Three BIRTHDAY Lessons That Made Me Braver This Year

Nathaly Granja
May 5
3 min read

Hellloooo my beautiful honiessss,

Yesterday was my birthday.

And while I could send you a quick sale email and call it a day..

I wanted to actually share something real.

Because this past year changed me in ways I didn't even know I needed. It broke me open, cleaned me out, and stretched me into someone braver.

Here are three of the biggest lessons I'm carrying forward:

1. Ask for what you want—and then stay loyal to it.

It's your job (and no one else's) to know what you want.

To listen closely to the soft, quiet voice of your real desires.

And to notice all the ways you betray that voice without meaning to, i've seen it with my clients time and time again:

~>Maybe you're in a relationship where your partner's dreams come first.

~>Maybe you've been stuck in survival mode so long that dreaming feels dangerous.

~>Maybe you grew up in a house where wanting anything got you hurt, shamed, or laughed at.

~>Maybe your mind keeps telling you that you're "trapped" in the life you built—and that you're selfish for wanting more.

Every time I felt myself shrinking into linear logistics or compromise, I asked:

"If I could wave a magic wand...what would I really want?"

Not “what's realistic.”

Not “what's responsible.”

Nothing is as activating is hearing AND HOLDING the truth of your desires.

2. Clean up the energy leaks.

Cutting cords under the full moon is not what i mean.

(No shade. But real cleanup.. goes deeper.)

It was the year of hard conversations.

Clearer boundaries. Naming my needs out loud even when my voice shook. Not avoiding. Not energetically withdrawing.

Speaking. Choosing. Staying honest with myself.

It was uncomfortable. Sometimes deeply so.

But it built a self-respect inside of me that no projection could touch. Every time you leave an energy leak unaddressed—every time you stay in something you know is over—you're siphoning off the very life force you need to build your real dreams.

Energy management isn't about being "high vibe."

It's about being radically honest.

With yourself. With your business. With your life. Letting energy leaks happen around you IS the same thing as sabotaging yourself with low level distractions. but why are you distracting yourself?

3. Who gives a fvck. Really.

You want to change your messaging for the fourth time?

Raise your rates?

Take a sabbatical?

Close the door on something you thought would be forever?

Do it.

Life is your art project.

This year, I watched myself wrestle with the part of me that still wanted to "get it right."

The old, young perfectionist who still thought she could get in trouble for coloring outside the lines.

Instead of pushing her away, I brought her into the dance.

I held her hand like it was her first day of school and said,

"I know you've always had to be the responsible one. But It's okay to make a mess. You're safe now. You get to try things and get it wrong and still be loved."

That's the thing about building a body of work, a business, a life:

You can't get it wrong.

You can only get closer to the truth, your truth.

The common thread through it all?

Inaction—and then complaining about the lack of results—is one of the sneakiest, softest forms of self-sabotage.

It's just as paralyzing as spiritual bypassing.

But awareness changes everything.

You always, always have the power to make a new choice.