written by Nada Jones

Have you ever felt you were putting a dream on hold? Maybe a full-time job or an all-consuming role as a parent has gotten in the way of following an itch deep inside you. If you've experienced this, like many of us, then take a minute to learn from Ai Kubo. 

Ai is a certified health coach who works with "busy humans" struggling with fatigue, stress, and sleep to help them find balance and peace. Her passion is helping people unlock their ability to feel good through food and lifestyle shifts—and she does so via her successful coaching practice. But here's the key: Ai is also a full-time research scientist and epidemiologist focusing on mindfulness. (She holds a Ph.D. in epidemiology and a BS and MPH in nutrition.) And she's a mom to two "very athletic" teen girls and a certified yoga instructor. 

Still, Ai, who recently turned 50, found a way to make her dream of integrating all her learnings into a coaching practice a reality while maintaining her full-time job. Since immigrating to the US from Japan in 1996, she has seen—and lived—how stress and perfectionism can take a catastrophic toll on our lives. This truth was a calling, an itch, you could say. Ai listened, studied, and learned, and over the years, she slowly began building her unique side business. 

Ai is human proof that we can have a brimming plate and listen to that whisper. Here's her advice for doing just that. 

#1: Know anything is possible. 

"If you have a dream, you can do it. But you don't need to suddenly have a huge business. You can start small." 

#2: Let perfectionism go.

"My biggest motto is not to be a perfectionist. I teach this as a health coach. A lot of people are perfectionists, and that's why there's a yo-yo: If you feel like you're failing, you go in the other direction. For me, since I am doing so many things, I'm not the perfect epidemiologist, I'm not the perfect health coach, and I'm not the perfect mom, but I'm okay. I'm doing my best, as best as I can—and I'm okay with that. 

#3: Give yourself a break.

"If you start judging yourself and criticizing yourself, it's really hard. So give yourself a break, be kind to yourself, and recognize this is a challenging time. Most of us at this age are taking care of kids, and we are taking care of aging parents while we have a job. And a business is having a newborn baby! So don't be a perfectionist and really invest in self-care because we tend to get carried away and ignore our health.

#4: Know that you're never too late or too "old" to start. 

"I would tell [my younger self] that getting old is great. We are so much more confident. We are not insecure. And we are wiser. I was [recently] looking through my old pictures, and I remembered when my parents turned 40 [...], and I was like, Oh my god, 40 is so old. I literally thought it was the end of life. And I was looking at the picture, and they looked like models there were so young! So I would tell her, it's not the end of life. It's a beginning of life. You have much more knowledge, you have greater confidence, and you have nothing to lose.

These tips have been pulled from our original conversation with Ai and edited and condensed for clarity. To catch the full conversation, listen to the Liberty Road Podcast here. 

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