Doing “Me” is trickier than we think. Yes, it’s about "authentic living and self-expression", as you said. But there is so much ingrained in our psyche that makes this an every day struggle (and frankly an everyday failure). The other day I noticed I was feeling a bit down, my mind and my body hadn’t felt right for a few days. Then I realized it started when I was at a conference where everyone I met was just so accomplished, so successful, so original— it made me almost literally shrink about my own body of work and my own successes and all the unique and compelling things I had to offer. The moment I saw this pattern it helped me snap out of my funk… it reminded me of what your Ignite team has often said (I think it is enshrined in the Manifesto): we shouldn’t focus on what we don’t have, we should focus instead on what we have been given because we can only give out of what we have been given; we can’t give out of what we don’t have. Isn’t that the pinnacle of Doing”Me”, to celebrate and give out of our most authentic selves, instead of trying to be what the world tells us we should be? And by the way, the pressure to be like others (hello Instagram and FB!), to keep up we often try too hard, work too hard, try to do too many things, expect results right here, right now. Isn’t this the cause of so much stress and anxiety and priorities getting thrown out of whack. In the end, I doubt if it even results in success. You just burn out, you lose balance and perspective, you lose the authentic sense of who you are and why you’re here.

- 50 year old entrepreneur, one of our original Igniters​