Latest / Natty Unfiltered / 2026 Is The Year I Stopped Playing Small

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2026 Is The Year I Stopped Playing Small · Natty Unfiltered

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Welcome back to Nadian Filtered podcast. I'm so excited
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about doing this episode. Something changed
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in me towards the end of 2025.
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2025 was very,
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a very tough year for me with a lot of lows
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then highs. It really helped me to
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keep myself staying positive. It really helped
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me to have few people in my life that encouraged
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me who uplifted me and just
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reminded me of, not of, but remind
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me to keep on going, to keep my head above
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the water. Reminded me that
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I'm awesome and that there are
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better times ahead. There have been times
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where really it was kind of
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hard to even be around people and
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keep that smile on my face. I didn't
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want it to show the hurt that I was feeling
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inside. You know when you have, you feel like you have that black
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line where things are just not working, things are
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just not lining up and you're thinking,
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okay, when is this going to be over? When am I going to see the
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light up there in the tunnel? When am I going to see the
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happiness, the success that I've been craving
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and why is taking
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what it's taking so long? I also had to remind myself
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that everything in life happens for a reason.
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Bad experiences, good experiences,
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different issues that we're dealing in life,
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they all teach us something, they all move us
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towards this, they all move us towards this kind
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of next part in our, this next chapter
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in our life. It's very hard to recognize
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of why things happen the way they are until much
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later. And then you're like, oh yeah, that's why it
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happened because it taught me X, Y and Z. But in the moment,
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it's very tough. And when you have so many lows, more lows
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than highs, then you kind of like start second guessing everything
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in your life. You start second guessing of why you're doing certain things and,
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and why you kind of kind of hitting the ground
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and you just not
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seeing the results that you want. You feel like sometimes,
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okay, my success, it's so close. Like I feel like
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I am standing at the door, but the door,
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I'm trying to open it, but it just would not open.
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There's a reason for it, but it's kind of hard to come
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to terms, to realize that maybe you just not ready
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for it. You need to work a little bit more harder to
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walk through that door and to experience all the joy,
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all the success that you've been working towards.
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And I know that nowadays with a lot of us wanting
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that instant gratification, like when we're on social media
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or well, you know, like a lot of times in the Internet, when you
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get on the Internet, you're searching for something, you want that page
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to pop up right away. And if it's taking few seconds for
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the page to load, we get anxious. I know I do.
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Especially when you want something that you're looking for something really fast
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and the Internet is not working fast
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enough. You're like, okay, come on, when are you going to load? So same
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thing I think in life when you want something bad enough,
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you want it to happen now, you want it
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to happen like in the week and or two, you don't want to be waiting
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for six months, a year, two years. And sometimes when you
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see other people succeeding, you think, oh my God, there's they, they have
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the success. But you, in reality, you don't know how long they've
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been working towards success. Maybe they been working for this success in
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2020 for, you know, two years, a year,
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five years. Maybe they change, they needed to change gears and
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they finally reached their final destination.
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And you think like, oh, I'm sitting here and nothing is happening.
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I'm not growing fast enough. I'm not seeing results fast enough.
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When we, when you decide to get healthier or
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you want to lose weight, it's the pounds are not just going to shed overnight.
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And sometimes, yes, the first couple of pounds they drop,
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but then it's much harder to drop the pounds.
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But if you want to get to your ideal weight,
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you going to continue with working out,
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eating right, living the healthier life and then when
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you reach that weight now I think sometimes
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comes even harder part to stay at that weight.
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So in I decided that in 2026
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is the year that I stopped playing small and I'm
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going to go all in with achieving
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my goals and my dreams.
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And this is, this is the year. This year isn't
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about becoming someone new. It's about finally allowing
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myself to be who I am, already am
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without apologizing, shrinking myself or
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waiting for permission or too much worrying about
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what other people are going to think. Of course that's still in back of my
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mind of other people's opinion,
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but not as much as it was years ago or even
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last year. Because it's my life.
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I want to build my life. And if somebody is not okay
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with it, then it's their problem, right? I think
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sometimes that motherhood, it's quietly
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trains women to deprioritize themselves.
