Secrets of Fearless Living: 5 Things I Learned from Tess Masters

The Do It Scared™ Podcast with Ruth Soukup provides weekly motivation, inspiration, and practical instruction for anyone tired of settling for “good enough.” Each week we tackle topics like goal-setting, overcoming procrastination, finding the time, energy & know-how for accomplishing our dreams, and overcoming the obstacles that stand in our way. Don’t miss an episode; subscribe here.

Have you ever noticed that often the painful and challenging things that happen in our lives turn out to be our biggest lessons?

The multi-talented and brilliant Tess Masters, a.k.a The Blender Girl, is my guest for Episode 16 of the Do It Scared™ Podcast.

Tess is one of the most resilient people I know.

You see, Tess has experienced her fair share of challenges and tragedies. But she chooses to learn from those challenges and fearlessly move forward. And, her fearlessness has helped her achieve SO many incredible things. She is now an actress, a voice-over artist, and the founder of the wildly popular website, The Blender Girl. Tess is also the author of several bestselling cookbooks and the global spokesperson for KitchenAid blenders.

The journey to where she is today wasn’t always simple. Tess had an idyllic childhood in Australia, surrounded by loving family and friends. But, after falling madly in love, she picked up and moved halfway across the world to Springfield, Missouri.

That’s when she experienced a tragedy that would shape the rest of her life.

In Episode 16 of the Do It Scared™ podcast, Tess talks about learning from worst-case scenarios, living fearlessly, and the tools you need to do the same! It will definitely make you think about your own worst-case scenarios in a new light.

Get the synopsis below or listen to the whole podcast on iTunes or on Google Play. (Or just search for “Do It Scared” on your favorite iPod app!)  Never miss a new episode by subscribing on iTunes. You can also find the full show notes at https://doitscared.com/episode16/.

Here are my 5 favorite takeaways from her interview:

OUR CHALLENGES ARE OUR BIGGEST OPPORTUNITIES

Life’s challenges are our biggest opportunities to train and to learn in life. Around the age of 14, Tess started feeling extremely tired. She could barely drag herself out of bed. Doctors eventually diagnosed her with Epstein-Barr virus. The virus was debilitating at times, but with some experimentation, she found out that she could curb her symptoms through diet. That is when she really started to embrace the idea of food as medicine.

And, it was this interest in food as medicine that turned her onto blending and led her to create her multi-million dollar website, The Blender Girl.

It wasn’t until she faced another traumatic challenge, her husband’s overdose, that she opened herself up to living fearlessly. Tess credits that experience as such an opportunity for her to grow in a way that she had never done before. Tess lives by the motto of learning from her challenges and she has absolutely taken those and turned them into her biggest opportunities.

The key is to be very gentle with ourselves, to know that we are all works in progress, and we are doing the very best that we can do today with the tools that we have and the choices that we're making. Click to Tweet

WE ARE ALL WORKS IN PROGRESS

We all have insecurities, right? Whether they come from our challenges or opportunities, we learn to cope better as we go along. And, all of our experiences allow us to put more tools in our toolbox. Tess explains that “the key is to be very gentle with ourselves, to know that we are all works in progress, and we are doing the very best that we can do today with the tools that we have and the choices that we’re making.” Each and every one of our experiences gives us insight. We are able to then lean on the knowledge gained from past experiences now. These are our emotional tools in our life’s toolbox. So by being gentle with ourselves and where we are at RIGHT NOW, we allow room for growth and positive change.

PUT AND END TO THE COMPARISON TRAP

When it comes to comparisons, we get stuck in this trap when we’re comparing ourselves to other people who seem to be doing all these amazing things. What we’re comparing ourselves to is the perfect version that they present to the world. We also all get hung up on the comparison of who we are today, who we want to be tomorrow, and who we were, or who we perceived that we were. For Tess, her biggest obstacle is the disconnect between who she is as opposed to who she wants to be.

The main way of combating these comparison traps is with accountability. Having people in your life who hold you accountable and can put a mirror up to you to show you what the truth. Tess shares that she, “calls [her] parents, I’ll call my dear friends, I’ll call a colleague, I’ll call someone who has gone and blazed the trail before me and can impart some wisdom on me.” Reaching out to her tribe helps her move past the comparisons and get on with living fearlessly.

FEARLESSNESS IS A STATE OF MIND…FEAR IS NOT TRYING

After her husband’s traumatic overdose, her whole life changed. She states that she goes back to that day constantly, “because it’s like if that didn’t kill me, […] feeling that I was going to lose the person I loved most in the world and felt like I could not live without, if that didn’t kill me, then nothing is going to, so bring it on.” She now uses that experience to spur her on. She now goes into a situation asking what’s the worst that can happen? This embracing the worst case scenario has given her a sense of fearlessness. She knows that she can live with the worst case scenario because whatever is meant to be will be. And, the interesting thing about fear for her, is it’s all how we define success, fear, and failure. And those definitions evolved constantly. What Tess realizes now is that fear simply is not trying.

GO OUT THERE AND CLAIM SUCCESS

For many, many years, Tess feared success. She always asked, “why isn’t it me?” And, what she realizes now is she didn’t have that belief in herself that it could be her, that she could be that successful person or get that part. This realization spurred Tess to take action.

So go out there and trust yourself and live fearlessly! Click to Tweet

Tess is now the founder of a multi-million-dollar website, has great partnerships, and is the first spokesperson in KitchenAid history. All because she decided to go out there and claim it. Listen and trust yourself above everyone else. Tess believes in trusting her gut moving forward. She also believes that the choices we make and the obstacles we overcome all place tools in our toolboxes so that we can become the best and most resilient version of ourselves in the future. o go out there and trust yourself and live fearlessly.