Passion Series: Leah Carey

June 5, 2013

This post is part of a weekly feature called the Passion Series…enjoy!

A lot of times we don’t do something we want to do because we feel like we can’t, or we don’t believe it’s within our power to do it. I watched a terrific talk today by Seth Godin, and I realized (for the bazillionth time), that being afraid to fail is crap. Yeah, not everyone is going to like your product, or ‘get’ the story you’re trying to tell. But we weren’t meant to please everyone. And as Seth Godin says, most of the people doing brilliant work are not popular, and there isn’t a single product out there that everyone likes.

This brings me to Leah Carey, a woman doing extraordinary work on her blog The Miracle Journal by documenting small miracles every day, and encouraging others to see the miracles in their daily lives. Throughout her interview below, she talks about how a simple 8 days of unexpected awesome in her life completely revamped the way she thought about her entire world. She went from being in debt and at a job she didn’t like, to facilitating a healthy relationship with money, and building a business coaching people to think about what’s right in their lives, versus what’s wrong. I truly admire her outlook on life, and the beauty/positivity that she is bringing to the world.

Here’s what she had to say.

Has blogging helped you in any emotional or creative way?

I’ve struggled with varying degrees of depression throughout my life. When I started The Miracle Journal blog in January 2011, it was at a moment when I was feeling really down. I was drowning in debt, had recently left an unhappy relationship but also wasn’t happy being single, and I was in a job as a website designer that I didn’t like with no opportunity for advancement.

The Miracle Journal happened very organically – I had no intention of becoming a blogger! On the first day of January, an extraordinary “coincidence” happened and I put up a message on Facebook. Then every day for 8 days, something equally extraordinary occurred and I chronicled those things for my friends on Facebook. After 8 days, I realized that something quite extraordinary was going on and I should document it more carefully. That became The Miracle Journal, and from the moment I started it, it fundamentally changed my life and how I view the world.

To be specific, I had been walking around fixated on the idea that there was something wrong with me that needed to be fixed. I was always trying to find the piece of the puzzle that I couldn’t quite see that would magically make my life okay. When these things started happening in my life that I couldn’t possibly have created or controlled if I’d tried, it was like getting hit over the head by a two-by-four. Suddenly I was going through each day wondering, “When will the next extraordinary thing happen? What will I get to write about tonight?” In simple terms, I went from always asking, “What’s wrong?” to consistently asking, “What’s right?”

It didn’t change the fact that I had things in my life that I wasn’t happy about, but it helped me to start seeing other possibilities. I wasn’t as helpless to my circumstances as I had previously thought. And seeing that opened up space for more extraordinary things to happen!

Has blogging daily/weekly helped you achieve any personal goals?

In the 2.5 years since I started The Miracle Journal, EVERYTHING has changed! I now work in a job that I LOVE as a journalist. I am challenged to grow each day, I get to do a lot of fun and interesting things and then write about them, my co-workers demonstrate their respect and appreciation for me all the time, and I get paid to be a writer!

My relationship with money has changed drastically. My whole life I had thought I was irresponsible with money, a belief that was underscored by getting into such deep debt. Opening up to the possibility that there might be another option, I reached beyond my own fear and judgment that I was a bad person for being in debt, and asked someone who was good with money to help me. We created a plan and now I have a sense of controlling my money rather than letting it control me. I have been in debt-payment mode for 18 months and I’ve paid off approximately $20,000 – I never would have thought that was possible! The very act of making the payments each month is showing me that I am much more responsible than I gave myself credit for.

I’ve fallen deeply in love and then discovered that I am capable of surviving deep heartbreak. I trust myself more because I have shown myself through this process that I am worthy of my own respect. Now people come to ME for coaching – a far cry from the girl who thought she was a total screw up and would never have anything work out for her!

Every one of those changes has happened because I started viewing the world through the prism of The Miracle Journal – what’s going right and how can I amplify it? – rather than focusing on what was wrong and feeling helpless. And it has all played out on the pages of The Miracle Journal, which has been amazing; I now have a community of people who reach out to support me in my journey and to ask for support in theirs.

Does the ritual of daily/weekly blogging give you motivation to pursue things you are passionate about?

Absolutely. For quite a while I was blogging five days a week – it was my touchstone and it helped me to maintain this new mindset. Now I blog two to three times a week because I’ve gotten so busy reaching out to share the miracles with others. But those early days proved to me that I was able to start something and maintain it. That’s something I hadn’t thought I could do. Hitting the one year mark and realizing that I was still as excited to be writing The Miracle Journal as I was the first month was a HUGE victory for me. Then I started to believe that I could take on other projects that require focus, energy, and passion – I could write a book, I could have a relationship, I could build a business as a coach. All of these things are a result of the commitment I made to myself and my blog!

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This post is part of a series on bloggers who have found direction or passion through blogging. If you would like to be featured in the Passion Series, please email me with responses to the above questions, and share your passions. Thanks!

See all Passion Series posts >>