Alignment With Jenn - 5 SILENT HABITS BLOCKING YOUR DREAM LIFE ✨STOP POSTPONING YOUR DREAMS

Episode Date: June 19, 2026

🙌 Want to explore coaching with Jenn? DM the word "PODCAST" on Instagram → @alignmentwithjennYou can be admired and still feel unseen. You can be doing everything right and still know, quietly, that it isn't your real life. This episode is the kick in the pants to stop postponing the life that's actually yours.After losing two people she loved in one month, Jenn walks you through The Five Regrets of the Dying by Bronnie Ware — not as a quote to nod along to, but as a mirror. For each regret, she names two things to quietly eliminate now so you never carry it into your own life: from self-abandonment and people-pleasing to the myth of tomorrow and the habit of delaying your own happiness. This is about soul visibility, nervous system safety, and the courage to be fully seen in your desire.You'll learn:- Why most people don't choose a fake life all at once — they slowly inherit one, and how to start choosing differently- The difference between "being patient" and quietly abandoning yourself in environments where your nervous system is always bracing- Why overgiving is "a trauma response with good branding" — and how self-honor, not selflessness, creates a no-regrets life- How mortality becomes the greatest teacher of worthiness: you don't have to earn the right to live your life or justify your dreams- The shift from short-term dopamine to long-term fulfillment, and how finishing what you start teaches your subconscious "I can trust myself"✨ WORK WITH ME: Ready to effortlessly live your dream life? Message me the word "PODCAST" on Instagram to learn more about my deep-dive coaching program, The Infinite Experience.

on the 10 things to quietly eliminate in order to live your life with no regrets. I recently had an experience and within about a month, I lost two people in my life who were really important to me. One of them was my aunt and then one of them was a good friend and they both passed away within about two weeks. Whenever that happens, whenever I've been faced with death in my life, it always reminds me of the most important thing I can do to honor that person's life, is really to just live my own life. Love my own life, really, really live my life, right? Not live a shadow of a life, but actually genuinely be the person that I came here to be, do the things that I came here to do, right? Be the fullest expression of myself. That's really how you honor someone, right?

Is by living your purpose and that's how you honor yourself. So I wanted to make this episode about the five regrets of the dying. There's this book called The Five Regrets of the Dying. it's by brawny ware and she worked in a hospice facility for a very many many many years and she wrote this book about these five regrets in order to help people understand what people that are about to die are most afraid of and what they most regret right what do they wish they had done differently and because we all have as we're listening to this podcast the gift of life i wanted to make this episode where we go into the five things but i want to give you tools for each of the the five things of how you can actually not have that regret and how to really live your life

to the fullest. Because I believe everyone that listens to this podcast, that's what they really want. You want to really live your purpose. You want to have that dream relationship, that level of income that you want. You don't want to just half life. You want a full life. Right. And so this episode, I want it to be an amazing toolkit for you. And I really, really hope that you absolutely love it. regret number one. I'm going to give you the regret and then I'm going to give you the tools and then we'll kind of flop through those. So number one is I wish I had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me. Oh, that one I just like feel so in my soul. Like, that is the most painful feeling. I've shared this before. I spent eight years in a corporate

job where I felt that exact thing where I felt like I just really didn't like it. Right. I felt so unfulfilled, but I didn't know how to make money another way. I didn't know how to get out of it. And I used manifestation. I use the tools that I teach to completely change my life. Right. I really believe right now I'm the happiest I've ever been. My life is the most amazing it's ever been because I have consistently done the tools I'm about to teach you of how to not do this regret. So something that happened during COVID, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. fortunately she's fine but my mom is like my person like I love my mom so much and when she was diagnosed there's this period of time when you don't know what's going to happen right you don't know the prognosis

and so all I knew is my mom had breast cancer and I like went through this dark night of the soul where I really had to grapple with this idea of like I could potentially lose someone that was so important to me and what does that actually mean for me right how do I want to live my life and at the time I was in my corporate job and I had my supplement business as well. And I decided like almost overnight to quit my corporate job and sell my supplement business because I knew neither of them were my true calling. Having this experience with my mom really like brought it to the forefront where I was like, I don't want to live the life that's not meant for me because life is not guaranteed. Right. We so effortlessly live in this place of tomorrow of I'll do it tomorrow of tomorrow is

guaranteed. It is not guaranteed. Right. And. recently, the reason I'm doing this episode is because recently I was reminded of that, right? It's so easy to forget. But one of the greatest gifts we can give to honor someone's life is to live our own lives in our most authentic way. Something that Carl Young talks about is the concept of the unlived life. And he describes it as the aspects of the personality that never get fully developed. They're the pieces of you that hide, right? Your childhood dreams that you want to go after, but you don't because you're afraid of what people will think. It's the path you haven't taken. It's the deeper parts of ourselves that live just completely hidden from other

