for that "ideal" plan. You become more comfortable with visibility and in male dominated spaces, this can create extra pressure to prove competence before speaking up or stepping forward. Letting go of total certainty allows contributions to be made earlier and often this is where influence builds. It becomes less about having a full roadmap and more about having resilience, resourcefulness, and a willingness to course correct. Shift can be powerful especially when making high level decisions everyday without perfect information. Whether financially, emotionally, or logistically, recognizing that you're already operating with uncertainty and doing it well, can translate directly into how you lead professionally. Growth doesn't come from having all the answers, it comes from building the capacity to handle what you don't yet know!

There was a moment in graduate school where I almost gave up doing counseling. Then I realized I do not have to be perfect at what I do. I just had to be present. Back in 2014, one of my practicum supervisors had said to me "Mistakes are a part of the work that we do and we learn from them". It really resonated with me that my mission is to just be there for others and evoke empathy.

Early in my career, I made the decision to transition from engineering into finance, a path that, at the time, felt uncertain and unstructured. I didn't have every step mapped out, and there were moments of doubt stepping into a field where I was still building my foundation. But I leaned into curiosity and a willingness to learn. Pursuing an MBA in Finance while navigating that shift helped me connect the dots, but more importantly, it taught me that clarity is often a result of action, not a prerequisite for it. That one decision opened doors I couldn't have predicted. From leading Corporate FP&A and driving enterprise cost efficiency to shaping strategy, advancing Finance AI initiatives, and supporting M&A analytics, each step built on the last even when the path wasn't obvious at the start. Looking back, what mattered wasn't having a perfect plan. It was being open to growth, embracing change, and trusting that each experience would add to the bigger picture.

For years, I wanted to write a book and my mom kept encouraging me to do it, but I kept waiting for the perfect content, the perfect topic, and the perfect time. My mom is not here anymore and she won't get to see or read my book when it is finished. What I realize is that the perfect time is NOW. There's only now. Not yesterday, not tomorrow. There is only now. And you won't break if it's not perfect. There is perfection in the imperfect!

Creating boundaries as a leader: Just as I've learned to stop asking for permission to lead, I've had to learn to protect time for my own growth and development. It is necessary to block dedicated time for executive coaching, peer learning, wellness care, and network activities and treat them as non-negotiable commitments to your leadership development.

The turning point came when I understood that my job wasn't to have all the answers, it was to create an environment where we could figure it out together. That's when I stopped managing outcomes and started investing in people.

As a therapist, I've seen, and lived, how waiting until everything feels certain can become its own form of safety-seeking. Some of the most meaningful growth came when I took the next wise step without knowing the full outcome, trusting that clarity would come through movement, not before it.

I spent a lot of my life believing I needed to have the entire roadmap before taking the first step. What I eventually realized is that growth often happens in the messy middle; the space where you don't have it all figured out yet, but you keep showing up, trying, learning, and moving forward anyway. Every meaningful thing I've built in my life and career started long before I felt fully ready.

I realized it was okay to move forward without having all the answers when I understood that growth often happens through action, not perfect planning. Once I stopped waiting to feel fully ready, I became more confident trusting myself, learning as I go, and allowing each step to reveal the next.

During the pandemic, I realized that waiting for perfect clarity can become a risk in itself. As I led teams through rapidly changing realities, I learned that effective leadership is built on informed action, emotional intelligence, and the humility to seek guidance from mentors while still having the courage to move forward when lives and safety depend on it.

I've learned that growth doesn't always come with clear answers. Sometimes it begins with simply taking the first step. Trusting the process instead of waiting for certainty helped me become more open, resilient, and willing to grow through experience. I also learned that clarity often comes along the journey, not before it.

The most impactful work comes from starting before you feel 'ready' and finding the beauty in the unfinished process. Realizing I didn't need a perfect plan changed my growth from a rigid checklist into a living, breathing narrative.

I have to remember that fear does not define me, my career, or my life. I can keep moving forward in spite of being afraid or uncertain, understand my part in my own success, and trust the process.

There comes a time when try as you may, you just won't have an answer. You won't have it figured out. That's where the phrase "faith it until you make it" inspires me! It all works out in the end, even when you're down to the wire. I've been there a lot this year, plenty of peaks and valleys, so I write genuinely from a humble and well-versed perspective.

Clarity often comes AFTER movement… not before it. This is something that I live by due to the fact that many people often think they have to have it all figured out and all the answers for successful people are followed by a blueprint, but in reality all you need to do is actually make the first move. That's when things will start to become clear and for me this is exactly how I operate my life so again clarity often comes after movement not before it.

I realized that growth is a lot like climbing a tree; the faster and higher you climb, the greater the risk of falling. But every fall teaches you how to hold onto a different branch and keep moving forward. You don't need a perfect map to grow; you just need the courage to reach for the next branch, even when the path ahead is unclear.

I realized I didn't need every answer or a perfectly curated next step to move forward. I just needed to believe that what was meant for me would unfold in time, and that mindset helped me build the confidence to embrace growth with more patience and intention.

I have learned that not everything has to be fully figured out before you begin. Sometimes you have to speak your goals into existence, trust the process, and grow through each step along the way.

I realized I had been hired for my leadership, not for having all the answers immediately. Trusting my gut helped me move forward while trusting my own leadership capabilities helped the team grow together in a beautiful way.

One of the biggest shifts in my growth journey came when I realized confidence is not having every answer, it's trusting yourself enough to take the next step anyway. Some of the most transformative opportunities in my life began before I felt fully "ready," and moving forward despite uncertainty taught me resilience, adaptability, and faith in my ability to grow along the way.

I used to think growth meant having a perfect plan, but I realized that most meaningful opportunities come before you feel fully ready. Once I stopped waiting for certainty and started trusting my ability to adapt, I grew both personally and professionally in ways I never could have planned for.

When we are fixed on planning and executing the entire plan, we don't leave ourselves open to the opportunities and resources that present themselves in the process.

I spent a long time thinking that purpose comes with certainty. But some of my most life defining moments comes from community engagement work in underserved spaces and policy work I have had the opportunity to engage in across countries and institutions. It starts with me simply saying yes even before I am fully ready. I have learned that growth is not always about having the full map; sometimes it is about trusting that the movement itself will take you to the right direction.