When Bold Decisions Change Everything
Getting a job at Martha Stewart Living was my first impossible possibility.
I was 26, working as a marketing manager at Time Inc., exhausted, frustrated with my boss, and hustling.
The first issue of Martha Stewart Living landed in my office mailbox — back when we still had those. I read it cover to cover. Martha’s Editor’s Letter felt like she was speaking to the version of me I didn’t yet know how to become.
The magazine took off.
With every issue, something inside me awakened.
I got the gumption to write a handwritten letter to the magazine’s publisher asking to be considered for any marketing role — mailed with a $.29 stamp.
A few weeks later, a handwritten note on his personal stationery arrived:
“Thank you for your inquiry, but we have no positions available.”
A polite definitive no. Not 'we'll keep you name on file or check back in six months.'
I know now that something inside me shifted.
Possibility expands the moment you do.
Less than a year later, I was working on a $100M Time Inc. advertising and sponsorship program called The Mazda Meaning of Life. The woman leading the project announced she was leaving to become the Advertising Director at Martha Stewart Living.
Two months later, she called me: “Would you consider coming to work for me?”
Dream. Come. True.
I visited the offices. She had me at “hello.”
Then came the catch.
The budget was tight. I’d need to take a 20% pay cut.
I was 26, living in a one-bedroom with two roommates, squeezing a bed into what was supposed to be the dining room. Penny pinching on every purchase.
How could I possibly afford to live on less? I had worked too hard to get to that salary.
It felt impossible.
But the idea of saying no felt even more impossible.
Something I still can’t entirely explain pulled me forward.
My desire for a bigger future outweighed my fear of my current reality.
I said yes.
I took the job.
I took the bet on myself and my future.
That “impossible possibility” became the foundation for a nearly 20-year career far beyond anything I could have imagined at 26.
Where's Waldo? [Can you find me? Dark hair and bad haircut]
I had no idea what I was actually doing. Not consciously.
I wasn’t reading neuroscience. I wasn’t studying manifestation.
I didn’t know anything about identity change or visualization.
I didn’t yet have my Human A-I™ (Awareness + Imagination) methodology.
But looking back — through the research, the science, the storytelling, the work I’ve built my career on — it was clear what was happening:
I was rehearsing my future in my present mind.
I imagined myself there:
walking into the office
working on events
selling ads and partnerships
launching new brands
being part of something beautiful
Before I ever got the job, I had lived the experience — vividly — inside my imagination.
At 26, I didn’t know that the brain cannot distinguish between something vividly imagined and something lived.
I didn’t know Michael Phelps used visualization to become a world-record Olympic champion at 17.
I didn’t know how identity precedes action,
and action precedes possibility,
and possibility precedes who you become.
Now I do.
Looking back, I realize: I was becoming the woman I am today.
I've used visualization and future-casting throughout my life…
Getting through AML Leukemia treatment
Launching my coaching business
Becoming a published author
You can’t become something you can’t see.
Visioning is the pathway to your becoming.
Your impossible possibility begins in your mind — long before it shows up in your life.
Why not tip the scales in favor of your future through visualization?
I invite you to commit to an impossible possibility.
The one that scares you because it’s true.
The one that excites you because it’s yours.
The one that feels out of reach because it’s calling you forward.
Visualize it.
Rehearse it in your mind.
See it so clearly that your brain begins preparing your identity to match it.
This isn't magic; it is backed by science.
Achievement doesn’t come from wishing. You must take action everyday. Making decisions today in pursuit. Visualize and then write your To My Future List and commit to completing it.
Take action also by sharing your impossible possibility with someone. Research supports that you are 40+% more likely to achieve a shared goal.
Share it with me and I’ll support you along the way.
Stay tuned! I’m working on my next impossible possibility.
P.S. If you’re ready to collapse the timeline between where you are today and the impossible possibility you keep imagining, let’s talk.
Whether it’s you, your team, or your entire organization, this is the work I do: helping ambitious leaders accelerate their becoming. Let's make 2026 the year you take the leap.
I’d be honored to guide you there.
📓 Journal Prompts for the Week Ahead
When in my life have I done something I originally thought was impossible? What strengths, instincts, or inner wisdom did I access then — and how can I apply them now?
If I were already living the life I secretly want — the one I rarely say out loud — what would my days look and feel like?
What do I deeply want that I’ve dismissed as unrealistic, too big, or “not for someone like me”? Why does that matter?
If I were to shorten the distance between today and my impossible goal, what is one bold move I could make in the next 7 days that Future Me would thank me for?
