I was born with a broken heart. No, literally. I was brought into this world having a heart defect with a less than optimistic survival rate… the idea of thriving simply wasn’t a part of the picture.

But, being a Bostonian born to highly optimistic parents, I had a drive to live. Through a sequence of miraculous events, my broken heart was mended and I lived.

By the age of 7, I was told something I would never forget: “you were saved for a reason.”

That was a heavy thing to be told so early on in life by a bunch of nuns, but it stuck with me. So much so that it saved me 40 years later.

Life became a sense of duty, and filling the role that was required of me became my number one focus. Join the Navy, get married, have a traditional career, start a family. And suddenly that passion and drive I had for life slowly shifted into the routine which nearly killed me (again, quite literally).

I got stuck in the doing (and overdoing) inside of a dream I thought was my ultimate, and best life. But, I could sense there was something more… and that scared the living hell out of me.

It was incredibly difficult to see any other possibility because I only knew what I knew. I knew how to be a mom. I knew nursing. I knew how to support others.

What I didn’t know (which I later mastered) was how to take care of ME. And I knew that if I wanted the next chapter of my life to be fulfilling, energizing, and inspiring I had to give myself permission to learn how.

And so, I hired a coach who introduced me to the idea of possibility. And I started to remember who I had been before I forgot.

Those words from my 7 year old self started to ring in my ears. “You were saved for a reason.” Only this time, I didn’t feel it as a burden or an excuse to sacrifice my own needs and desires.

I realized that if I really wanted to support the people around me, I got to fill my own cup and live the life I was born to live. To remember that I was born with an unstoppable heart!

Shaking in my boots, I started to take some risks and recall old dreams that fell to the wayside. And boy, did I source some opportunities that made me truly create the possible out of the impossible. But this time, I was ready.

I quit the job that was no longer serving me, not knowing what I would do next.

I was diagnosed with Cancer and made it my non-negotiable reason to change my life.

I put my house on the market, and decided to move across the country to sunny San Diego ( a dream I had when enlisting into the Navy).

I took back my maiden name, and reinvented what it meant to be me.

This was just the beginning.

Since my cross-country move, I’ve created miracles where I could have easily remained the victim. And it didn’t stop with me.

I have since supported hundreds of people in connecting with their dreams to rediscover their own confidence and power so they can live with an unstoppable heart, too.