Where the Lesson Began

About six months ago, I started experiencing what I lovingly call divinely inspired insomnia.

Not the ordinary, “my brain is a washing machine stuck on spin cycle” insomnia.

This was different.

This was the feeling that some part of my higher self, my intuition — what I call my divine downloads — was whispering (okay, yelling):

“Lois… you’re ignoring something important.”

The message?

Reconnect your giant, quirky, beautiful extended Barth family.

Now, mind you, I come from 25 first cousins, a lineage of storytellers, yakkers-from-way-backers, creatives, entrepreneurs, and culturally curious souls.

Our family reunions are basically part TED Talk, part Yentl, part improv jam.

But despite this pull, I avoided it.
For months. Why?

Enter: the inner naysayers.

Meet the Naysayer Trio

When I finally sat down and did a post-mortem, I realized three main inner naysayers were in charge:

1. “You don’t need another project.”
This one insisted it would require endless work, logistics, and follow-up. My energy! My time! My bandwidth!

2. “No one is going to be interested.”
This naysayer was certain that we were all too busy, too scattered, too something.

3. “It could fall flat.”
Ah yes — the naysayer who believes embarrassment is terminal.

These were the voices that kept whispering their scared, outdated stories. Not because they were trying to sabotage me —
But because they were old coping mechanisms trying to keep me “safe.”

Then Something Happened…

One day, I simply said yes to the download.

I found a bunch of emails from our 2017 in-person family reunion, wrote up a short message, chose a date, and hit CC (which I never do — I’m a proud member of #NO-Reply-All Anonymous).

And then…

Magic.

Emails poured in.
Photos appeared from decades ago.
People shared memories and inside jokes.
A cousin announced he’d been on the Gong Show in the 70s — how did we forget this?!

And when we all met on Zoom?
It wasn’t just a meeting.
It was a love fest.
A reconnection.
A remembering.

I fell in love with my family all over again.

The Truth Behind the Myths

Afterward, I realized how wrong my inner naysayers were.

Naysayer #1: “It’ll be a huge project.”
Truth: I just had to ignite it. One invite. One date. Done. The momentum from others is already in motion.

Naysayer #2: “No one will show interest.”
Truth: Plenty did. Some didn’t. That’s life. But the ones who did? Pure gold.

Naysayer #3: “It might flop.”
Truth: Maybe. But as the Tin Man said to Dorothy:
“We’ll be no worse off than we are right now.”

And that line set me free.

The Bigger Lesson

Here’s what I want you to take away:

Your inner naysayers are way more powerful — and far more covert — than any external critics.

Taking action, even imperfect action, creates transformation.

And your divine downloads will not stop whispering… especially at 3 AM.

So I invite you to sit with this:

• Where have your inner naysayers been in the driver’s seat?
• What truth might be hiding beneath their stories?
• And what small act of ignition could change everything for you — as a human, as a leader, as a creator of your life?

Because you deserve to show up as your most vibrant, aligned self.
And the world needs that version of you —
Not the one edited by your inner naysayers.

If this speaks to you, you got three next steps.

#1- Sharing is caring. Pass this along to others in your life who would benefit from this.

#2- Hey I could use a SPARKLE upgrade! Send me an email to lois@loisbarth.com and I’ll be happy to send you a Outing Your Inner Naysayer Work and Play Sheet!

#3 Hey I could use some extra support for me and/or my team. Great, book a 30 minute discovery free call to discover just how to do that.

#4- Hey you got this in video? I sure do! Here you go!

Thanks for tuning in — and more importantly,

Thanks for not tuning out.