people. It's the things that we want to share with our partner, but we never do or share with our friends, but we're too afraid to share them. We're too afraid of what they'll think, right? These pieces, and what happens is it shrinks and shrinks and shrinks our life. My goal is I want you to like bust through all of those things so you're no longer shrinking your life, right? You're genuinely going after the things that you want. You're taking the risks that you want to take. You're betting on yourself. Another part of this unlived life, too, is the desires that you never go after, right? I think most people have dreams that just live in a little box inside of them and they never ever open up that box to actually express it to the world because they're so afraid. But I also believe that

nowadays, today, it's the easiest it's ever been to achieve your dreams. With social media, with AI, we literally have this massive support system to create anything we want. I created 50 songs this week using AI. I've never created a song in my life and I learned how to create a song. And like, that's so cool. You know, never before in history was that possible. So for you to not have this experience of not having the courage to live the life that you want, what's that going to take? So let's talk about the three pieces. So number one, is stop tolerating the things that you know that aren't meant for you, the relationships, the jobs, the habits, right? If you're like, I want to have the best possible body I can have,

then start giving that to yourself, right? That's an act of self-love. I recently had a client, and I was so inspired by this, she had a client that wasn't serving her, right? And she let this client go so she could focus on her own business. She's literally living completely in the opposite of this regret. She's not going to have that regret of even though I was making a lot of money from this client, I trust myself enough to let it go and know that I'll be okay. It takes self-trust, right? It takes courage. Number two is let your freak flag fly. So have you seen the movie The Family Stone? It's super cute. It has like so many great actors and actresses in it. And there's this cute scene where Sarah Jessica Parker is like kind of uptight and like businessy.

I can't remember the actor that she's dating, but they're like, they're hanging out at this bar and they're so cute. And she's like starting to get a little bit more drunk. And he says to her, he's like, you just need to like let your freak flag fly. Basically you need to like let yourself be seen. You need to let go of these fears. You need to just be yourself, be your genuine self. Eliminate being so concerned about what other people think. right that is the most liberating thing you could ever do because number one they're probably not really

thinking about you everyone's so obsessed with thinking about themselves they're not really thinking about you and number two the people who you actually would want to like you right are not the people who are sitting there in harsh judgment of you those people that are judging you so harshly they've got some inner work to do on themselves right and it doesn't mean they're bad people it just means that those people who are judging you, that's about them. It's not about you. Letting go of those judgments. Where in your life are you not doing something because you're afraid of what people will think? I feel like a lot of people listening are like, oh, a lot of areas, right? That's one of the biggest things that stops us. I really think if I could like reach into the brains of everyone I work with

and remove that so that way they could take action in spite of what people think of them, I wouldn't need to do anything. Like I could just chill forever. because that's the biggest thing I think that holds people back. And so the antidote I have to this is do one thing every single day that scares you. I think that was an Eleanor Roosevelt quote. Do one thing every single day that scares you. And what will happen is your comfort zone will become the size of the world because you will constantly be stretching your comfort zone. Right. Talk to a stranger. Let go of something that you no longer need. Wear something that is a little bit edgy, right? Change your hair. Do these things because what happens is you become more and more

comfortable with you. And when you become more comfortable with you, you stop carrying as much what other people think of you. So I want to give you a couple of mantras to counteract this regret. So my favorite one is I release the need to be accepted by everyone and return to the sacred work of being myself. I love that, the sacred work of being myself. That's why you're here is to be you. You're not here to be anybody else. I choose the life that is true to my soul, not the life that makes me easiest to understand. I choose the life that is true to my soul. Like, write these down, make them the background on your phone, put them on your mirror, remind yourself of these things, right? So you don't have those regrets when you're sitting on your deathbed because we're all

going to be there one day, as more of it as that is. The regret number two is, I wish I hadn't worked so hard. I had this amazing call with this woman and she is a journalist and she shared with me that she has stage four cancer and she we were talking about her joining my program. She ended up joining the program and what she shared is that she's like, you know, I'm okay with dying, but she's like, I have worked so hard my whole life and I've worked for everyone else. And she's like, I don't want to die without finishing my own projects. Right. She has a book that she wants to write. She has all these projects that she wants to do. She didn't want to die without doing those things.

And it moved me. And this was maybe a week after I had just lost two people that were really important to me. It just really moved me because we in society are so focused on working, right, especially in the United States, on achieving that next level, right? Reaching to that next level. When I get there, I'll be happy. When I get there, I'll be happy. The problem is that tomorrow is not guaranteed.

