Meet Karina Gonzalez | Entrepreneur

We had the good fortune of connecting with Karina Gonzalez and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Karina, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
I see risk as a necessity of life. If you aren’t taking risks, you aren’t growing. It’s important to do things that scare you, that take you out of your comfort zone and open you up to new experiences. In doing so, you learn so much about yourself and see that you are capable of great things. Even if what you risked didn’t work out, the mere fact that you took the risk, that you put yourself out there and that you showed up for yourself in that way creates a resiliency that is only felt by ‘the doing’ – you cannot learn by simply listening, you have to engage with life, play and learn. One of the biggest risks I ever took was leaving my very successful job in media sales to pursue a passion that seemed so irrational. I wanted to be immersed in nature, I wanted to see elephants, go hiking on a daily basis and experience another part of the world. So I quite my 9-5 and took 3 month sabbatical to Cape Town, South Africa. Three months turned into eight months as I experienced another part of the world and grew as a person. That trip forever changed me and was the catalyst for starting Future Self Journal. In doing so, I realized, your thoughts follow you wherever you go. If you want to elicit change, you have to start with your mind (thoughts, feelings, emotions) first. Change is an inside job. The outward reflects the inward.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
My company is called Creative Change, Inc, we create products for self development and growth. The first product is a daily prompted journal that helps you align your thoughts, beliefs and actions every morning so you can embody your future self through intentional action each day. The journal is called The Future Self Journal, and it’s a tool meant to help you improve self awareness, create better habits and create a deeper more meaningful relationship with your current and future self. I started creating this journal once I returned from my travels in Africa, as I realized that you can travel the world looking for change, but change is truly begins with you. It starts from within. You can be in the most beautiful of places, but your mind may be totally focused on a problem or an issue, and you are not present to what is actually around you. I learned that happiness and joy are habits that are practiced and cultivated from within, not from what is happening externally. I wanted a journal that helped me get into alignment each morning with a quick 5-10 minute practice, so this was the catalyst for our first product and we’re so happy with how it has been received.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Oh I love when friends come to visit, nothing gives me more joy than sharing what I love about Miami. First off, I would start with a little paddle boarding on Biscayne Bay, to the Standard for lunch. We would maybe get a massage there and then hang by the pool for a bit, and paddle back to get ready for dinner. Dinner would be at Doya, one of my favorite restaurants in the city followed by dancing at Dante’s HiFi. The next day, we would go boating around the bay, stopping at Kiki on the River for lunch and ending the day at a sandbar near Key Biscayne. To end the weekend off, I would take them to a beach day at Soho for some sun and relaxation. This to me is quentissential Miami.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Dr. Joe Dispenza and his two books, “Breaking The Habit Of Being Yourself” and “Becoming Super Natural” changed the game for me in terms of helping me see that your thoughts truly create your reality – and we are just energetic beings walking around responding to one another. It helped me see that you can heal yourself through meditation and practicing self awareness. I was always a seeker, I’ve always looked to grow, manifest and improve myself, but I’ve had to learn to do it from a place of love rather than a place of resistance. It really changes things when you start to love yourself and sit where you are, and intentionally grow from that place of alignment.

Website: www.futureselfjournal.com

Instagram: @futureselfjournal

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karinagonzalez01/