Jason Tharp is an amazing author and illustrator of children’s books including It’s Okay to Be a Unicorn! Tired of the corporate grind as a graphic designer, he made the decision to quit his job and follow his creative passion for writing. In this episode, he talks about some beautiful insights and life lessons from his book and how you can apply it in your life to pave your way towards a life of happiness and success.

Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:

Episode Highlights:

Setting Intentions to Create a Clear Path to Success

It's difficult when you realize you're not the best employee, and what it can do to you over time, and when you're beaten down and your ideas are beaten down. You just start to bend over and you don't care anymore and you go down into depression. But if you put the intention of what you want to do, and you work really hard towards it, sometimes the stars align, and people fall in, and you have to trust sometimes that those people are the right reasons. And even when you don’t know what to do, you just have to take a chance on it and face your fears.

Embracing Your Unicorniness

If only adults would learn from kids the bravery of stepping into something. It doesn't mean you have to go to the extreme like Jason did, where he quit his job making good money to make zero on a whim. But he took the chance bit by bit.

If you want to do something, just be brave enough to try it, no matter how weird it is. If the internet has taught us anything, whatever you're trying to do exists out there. There's somebody else out there that wants to be or do those things. And that’s something you have to embrace.

Everybody else thinks there's wrong with you because they haven't taken the time to get to know you. But most of the time, you'll find that there are a couple of people that will always have your back through everything. And those are the ones that really matter. And as you get older, the more you're true to who you are, you will find that more people are just like you. Then you'll find your tribe. It doesn't have to be thousands of people. Two people or even one person can make you feel normal.

The Importance of Self-Kindness

Jason’s goal is to help people understand how important it is just to like yourself. If you can learn how to just catch yourself when those things start to bubble up, and you ask the right questions, and you have this awareness, then you take an action to change it or you take note of it. Do whatever you need to do to learn how to be cool with yourself. A kid only knows right now. So you have to help kids learn how to empathize with themselves. Don't teach kids how their life is going to be perfect, but teach them how to help manage their emotions through self-kindness.

How to Help Kids Who Feel Unseen

85% of children, especially when they get fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth-grade middle school – they feel invisible. Make kids understand that they're going to feel weird from time to time. There's nothing wrong with them. There are going to be times they're going to have super dark thoughts. There's nothing wrong with that either. But if it sticks around, that's when you need to talk things through. Encourage them to reach out for help and find people.