How can you reprioritize? what actually matters to you and how can you make your time reflect that? How can you make your life reflect that? And this regret is really about postponing your life, postponing your life until you achieve something certain. When I achieve this, then I can look for a relationship. I have a lot of people who will tell me like, oh, you know, I have this great friend actually and she is extremely successful and she spent all of her 30s working on her career. Right. And now she's in her 40s and she really wants to meet someone. She's like, I just never prioritized it. You know, and I wish I had.

We want that connection, right? And so what are you pushing off that you should be doing now so you don't regret this? That's really the first piece, right? Is eliminate prioritizing work over everything else. I have been guilty of that many times in my life. And do one thing every single day that is joy maxing. So something every single day that is purely for your joy. and it could be for a project you want to work on. It could be going to the beach with your friends. It could be going, you know, taking an extra long shower. It could be jamming out in your car. But how can you appreciate this amazing life that we already have, this amazing world that we already live in? And I think that's kind of the essence of all of this. This whole episode could be distilled down into one word and that's gratitude. The way that you really live a life that you love is being grateful for the life that you currently have.

being grateful every single day for all of the opportunities that you have for everything that you have, even if you're not where you want to be, right? Stop focusing on what's wrong and start focusing on what's right. And you're going to expand and you're going to get more of what's right. All right, let me give you a mantra. So for regret number two, it's I create from overflow, not depletion. I let my joy become part of my strategy. So with that, how can you make your work that you do more enjoyable, right? How can you love it a little bit more? How can you be more playful? When I used to work in corporate, there was this guy I worked with and he was just straight up fun. Like no matter what we were doing, he was having a good time and he was enjoying himself. He was cracking jokes. He'd be in the

presentation in front of the entire company and he'd be cracking jokes. Right. He was such a fun person and so enjoyable and he made everything fun. Right. How can you make everything fun for yourself and the people around you because that's really magnetic. Okay, regret three, I wish I had the courage to express my feelings. When I first heard about these regrets of the dying, it was like many years ago, and I was dating, this is like in my early 20s, I was dating one of my longer term relationships, and I was in love with him and I wanted to tell him, and I heard this regret. And so I told him, I loved him first. And I was so proud of myself. And even to this day, I'm like, proud of myself for that, even though we're not together anymore.

So where can you express your feelings, right? Where can you tell people, man, I really love you or I really appreciate you instead of keeping it in, even just complimenting someone? Wow, I love your shirt. Where can you express how you're actually feeling or the things that you're struggling with, right? We connect with people, not because they're perfect, but I fall in love with people's vulnerabilities, and I think we all do.

Where can you express your authenticity, who you really, really are? because that's going to create such deeper connection for you. So it's expressing the good things as well as the challenges. And this is really important in our relationships because if we are constantly keeping things bottled up, A, that's not healthy, but B, we don't give the other person a chance to meet us where we need to be met if we're never expressing anything. And I know for my clients, and I think for a lot of women, this is a challenge, right? We're very easy at being like, oh, it's not that big of a deal.

it's not maybe a big deal in that moment, but over time it becomes a big deal. Right? And this is not unloading everything on someone. You can even make it fun. You can make it enjoyable. The one thing that I would love for you to do today with this one is tell one person today how you really feel until it becomes normal. So every single day, tell someone how you feel until it becomes normal. And it can start off really, really small if this is very uncomfortable for you. I got this email from one of my clients today, and it was her sharing with me that she needed support on something in my program. And I'd never gotten that feedback before, but I was so proud of her because it's, A, it's not easy to give feedback on something, right? She doesn't know how I'm going to

respond, but B, the fact that she expressed what she needed. You know, I need this support. Can you help me with this? That's it. It's expressing what we need. It's expressing what we feel. Your life will be a million times better when you start sharing those things. Maybe you text someone, I miss you, can we catch up, right, that you haven't talked to in a while. And this is a big one. Stop putting others' needs above your own. Squash people pleasing and overgiving. I really think one of the biggest reasons that we don't create the lives that we want is because we are too afraid of what people think and we prioritize other people's needs over our own. And this can be in micro ways in a conversation of, well, I don't want him to not like me, so I'm not going to share how I'm really feeling.

Or I don't want to make him upset, so I'm not going to share how I'm really feeling. But what you're doing is you're negotiating away your own sense of safety and security and how you feel, and you're negotiating away the potential of that relationship. So same with work. One of my friends told me this years ago, she used to work at Google. And she said that she's like, I never got a promotion. And I was like, why do you think you never got a promotion? And she's like, because I was always overgiving. And I was like, what do you mean? And she said, she's like, you know, I would always go above and beyond. Like, I would do everything. And she's like, and there was other people on the team who didn't do that. You know, and she's like, they got promoted. And she's like, they didn't need to promote me because I was already overgiving everything. And I was like, that's an interesting way to think about it. Right. And so where are you overgiving? Right. Where are you giving so much of yourself that it depletes you? and it doesn't allow you to feel like your best self.

