Day 347: Tanya Morrison
“I find it necessary to take time and take space, because we can get so caught up – even in our good doing and our giving – we can get caught up in the day-to-day that we don’t take time to feed that innermost place that needs to be fed.”
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Toni Reece: Thank you so much, Tanya, for agreeing to be part of the Project today, and before we begin, can you please introduce yourself?
Tanya Morrison: Sure. Thank you, Toni, for having me. I just want to say that your Get Inspired! Project is so directly in line with who I am and what I do, so thanks for inviting me to participate.
Again, I’m Tanya Morrison, founder and visionary leader of 360-Degree Woman, Incorporated. 360 is a personal and professional development company created to encourage, inspire, and equip women to live more honest and balanced lives. Our website is 360degreewoman.org.
Toni: Well thank you, Tanya. When you think of that word inspiration, who do you inspire, and how?
Tanya: I inspire any woman who seeks to live more authentically and more passionately. Women who want to live a more harmonious life. I would say that 360 is a global network of women who desire to become all of who they were born to be and created to be.
So I inspire, Toni, all types of women. Stay at home moms, corporate execs, business owners, organizational leaders, retirees, bloggers. Primarily professional women who are tired of living based on society’s standards or definition of success. Perhaps from society’s perspective, she may be “successful” but something inside of her yearns for more – not to do more, but to become more. So that’s who I inspire.
Now, how do I inspire them? I would say that I inspire women through my writing, speaking, training, and coaching, and as an attorney, I inspire women by helping them set their business up or their 501(c)(3) organization up. But I must say that speaking and writing are by far my most enjoyable and my most impactful inspirational platforms.
Toni: Well, Tanya, there is going to be no doubt in anyone’s mind listening to this audio that you are not passionate about what you do.
Tanya: I’m very passionate about it.
Toni: Well, let’s talk about the second question of the Project, which is, how do you help others to explore their potential? Can you give us a little bit of detail? You’ve told us very passionately about how you inspire women and, you know, what you try to do for them, but how do you get them to explore their own potential?
Tanya: Sure. I help women explore their potential by encouraging them to be very honest about who they are and who they’d like to become, and also where they are and where they’d like to go. I’ve found that my own transparency really helps women peel back layers of her life, ultimately exploring and transforming herself to tap into her greater potential.
So again, my peel-back factor – which is, by the way, the title of my upcoming book, The Peel Back Factor – peeling back layers of her life to become all of who she was created to be. So I actually inspire women to peel back seven areas of womanhood: Spiritual, mental, emotional, relational, physical, professional, and financial. It is my belief that in order to truly transform ourselves as women, we must approach life really holistically. Hence, the seven areas.
After all, Toni, I often say, “What good is it to have financial success and have a bad attitude?” or “What good is it to be unhealthy but financially wealthy?” or “What good is it to look good but have broken relationships?” I could go on and on. “What good is it to have money but dread going to the job that you go to each day?”
So I really, really help women explore their potential by exploring each area of her life to see where healing or change or transformation needs to take place. Now, I believe, Toni, that transformation is so important because once a woman’s life is transformed, she can then have a greater impact on her family, her community, the workplace, and the world. Once transformed, she can just have a greater impact on her sphere of influence, because we all influence someone on a daily basis.
Toni: Now Tanya, what inspires you?
Tanya: That is a big question. I’m inspired … well, I must say that I’m inspired by the word of God. I’m a believer, so I’m inspired by the teachings of Christ. I’m also greatly inspired by nature. My favorite place to sit is on the Cliffs of Negril in Jamaica, or for that matter any natural waterfront. I must even say, Toni, if I have a little … you know, a little waterfall sitting on my desk, that inspires me. I just love nature, and I’m inspired by nature.
I’m also inspired by leaders such as – there’s so many – John Maxwell and other great authors or philosophers. I’m inspired by my everyday people. My husband, my Jamaican husband, who’s taught me how to live a very simple life. I would say that I’m inspired by my parents who continuously encourage me, and even others in my life who challenge me to become all of who I can become.
I’m inspired by everyday people. I’m inspired by women like yourself who are doing great things, women that I work with who transform their lives, and I must say that women who I assist to transform their lives; they inspire me to continue to do what I do, which is to inspire others.
Toni: Tanya, how did you become so driven to do this, to have this become such a passion? Was it something that you always knew you wanted to do, or was this work that evolved from another place?
Tanya: Well, both. I knew years and years ago … well, I knew when I was a kid, my father always told me, “You talk so much. You’re either going to … I hope you end up making money or making an impact with your mouth.” Literally, I remember him saying that when I was a kid.
But even different stages of my life I recall … and I’m sure that you can agree that we go through things and sometimes we don’t realize until after the fact what an impact that challenge or that scenario had – so that was similar for me.
