Hi Reader,

Back in my WWF days, a colleague of mine was picking up award after award for her conservation work. Genuinely deserved. She was the real thing.

I remember one afternoon, she turned to me and said, "Amanda, you're going to get so many awards for your work. It's all coming."

I was in my mid-twenties. I didn't really know what she meant. I didn't know how you got the awards, or when, or what for. But I held onto those words like a small quiet promise. And for years afterward, every time an award season came and went without my name in it, some part of me registered it as a shortfall.

Which is strange, when you think about it. Because I hadn't set out to win awards. That wasn't my dream. It was hers, transposed onto me.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. The way other people dream big things for us. Sometimes it's a parent, sometimes a mentor, sometimes a colleague who believes in you a little too generously. On the surface, it feels like love. And often, it genuinely is love. But underneath, it can quietly start to shape a life you never actually chose. And every day you're not there yet, you're falling short of a standard someone else set for you.

This week's episode is about exactly that. The strange weight of being believed in. The way other people's dreams can become the yardstick we measure ourselves by. And how to come back to your own center, your own vision, and trust that what you actually want, right now, is enough.

If you've ever felt paralyzed by someone else's belief in you, or noticed yourself quietly ashamed for not becoming the person they saw you as, this one's for you.

🎧 LISTEN HERE​

Hit reply and tell me: whose dream have you been quietly carrying? I read every single reply.

With love,

Amanda