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Like motherhood doesn't arrive with the rule book, but somehow the
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rules show up anyways of how we should Be what kind of mothers
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we should be, how we should be raising our kids, how we should be as
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a mother, what is okay, what is not okay. And you
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learn very quickly that everyone else's
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needs come first. Like your kids, your partner, your household,
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your job. And then slowly, without realizing it,
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your dreams get pulled, placed on the shelf labeled later.
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So everything is later. I can't start my side
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hustle because of X, Y and Z, because I
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need to take care of everybody in the household. I can't do this
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now. I don't have the time now. And then you stop asking
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yourself what you want, and then you
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start asking what everyone else needs. And over time,
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that becomes normal. Like wanting more begins to feel selfish,
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even though it's actually human. And many
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moms don't lose ambition. They silence it, you know, to survive
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it. This is where playing small begins. I know
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that. I mean for years I've done
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that. I'm always, of course I put my
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family first. And I think that also like the fear of
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failure was playing a big role. And for me to going
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really after my dreams and second guessing
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myself and worrying about what other people are going to think and their judgment.
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And then years later, I sit around and I think myself,
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oh my God, like why was I worrying about other
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people's opinions? They don't matter. They gonna talk shit
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doesn't matter what. And yes, I mean,
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we all judge other people to some
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extent. There's some people who are a little bit more,
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you know, evil. Yes, you can go say like, oh,
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maybe you might not like somebody, the decision that
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they made or why they did something,
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but to, I think sometimes
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to sit around and just be consumed and stop yourself
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from moving forward and really doing what you want to
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do because you afraid of what other people
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going to think is really not the way to go about.
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And also I learned that, you know, as being a
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mom and the kids, when they get older, they look at you,
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they look at you every step, everything that you do. Like if you have
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little girls, they look at you and how you take care of yourself,
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how you take care of the household, how are you with your partner, how are
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you with others, how are you in the household?
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And they start mimicking that.
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And you know, the boys, they also look up to their
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dads and how they are at home,
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how are they treating their significant other.
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And that's kind of how they're gonna build themselves
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as they get older. Of course, as we
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as parents, as a mom, you know, you're trying to do your best
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in raising good kids. And also the
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kids that are helpful, that are kind,
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that they're considerate of others, but also know
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that they're capable of anything, they can accomplish anything and everything.
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And try not to take no for an answer.
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And don't minimize yourself because
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somebody said that you can't do something.
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Moms are experts at turning fear into logic. We say
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things like now isn't the right time or I'll focus
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on myself once things come down. And I'm
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sure you know what, what I'm talking about. But here's the truth. Life doesn't
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come down. Life gets hectic,
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it gets busier. And as soon
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as you think that, oh, my life is calm,
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I can finally focus on what I wanted to focus on for
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some time. And boom, something comes up and you start
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being busy again. Like I always say, like small kids,
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small problems, big kids, big problems. Same thing.
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In life, there's always going to be something. When we're busy
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with our, the small kids, we don't have
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the time because maybe we have a tough infant
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or tough, you know, toddler. And then when
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they get older they have, you know, you might
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need different, different issues or they have a lot of play dates where
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they want you to be taking them different places. So besides their school
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and activities, then it becomes,
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you become this extra like you become that uber mom or
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uber parent where you always on the go and
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you have very little time to yourself. So there's always
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another season, another obligation, another reason
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to wait. These excuses aren't flaws,
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they're protection mechanism. So your nervous system is
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trying to keep you safe, not successful. But safety and fulfillment
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aren't the same thing. And so staying comfortable too long
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becomes its own kind of a risk by
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if you really want, really want something, you are going
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to allocate the time to start working towards something.
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It doesn't take, it doesn't mean that you have to take big steps.
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But if you put a plan in place and start taking small steps,
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then eventually you will get to your final destination.
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So when I wanted to get back to real estate, I started
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little by little. You know, I took the course online and you know when you
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take the course online and you go at your own pace pace, it's obviously
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going to take longer. When you go in the class,
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you have to go to class, there are certain time you have to be there,
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you have to be there for certain amount days and then you're done with.
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And then you're responsible to go to desk
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classes or when you are doing Online and you're going to own pace.
