Episode 5: Courage, Clear Boundaries, and Love for Yourself Daily with Germaine Jeanty

I want to start out by saying that I love all of my varied, far ranging conversations that I get to have with amazing people around our talking points.  I always come out of an episode feeling like one of the luckiest people in the world that I get to have these conversations and share them with the world.  This conversation was no exception. She is wise behind her twenty something years, and shares authentically about her lived experiences.  Get your pen and paper out when you get ready to listen to this conversation, because you are going to get to learn from our new Assistant Podcast Editor (and so much more), Germaine Jeanty.

We talk about the courage it took to move halfway across the country, and how once you’re out of college, you’re expected to all of a sudden make adult decisions about your life when there’s no formal training prior to that;  to differentiate between what you want to do, or if you’re just doing what others expect or want you to do. We talk about how making those decisions teaches you how to trust yourself, and that you can’t start trusting yourself until you do in fact start making those decisions.

We talk about the importance of never betraying yourself and your own boundaries, and how you have to first honor your own boundaries that you’ve set, before you can expect others to.  We talk about being the youngest of 5 daughters, and what it’s been like becoming an adult when her older sisters still want to see her as the youngest baby girl in the family; the importance of her being clear about her boundaries and expectations around that as she has moved into adulthood. We talk about what “clear and direct but kind” looks like and how she will bounce that off trusted friends when she’s looking for feedback.

We talk about the impact her Mom’s trust of her regarding decision making growing up, and how that gave her that taste of freedom and respect she needed to be able to step into the shoes as an adult, being confident in her ability to make good choices and decisions for herself.

We discuss that just because you sometimes need to apologize for how you delivered a message, it does not mean that the message was wrong, and being clear about that as well.

We talk about not invalidating people’s feelings in your relationships, and how to model that yourself so that others around you feel empowered to do the same.  Just because you are fortunate to have a good job, does not mean that you dismiss the things about it that need to improve or be better.  Just because your parents provide a physically safe home with food on the table, does not mean you have to just accept and be ok with them screaming at you.  We can feel multiple emotions in any situation, and none of those should be minimized.

She shares that it’s ok to not always have a “life purpose” all the time, and it is good to enjoy life, have fun, and embrace the journey while you are figuring out what that purpose is. It needs to be fluid, as it will change as you move through different seasons of your life.  “You don’t have to work miserably now to have fun later” is one of many wise tidbits Germaine shares in this episode.

Germaine talks about how she learned at an early age to talk herself through scenarios that she might be fearful and sad about, and how she would unpack it to figure out why she felt that way.  We talk about what a gift it was to have the wisdom and ability of self reflection and analysis of her circumstances, and how that has served her so well in accepting all the layered aspects of herself, and in turn others. 

Germaine carries herself with grace, wisdom, authenticity, confidence, and generosity.  I have only known her for a short time, but can tell you I learn and appreciate something new about her every time we have an interaction.  I can’t wait for you to listen to this episode as you get to meet Germaine.  You will learn and be thankful that you did.