Incredible advice from my daughter Zara!

I am gearing up for a fun golden birthday celebration for my daughter Zara this weekend! She is excited to celebrate with friends and family as we near the very last weeks of 3rd grade! 

I was working in my office late one evening this week and Zara asked if we could play together. Sadly, the first thing I thought in my mind was, "Give me 10 more minutes to get this done and I am all yours". But she gave me that sweet look that melted my heart, and I decided that I would compromise and let her "do some work" in my office with me while I wrapped up a couple of things! 

I loaded up a program I use called Canva. If you are not a graphic designer and you need a program for the everyday person to make posts and designs look pretty, this is it! I give her a 5-minute tutorial on how to use the program and then set her free. My plan was to keep her busy for a few minutes while I completed some emails on my phone. 

After about 15 minutes, I looked up from the other chair in the corner of my office to see how she was doing. This really fun design above is what she had made in that short window of time. I got a few tears in my eyes as I reviewed all of the elements in her design. It also made me realize this was about the most perfect advice I could have received that day! 

• Help a Person Every Day
• Dream Big
• Be Fearless 

I think we get little signs that guide us on our life path all the time. This week, my sign came in a fun and inspirational design made by my daughter! I decided it would be a good exercise to reflect on each of these recommendations. 

Help a Person Every Day

I live in Lincoln, Nebraska, and every year we have a huge Give To Lincoln Day fundraiser. The entire city rallies around our non-profits and donates money to their favorites from May 1st until the actual Give To Lincoln Day on May 24th. This year Alex and I are supporting 2 non-profits in particular that are near and dear to our hearts. If you are unsure who you can help today, pick one of these amazing organizations and make a donation.

The White Cane Foundation - They provide NEW clothing and hygiene kits for Lincoln children in need.  

We Can Do This - They feed kids at the Lincoln F Street Community Center every weekend (and give them tons of other support: food pantry, Christmas gifts, graduation gifts, and easter baskets, to name a few)

There are also a million other ways you can help someone today, but I do encourage you to take a small action to help someone today! 

Dream Big

One of my favorite examples of this happens to be my dad. He has always been very artistic and incredibly generous donating his time to his church and his community. He had some really big dreams for what could be done at his church and was even named the Creative Arts Director (in addition to his day job as a hairstylist). He convinced the youth group to make a contemporary painting of The Last Supper. The painting was 12 feet by 9 feet (yes you read that correctly). 

In true Ken Bunde fashion, everyone thought he was crazy and that a bunch of high school kids without any formal art training could not pull this off! Much to everyone's surprise, other than my dad, it turned out amazing just in time for Easter. It was even featured in the Mankato Free Press, (click here to read about it).

It was a great reminder to me of the importance of believing in yourself and tuning out the critics when you have a dream inside of you! I have a big dream of publishing a new leadership book (I am working on it right now and can't wait to tell you more soon). I hope you have some fun dreams you are working on too!  

Be Fearless

What does it mean to be fearless? I can't seem to ever shake the fear from showing up in my life, but I do try to not let it stop me from taking action. I tried to publish a book a few years ago during Covid, and it was an epic failure. The experience was incredible and I learn SO MUCH in the process, but the book never made the shelves. I now have a new idea for a leadership book entitled, Karmic Leadership - 5 powerful techniques to make you am more karmically aligned leader. 

At first, I was a little scared to start the process again. However, this time around I have 2+ years of lessons learned under my belt and I feel more confident giving it a try again... despite the feeling of fear. My hope for you is to continue pursuing your goals and overcome your fears.  

If I can live up to these three beautiful and aspirational goals, I will be doing pretty darn well at the game of life! It also made me think that maybe some of the things I am teaching Zara are sinking in... and maybe, just maybe ... they might be the perfect reminder for you this week too! 

Love and light my friends,

Kara