Welcome to Love Notes from Rhonda.

And today I want to talk about the word personal.

What does it mean to be personal, personable, personal?

And when people get too personal, how do you feel?

So, in our lives, if we want to have people care for us, love us, support us, and we want to do the same for them, we actually must get personal.

We can't stay at the surface of our lives just talking about what we ate today or what we wear or the car we drive or what we did at work.

Those are all valuable and important conversations for acquaintances and for friends.

Yet if you want to have a deeper friendship, you want to feel seen by somebody, you must get personal.

So what does it mean to get personal?

It means sharing more of who you are, being more transparent, sharing maybe feelings rather than just thoughts, maybe sharing things that matter to you, or maybe things that don't matter to you.

You say don't matter to me.

Most people want to be seen in this world, but we're not willing to do what's necessary to be seen.

We want it to be magic, right?

We want people just to see us.

And there are those moments in our lives where we will be seen for nothing we do or nothing we say or how we show up in the world.

And that's awesome and wonderful.

I love it when I'm seen for just showing up and sitting in a room or standing in a room and not saying a word.

That's awesome.

But for most of us, we don't have that experience enough.

And we definitely don't have that experience on a daily basis yet.

We want to shine, we want to be seen, we want to matter.

We want to make an impact.

And if you want to do all those things, being intellectual, talking from your head, saying what you know, sharing information is not going to move or inspire people.

It is not going to connect you at the heart level with people.

The only way to do that is to become transparent, which means becoming vulnerable, which means getting personal.

Does it mean you have to share every secret with everybody?

No.

Does it mean that you have to share your secrets with somebody, spread it around?

Yes.

And what I want you to hear is that if you want more meaningful relationships, if you want to leave loneliness behind, if you want to feel supported, that the world has open arms and it's got your back, that is, for the most part, up to you for your willingness to share you, to share you.

So I invite you to think about today.

Who have you shared yourself with?

Who have you shared a story with?

Not just from a shallow place of, oh, the weather was this, and I ate that.

And this is what I did at work today.

And this is what I wore.

And this is what I was thinking, right?

No.

What does it have to do with your values?

What does it have to do with what you care about?

What does that have to do with the meaning you want to give your life?

What does it have to do with what matters to you?

That's what it means to get personal.

So, my friend, are you willing to truly be seen to show up and shine your light, to be known, to be truly known by another?

Then I invite you to take on the word personal today.

Sharing more of what you care about, your being, your person.

Share it.

Until next time, be fearless.

I love you.