How Not To Give Up with Kathy Tulley

What if not knowing where you're going doesn't always mean you're lost?

Years ago, I had one of the best art days of my life… in a SCIENCE museum!

Between Leonardo da Vinci's interactive inventions and an imaginative film about Vincent van Gogh, I stumbled onto a question that sparked something new: What if art and science have more in common than we think?

That experience got me wondering about curiosity, creativity, and the discoveries we make when we give ourselves permission to explore.

In this episode of How Not To Give Up, we're talking about:

• Why not having all the answers doesn't mean you've failed.
• How curiosity can help us notice possibilities we might otherwise miss.
• What artists, scientists, and curious kids can teach us about exploring.
• Becoming a Hope Detective and looking for clues.
• A simple five-minute experiment to try this week.

And there's a special little guest appearance from Baisie, a first grader who loves science and has a wonderfully simple approach to the unknown:

“LET'S FIND OUT!”

You don't need a perfect plan. You don't have to know where every idea will lead. And not every experiment has to become a success story to be worthwhile.

Sometimes, the next discovery begins with one little question.

What might you discover if you looked somewhere you wouldn't ordinarily think to look?

💜 Remember: The story isn't finished. Neither are you.

🦋 How Not To Give Up — Creating places where people can remember who they are, reconnect with hope, and find their next small step.

💜 The story isn't finished. Neither are you.

💌 Send Kathy a note

✨ How Not To Give Up with Kathy Tulley

A place to remember who you are, reconnect with hope, and find your next small step.

Have you ever felt like a part of you had gone missing?

That curious, creative, hopeful part of you that gets excited about life?

In this episode of How Not To Give Up, I share a personal story from my time in the hospital, when healing was happening—but much more slowly than I wanted.

I was doing everything I could to get stronger, but I couldn't control how quickly my body healed. My days were full of waiting, routines, and depending on other people.

Then something unexpected happened.

I started experimenting with art. First chalk pastels, then oil pastels. And somewhere in all those beautiful colors, blending, and creative discoveries, something shifted.

I had my spark back. I felt like ME again!

My circumstances hadn't magically changed. But my experience of them had.

This episode is about rediscovering joy, reconnecting with yourself, and remembering that even when life limits your choices, there may still be something that's yours to choose.

A question to take with you:

What is one small thing that makes you feel a little more like YOU?

You don't have to fix everything today. Maybe you can simply look for one little doorway back to yourself.

Because your hopeful spark might be tired.

But that doesn't mean it's gone. 💜🦋✨

Thank you for being here.

— Kathy
How Not To Give Up

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2655097

💌 Send Kathy a note

✨ How Not To Give Up with Kathy Tulley

A place to remember who you are, reconnect with hope, and find your next small step.

You're Not Meant to Do This Alone

Can I ask you a question?

When was the last time someone offered to help, and you automatically said, “No thanks, I've got it!”?

Even when you really could have used a hand?

Sometimes we become so accustomed to being the capable one that we stop noticing how much we're carrying.

And somewhere along the way:

“I CAN do this myself” becomes “I SHOULD do this myself”… and eventually, “I HAVE to do this myself.”

But those are three very different things.

In this episode, we're getting curious about:

• Why accepting help can sometimes feel so complicated.
• The difference between independence and isolation.
• How support can look different from what we expect.
• Why we recognize dignity in other people's needs but sometimes struggle to recognize it in our own.
• What changes when someone helps us carry just one corner.

A little experiment for this week

Notice one thing you've been carrying that feels heavier than it needs to.

And ask yourself:

“Would it help if someone took one corner?”

Maybe that means asking someone to listen, sharing a task, requesting information, or simply allowing someone to keep you company.

And if reaching out isn't possible right now, you can begin by noticing when you tell yourself, “I have to do this alone.”

Then ask: “Do I?”

No grades. No pressure. Just curiosity.

I'd love to hear from you!

Has someone ever helped you carry one corner of something difficult?

Maybe they didn't solve the problem. Maybe they simply listened, showed up, or helped you see something differently.

I'd love to hear your story. Use the Fan Mail link in your podcast player to share it.

And remember:

The spark is still there.

The story isn't finished.

There's a seat for you here. ❤️🦋

💌 Send Kathy a note

✨ How Not To Give Up with Kathy Tulley

A place to remember who you are, reconnect with hope, and find your next small step.

Ever looked at something that should take five minutes and wondered why it feels SO hard?

Sometimes even the smallest tasks feel like pushing a refrigerator uphill. In flip-flops. 😜

And when things feel harder than they should, it's easy to start wondering what's wrong with us.

But what if we're not seeing the whole picture?

In Episode 1 of How Not To Give Up with Kathy Tulley, we're exploring the invisible things we carry, why trying harder isn't always the answer, and how a little curiosity can help us see what's actually happening.

We're even opening a detective case:

🔎 The Case of the Mysteriously Impossible Five-Minute Task!

We'll look for clues, notice patterns, and explore one small question that might change how we approach the hard stuff:

What might make this a little easier?

No pretending everything is okay. No lectures about trying harder. Just curiosity, a little laughter, and another way to look at what's possible.

You are not the suspect. You're the detective! 🔎❤️

I'm really glad you're here.

There's a seat for you here.

💌 Send Kathy a note

✨ How Not To Give Up with Kathy Tulley

A place to remember who you are, reconnect with hope, and find your next small step.

What if there’s more of you still here than you realize?

In this first episode of How Not To Give Up with Kathy Tulley, we’re starting with a simple idea: the hardest thing happening in your life can be true without being the only true thing about your life.

We’ll talk about the parts of ourselves that can get buried under survival, change, exhaustion, and ordinary life—and what can happen when we start noticing what’s still alive.

No “just think positive.” No pretending the hard stuff doesn’t suck. 😜 Just curiosity, stories, hope, a few rabbit holes, and one question we’ll come back to again and again:

Given today’s reality… what’s still possible?

Welcome. There’s a seat for you here. ❤️

💌 Send Kathy a note

✨ How Not To Give Up with Kathy Tulley

A place to remember who you are, reconnect with hope, and find your next small step.