So the mantras for this regret are every time I express myself honestly, I return home to myself. So cute. I can be loving and honest at the same time, right? Something that kind of blew my mind is I learned, kind of recently, actually, that you can bring something up with somebody and it can be fun and playful instead of like this heavy weighted thing.

You can share it in a fun, light, playful way. four, I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends. Oh my gosh, that's a big one. This is something I'm not great at and my best friend is so good at it. She's always, she sends Christmas cards to everyone, and she's extremely busy and she hand-writes these Christmas cards. She messages people all the time to stay connected with them. She's so good at this, right? But it's not everyone that you have to do it with. Who are the people that you really care about, you know, and who do you want to stay connected? connected to in your life. It's interesting to think about this. Like these people at the end of their life, they don't regret not working harder, not working more. They regret not calling their friend.

They regret not making a trip to see someone, not having a dinner with someone. They regret letting the connection fall, not, not, you know, doing one more sit up. It's interesting to think about. One tool for you about this is eliminate the myth of tomorrow. Stop saying you'll reach out to someone tomorrow or stop saying, I'll do it tomorrow, I'll make a plan tomorrow. Do it today. Right. Do these things today. So the mantra for number four is my relationships are treasures and I tend to what I treasure. These mantras are so yummy. Five, I wish that I had let myself be happier. That's what they regret. They wish that they had let themselves be happier. So instead of delaying joy for another day, joy maxing now, right? allowing yourself to feel joy, appreciating each moment, cultivating fun. I shared this in a few

episodes of just doing things for the fun of it, right? Just because energy. I am going to do something just because it's fun for me instead of delaying it for tomorrow, right? Let yourself actually be happy now instead of saying I get to be happy when, you know, I lose 10 pounds and I have this much money and la la la la la la. Like, why can't you be happy now? Why not? It's going to help you with everything. The manifestation rule that I've given in other episodes is if you just focus on how you feel and you focus on being happy, you will attract everything you want. It's true. Stop delaying your happiness. One way that you can do this is to eliminate needing everything to make sense before you bet on yourself. One of the reasons that people, I think, don't feel happier

is because they settle for okay. This job is okay. This relationship is okay, right? My health is okay. but they don't allow themselves to want or push for more. And so what happens is they stop betting on themselves, right? They stop taking those risks. And so where in your life can you bet on yourself, right? It makes you really happy, right? Happiness and fulfillment are very, very connected. So maybe it's starting that business.

Maybe it's taking that trip. Maybe it's striking up a conversation with somebody who looks cute at the cafe. And another way to allow yourself to be happier is, again, gratitude, but it's also choosing long-term fulfillment over short-term pleasure, right? What are the things like scrolling is such short-term pleasure? The people on their deathbeds are not like, dang, I wish I had scrolled more or I wish I had spent more time on my computer. No, nobody's going to say that, right? I wish I had been more connected to the people I care about. I wish that I had let myself be happier. I wish I had let myself laugh more. One of my really good friends, I saw this like transition in her. And it was really

cool because she basically kind of decided that she was going to, this was before she met her soulmate. She wanted to show up how she would show up with her soulmate. And she was like, I just let myself be really happy. And she's like, I let myself laugh freely. Instead of like stifling my laugh. I just let myself laugh and enjoy myself and enjoy my life. You know, and I was like, that's so true. it's in these tiny moments that happiness is created. And so where can you allow yourself to be more happy? Maybe you pick up and drive your kids to school every day, right? Maybe you play some fun music like Spice Girls or something during those times to make it more fun,

to make it more enjoyable, to cultivate that happiness. There was this quote that I feel like was really big on Instagram in like 2012 and it was like, choose happy, choose happy. And it really is a choice. You get to choose if you want to be happy. because you get to choose how you filter every circumstance. It always brings me back to Victor Frankel and the book A Man's Search for Meaning. And he talks about how in every circumstance, the last of a person's rights is the ability to choose how you perceive that situation.

You get to choose if a situation makes you happy or not. I know some people don't believe that, but I think the people listening to this do. So fifth mantra is, I trust the desires that make my soul come alive. going after your desires. So I hope that you have loved this. If you want help pursuing those dreams, pursuing those goals that you have for yourself, send me the word podcast. That's what I do in my community. It's all these amazing women going after their goals and their dreams and their visions. Send me the word podcast on Instagram at Alignment with Jen. And I will send you a five-minute video about that. Also, please subscribe to this podcast. It helps it get pushed out,

which is always so fun and I appreciate you all for being here. Bye-bye.