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We all know that it's going to take much longer time and
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it took me a longer time. But you know what it the evenings when
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the family was fed, the kitchen was clean, I would sit down and I
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start doing, you know, learning real estate or
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relearning because I used to be in it before and when
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I would in the office when there was a downtime, I studied
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as well. I and then when I finally I'm like,
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okay, I did the course, I did the
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self test, now I need to
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register to take the test.
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And once I registered, I knew that I only had a certain amount
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of time to really prep for this test. And there were three tries
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and I wanted to make sure that I certainly wanted
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to pass it from first try. And I studied my botoff.
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I started at work, I started at home, I wanted to
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be ready. And then when the time came, I went, I took the test,
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I passed it. From first time I was super excited. I couldn't believe
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it. And that's it, it was done and over with. And same thing when,
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when creating content like on Instagram
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and TikTok, when times were not so good,
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it was very hard to be creating content.
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But then towards the end of 2025, I just decided, you know what,
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I just need to, when I have good days, I need to
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record content, batch it, I need to
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edit the videos, do the captions, do the description and
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just have it ready for daily
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posts so that when I have not such good days,
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I can, I have something to post and to be consistent with it and
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then hold myself accountable. So no more excuses
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and putting things off. Because putting things off, that means putting my
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dreams and my goals on hold or putting them even further
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out. And I didn't want to do that anymore.
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So why 2026 is about going big without a deadline.
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You know, like pressure kills momentum.
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Especially, you know, for us moms when we attach
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rigid timelines to our dreams, we turn
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growth into stress. And so instead of asking, how fast
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can I get there? You want to ask yourself, who do I
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need to become to sustain this? So if you
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have goals, don't put the end date.
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Have the goals with no end date. Create space. Create space
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for learning and for pivoting and for involving.
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So this year isn't about overnight success. It's about
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refusing to quit on yourself just because progress doesn't
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move in a straight line. Have the vision
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board that you can see it on
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a daily basis. Have your goals,
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start working towards them. Take Small steps don't
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put pressure on yourself when you relax. That's when
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I learned that things start to happen step, one step
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at a time. But when there's like such pressure of I
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need to succeed, I need to be making this amount of money,
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then things are just not moving as,
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as quickly as we want or they're not even moving at all.
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So once you start taking that pressure off yourself
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than and just doing it because you have
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the goal. Listen, this is what I want to do. Either would be I
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want to be a stay at home mom. I wanted to not to have the
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9 to 5 job. I want to do a different kind of a business.
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I want to open up. I have a business, but I want to take a
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business online or I want to just to create a bit like online
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business. Whatever it is, just have that
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goal and, and something to, to work towards and
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staying stay on it consistently. Don't without
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having the end date. So stepping into the
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new you without burning everything down is
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also another thing for 2026. Growth doesn't require
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destruction. You don't need to abandon your family, your responsibilities
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or your values to want more.
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You're allowed to expand and still be present.
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Mom. The new you isn't louder
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or flashier. It's more honest. You're more honest
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with yourself. It's the version of you that stops,
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you know, negotiating with fear and you start honoring
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what keeps coming back into your heart. The biggest
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thing I think and so helpful when your family, your kids
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are being supportive of where you want it
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to be, where you want it to go. It's much harder when you don't
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have that support, but doesn't mean that you shouldn't start
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or you shouldn't keep on going. And your kids,
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of course they're going to see you, they're going to see, oh, mom is busy,
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but she's still working towards the goal or her
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dream or her dream job or her financial independence.
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And they're gonna root for you. And especially when things
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are not turning out the way you want it or fast enough or
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you're not seeing the results that you want and you're not quitting,
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that's huge. And that also teaches your kids that
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doesn't matter how tough things will get with
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what you want to accomplish, how things gonna get, how things get tough in your
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life is that you still pushing through it, you still evolving
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and you not, and you still not giving up on
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yourself, on your goals, on your dreams.
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So I just want to say that your dreams are, they're not random,
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they're reminders. And you don't need a permission, the perfect timing
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or approval to go after them. You just need to stop pretending
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this version of you is optional. So thank you.
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Tuning into another Natty Unfiltered episode.
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I hope you found this helpful as always.
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Please follow, subscribe and share this
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episode with another mama that might find it helpful
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and I will see you at the next episode.