Book of the Month

"Each month, we recommend a book written for women by women"

JANUARY 2023:

  • Speak: Find Your Voice, Trust Your Gut, and Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be

    by Tunde Oyeneyin

Surrender. Power. Empathy. Authenticity. Knowledge.

Tunde Oyeneyin, the acclaimed Peloton instructor, Nike athlete, and fitness star, teaches us how to “live a life of purpose, on purpose” using SPEAK, a memoir-manifesto-guide titled after an acronym for five big ideas that have shown up in her life.

Surrender.

 When you look at your life and the moments when you fully surrendered, you see that those moments led to change that led to growth. Knowing what you know keeps you knowing only what you know. Doubt doesn’t feel good, but it isn’t necessarily a bad thing. When doubt enters, it’s a course correction trying to make way. Rather than pushing away the doubt and causing internal friction or fire, lean into the voice to tap into the message that’s to be learned. Trusting your gut is choosing to lean toward the voice that propels you forward.

Power.

Not power as it relates to a desire to lead, but rather the drum beat that you follow. She connect power to purpose. A life well lived is a life led in service. When you live in purpose, on purpose, and of purpose, those are the moments when you’re most connected to your power.

Empathy.

Empathy is rooted in love—not just love for others, but love for self. Tunde thought she hated herself for the first 20 years of her life. Not all day, every day, but many days, and for many hours within each day. Learning to love herself brought her into a deeper connection with those around her. Having empathy with yourself, learning to love yourself, brings you into deeper connections with those around you. You cannot love fully until you know how to love yourself.

Authenticity.

Authenticity is the intersection of truth and trust. Trust yourself to show up as you are, knowing that you are enough and worthy. Often, we are told we’re too loud, too opinionated, too short, too big. Don’t shrink yourself to fit into small spaces. If the space doesn’t fit, find a new one.

Knowledge.

Every missed step or opportunity, everything that’s ever gone in your favor or not, has led to this moment. What if nothing is happeningtoyou and everything is happeningforyou? When things don’t go your way, ultimately they actually are. When things don’t go according to plan, we turn around years later and can connect the dots, saying to ourselves, “Things had to go that way so that I’d end up in this moment. If that’s true, when things aren’t going my way, they actually are because everything is always going my way.”