359: “You can’t give what you don’t have” — Expecting Greatness While Practicing Acceptance with Nataly Kogan

“You can’t give what you don’t have.” That’s just one of the powerful lessons that Nataly Kogan learned the hard way seven years ago, after suffering a debilitating phase of burnout. As a former refugee from the former Soviet Union, she began her American journey in the projects and on welfare, then going on to build an impressive career as a finance and tech executive and serial entrepreneur over the next 25 years. Until she crashed at thirty-eight years old and needed to find a new way of moving forward.

As part of her healing process, Nataly began to paint when she was 40 by signing up for a painting retreat in Tuscony (that turned out to be for semi-professional watercolorists), and now her paintings are on the cover of her books—front and center as part of her bold self-expression.

Today we’re talking about how she got through that tough burnout period, the ways she practices putting her full self into the world, why it’s never too late to start something new, and how to drop the self-care guilt when filling your own energy reserves.

More About Nataly: Nataly Kogan, a leading expert on emotional fitness and leadership, is a dynamic entrepreneur, best-selling author, and sought-after international keynote speaker. Despite starting from challenging circumstances, Nataly achieved remarkable success in her career, reaching top positions at McKinsey, Microsoft, a venture capital fund, and founding/executing five startups and tech companies.

Her influential books, including HAPPIER NOW, GRATITUDE DAILY, THE AWESOME HUMAN PROJECT, THE AWESOME HUMAN JOURNAL, reflect her mission to help others thrive. Nataly hosts The Awesome Human Podcast, recognized as a transformative "best-self hour."

🌟 3 Key Takeaways

  • You can either spend energy talking about why you are where you are, or spend that energy taking steps toward where you want to go.

  • Don’t try to be anything you’re not. Embody the fullness of who you are, boldly and openly. Part of the reason, Nataly says, is that “We don’t expect enough of ourselves; we are capable of so much. In some ways we don’t expect enough greatness from ourselves.”

  • You can’t give what you don’t have. A holon is something that is both a whole in itself (like a bicycle wheel) and part of another whole (the bicycle; without the wheels, it can’t function). Get rid of the self-care guilt by recognizing the gifts that self-care gives you.

✅ Try This Next

“Don’t let the leftovers of yesterday spoil the freshness of today.” Fill-in this sentence: I am an awesome human because: ______________.

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