It’s that time of year… the Holidays are winding down and the New Year isn’t quite here yet. It’s the in between.

And it’s natural this time of year to be reflective and start thinking about your goals and what you want to create in 2018. I know that’s what I’ve been doing.

2017 was a year of massive transformation for me, personally. It’s been about three years in the making… changing from “The Daily Love” guy… to doing what I do now, and I’ll tell you, it wasn’t easy to make the switch. Deep down, I always knew that I had something I wanted to contribute to the world, but it was scary to declare that, to own that… and then to claim it in the real world.

After The Daily Love blog became so successful, even mention by Oprah on Super Soul Sunday, I found it hard to let go of. But… the success wasn’t the real reason why it was hard to let go. The real reason was… it was easier to hide behind other people than to be the teacher, the coach and the person I was becoming.

The Daily Love blog had turned into high level coping and high level hiding. But, I had something else coming through me. It was what would become the Claim Your Power book and the process of Functional Life Coaching.

2017 was the year that both Claim Your Power and Functional Life Coaching were born, and me along with it. And that process has been a massive transformation.

I’ve come to believe that success isn’t about what I thought it was about. I used to think that success was doing what I wanted, when I wanted, where I wanted, as much as I wanted with whomever I wanted…

The big lesson for me in 2017 was that the true measure of success is how well you can heal your core trauma’s and then dedicate your life to being of service. Learning how to heal all the parts of myself that were still scared to be seen, still scared to be recognized, still scared to be rejected. While, at the same time, falling in love with the difference I was making and making my life more about helping others than it was about what I wanted.

What I wanted was to hide. To keep playing it safe. But what needed to happen was… I needed to step up, speak out and focus on serving other people with what my unique gifts were.

There was never a moment more sobering than that moment when Donal Trump became elected President. Not because of politics. But because I saw that Trump was a reflection of us. A reflection of our fear. A reflection of all the unhealed trauma’s of our country and our people.

My mission is to end emotional trauma in my lifetime. I don’t know if I’ll get there, but 2017 was the year that I delcared to myself, my Creator and life that I would not hide my gifts. I would not stay silent and I would not allow unhealed trauma to run amok without doing something about it.

That’s what Trump represents… he is the face of unhealed trauma. The unhealed trauma of the African Americans who ancestors were slaves that built this country and made a lot of rich white men… even richer. The unhealed trauma of the “Me, too” movement… where countless women and men have been assualted sexually and otherwise by people in power (a lot of them white men). The unhealed trauma of the Indigious People of the Americas who were pushed backed, killed and stole the land from as settlers.

And… the unhealed Truama that many white people still carry with them, which is the embedded shame they carry for our actions against so many marginalized people and the total fear that if a white person (ideally man) isn’t in charge, that we will fade into oblivion.

Trump is a sign of the times. A sign of the divide. A sign of the pain that we must heal as individual people, as familes, cities, states, a country and the world.

Trump is a wake up call. A call to listen to each other. To find common ground. To see how more alike we are than different. We must start to learn that we can only influence people that we listen to and try to understand… and dare I say LOVE.

All the pressures of the world, the unhealed trauma’s that are making their ways to the surface… demanded that I go all in. And that’s what I’ve done and what I will keep doing.

The reason why I’ve been silent on email and with the podcast is because I wasn’t sure what to do in today’s world.

Simply putting out more of the same content, without recognizing marginalized voices, without recognizing the struggle of so many today, without being able to talk about the elephan in the room… I wasn’t sure how to do it.

It’s taken some time, but I think I’m clear. You see, I am not “for” Republicans or Democrats. I am not for men or women. Black or white. All those things are just words we use to discuss and label our diffences.

What I’m “for” is one thing – the progress of the human spirit that dwellls within all of us. It’s in Democrats. Republicans. Men. Women. Black, white. We all have the same Spirit and the same Heart. And for all of us, that Spirit and that Heart is covered in unhealed trauma’s.

And we’ve gotten lost in the noise, forgetting who we are.

I had to find a way to reconcile in my mind how fast the landscape of our lives has changed and how to talk about it in a way that gets to the heart of the matters I care about, without choosing a side.

The only side I choose is truth. The only side I choose is freedom. The only side I choose to equality for all. The only side I choose is prosperity for all.

It took a lot of reflection and contemplation to get to this point. I’ve not been consistent because I haven’t had the words… I know that’s ironic for someone who is a professional speaker and author by trade.

But, these times are different. It’s a different context now. The same old stuff won’t work. And not talking about it… that won’t work either.

So, welcome back. I’m looking forward sharing more podcasts with you.

And… I am also looking forward to helping 2018 be the most abundant year of your life (so far). More on that later.

For now… Let me re-introduce myself.

My name is Mastin Kipp and I’m here to help you cut through the BS, get to the heart of the matter. Together, I’ll help you choose truth, choose freedom, choose quality for all and choose prosperity (this includes yourself). Together, we’ll work as a team to help you speak up for what matters most to you, to learn how to listen to those you disagree with and how to cut out all the distractions and heal all the unhealed traumas of your life that are keeping you stuck… and live a life of Purpose.

It’s nice to meet you.