I used to teach at one of the Universities many, many years ago, probably 15 years ago, but I was inspiring a different group of people. They were younger students, of course. And then I got off of that path and became an attorney and became a realtor and a real estate investor and all of these other things.
But it was really about four years ago when I was a professional top-producing realtor and attorney, and from society’s standard, I was successful, but on the inside, deep down inside, I realized that I was not fulfilled. I was often overwhelmed. I was often just not feeling whole. And so as I began to peel back each layer of my life – my spiritual, mental, emotional, relational, physical, professional, and financial self – I realized that there were areas that needed total transformation.
So as I began transforming, Toni, and as my life began to change and I began to take my eyes off of myself, I realized that there were women out there who looked just like me. Women who looked just like you, who were doing great things, being productive, but maybe did not feel that they were living their most authentic or most passionate life.
Or maybe women who were very productive but totally out of balance, which I was. I was just such a workaholic and just so driven – overly driven – that I was not whole. I would say my values were my family and friends and fun, but yet I worked all the time so I didn’t have time to deal with my family, or I didn’t take the time, I should say, to spend quality time with my husband or quality time with my friends, or to do the things that I really, really wanted to do.
So as my life transformed, I was very clearly able to see so many women like myself who, in fact, Toni, oftentimes didn’t even realize their own brokenness. I called it their silent or their secret brokenness. But as I became healed, that’s when I said, you know what, there are organizations out there focusing on women, but maybe focusing on one area – how to build your business, or focusing on maybe social or I should say emotional and mental health, but it was as if you were crazy if you were in those groups.
I realized that there was this group of women who looked just like me, who were professional women or all types of women, like I said, stay at home moms, bloggers, organizational leaders. But there were areas of brokenness or areas of just not being fulfilled, and that’s how 360 was birthed. It was birthed out of my own challenges.
Two years later – actually we’re going on three years – we’ve impacted the lives of thousands of women, Toni. We have testimonies of women … like I say … I always say, professional women – these are not women who look down and out, but women who, from society’s standard, as we would say, “have it going on” but yet are living an imbalanced or just not living a passionate life.
So we’ve impacted thousands of women. We have testimonies of women who have not committed suicide because of something that they’ve heard in the 360 circle, or women who have left abusive relationships or who have healed broken relationships because of something that they’ve heard in the 360 circle. So the work that we have been doing is, I believe, very impactful. It’s very organic, and I am thankful to be used as a vessel to help other women find their most authentic self.
Toni: When you are working on yourself and you’re going through your own transformation in order to keep helping these women that, you know, you’ve been so able to help and so beautifully drive this business, what do you do now to continue to explore your own potential so that you can keep helping them?
Tanya: That is such a good question, because I am in that space right now. Oftentimes, I find it necessary to take time and take space, because we can get so caught up – even in our good doing and our giving – we can get caught up in the day-to-day that we don’t take time to feed that innermost place that needs to be fed.
So what I do is take time, like I am in this space right now for the rest of the year, I’ve given myself the permission to take time to just stop and replenish, refresh, restore, rejuvenate. And I do that many different ways. My favorite … as I said, my favorite thing to do is to get close to the water to just be still. When I’m not able to travel, which I just love to travel … when I’m not a place of being away to do that, I’m an enthusiastic learner and I’m an avid reader and a passionate lover of life, so I explore my potential by really creating my bucket list and living it out. I’m sure you and others know what a bucket list is, right?
Toni: Mm-hmm.
Tanya: Those things I want to do, see, or become before I kick the bucket. So I’m living out my bucket list and using my own peel back factor. Just really taking time to think, to pray, to nurture myself, to engage in those things that inspire me, like to really spend quality time with my family, with my husband, with other people that give me support. Because I find, as I’m sure you do also, when you spend a lot of time giving out, we have to … it’s reciprocal. We must take the time to feed ourselves, to nurture ourselves, to replenish ourselves.
So I just do what I’m doing right now which is to stop and breathe. Now, I think that when you’re very driven, this is very necessary so that we don’t go into that realm of being burned out. And so that’s really what I do. I really do take time for … as much as I love to work, I also love to play, and for me, oftentimes playing means just being still.
Toni: What a great piece of advice for people who are listening to you right now, and also need to recharge and renew, and it’s … you’ve said it so brilliantly, Tanya.
We wish you the greatest success with the decision making and the stillness that you’re in right now for what’s to come out of that, and just for showing up and being part of the Get Inspired! Project, we cannot thank you enough.
Tanya: Thank you so much, Toni, again. Thank you for letting me share, and I hope to stay in touch.
Toni: Thank you. Take care, Tanya, and good luck.
Tanya: Thank you. Have a great day.
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For more information about Tanya Morrison: www.360DegreeWoman.org, www.TanyaSpeaks.com
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