Tara Myshrall – Goodbye fear, you aren’t welcome here!

BY JANIECE CAMPBELL

“Everybody wants to run from fear. For most people, the thing they fear most is the thing they know is going to happen from the time they are born: that they’re going to die. If we can just use fear as a fuel instead of as a disabler, then imagine what we could accomplish!”  Tara Myshrall

Have you ever dreamt of climbing Mt. Everest? How about skydiving over the vast Grand Canyon? For my faint-hearted and justifiably sane readers, the answer is probably “absolutely not!” For this edition’s featured woman, Tara Myshrall, that is just another day in her unique life of pushing the limitless boundaries of possibility and looking at her fears dead in the eye.

This might just be my own imagination, but I like to envision her as a sort of double agent: by day, she’s a strategic account executive and by night, a transformational coach offering her life experiences to change the lives of every woman she encounters. In whichever aspect, this avid adventurer’s bright outlook on life is so alluring that you would never know just how many obstacles she’s faced to own the prestigious title of “self-made millionaire.”

Born and raised in Toronto, Tara was the eldest of five children in a Trinidadian Canadian household. As the older sister to four brothers, it’s not too surprising that she developed a somewhat ruffian attitude growing up. Often getting into physical fights with boys who attempted to bully her in school, she had a reputation for being a tough scrapper girl. For much of her elementary life, she struggled to find where she would fit in as an overweight troublemaker from a mixed-race background. However, at that early age, she did notice that she had an ability to make others laugh and bring friendships together.

Moving onto the next vital phase in her life, she remembers sitting in her high-school’s auditorium next to her ninth grade English teacher, watching honour roll students walk across the stage to accept their certificates. She told her teacher that she aspired to be up there too by the following school year, as she was ready to shed her disruptive past and start anew.

Her teacher discouragingly laughed at her.

“She said “Tara, you know that you’re pulling in a 50-something and not paying attention in class. You’re not going to get there.” That was a really big moment in my life. It’s not that I wasn’t smart enough, I just didn’t necessarily agree with all of the things that they were teaching us. But if you want to see, I’ll show you.”

By the next semester, Tara was on honour roll. She even went a step further by getting into student council.

“That took me from the scrapper girl fighting for a place at the table to basically the leader who was running the table.”

At age eighteen, Tara left home after tensions raised in her household following her getting into a relationship. For a short time, she lived in her boyfriend’s car and often couch-surfed while trying to figure out what her next steps were. Ultimately deciding to leave her post-secondary education at York University prematurely, she worked tirelessly to build herself up enough to rent an apartment. Her efforts rewardingly paid off, as it was only up from there. From becoming a manager and regional trainer at Danier Leather to securing multiple positions in the IT field for over ten years now, she singlehandedly built her career from the ground up. For many, this is where their journeys would end. I mean, to go from nearly nothing to a well-paying profession, what else could you wish for?

“I always had this desire to give back and so there’s always been this calling to do the life work, to do the purposeful work. And so that’s where the coaching comes into play.”

Eight years ago, Tara stumbled upon a different path in her free time. Leveraging all of the trials and tribulations she faced in the past such as poverty, abuse, infidelity, betrayal and even medical complications, she decided to use her personal experiences to help others, specifically women who are unaware of the true power that they hold in the ability to control their own destinies.

“You know that great poem that goes like “Who am I to shine bright?” But it’s like, by shining your light, you give permission to others to shine too. When I decided to start doing this, it was hard, and it was scary. I have a corporate role, so could I really put myself out there and be vulnerable? Especially as a West Indian, where you’re taught to keep your business to yourself. But I thought, if I don’t share, if I’m not authentic, if I don’t show up and show all the scars then how am I truly going to help anybody else?  It’s not only sunshine and rainbows and that difficult time that you get through is equally, if not more important than the sunshine.” 

She continues.

“When I jumped out of that plane, when I climbed that mountain, did you know I’m afraid of heights? When I joined that software company, I didn’t know anything about software. When I decided “No, I’m gonna stay in this car until I can get enough money to get my own place.” I didn’t know what I was gonna do the next day. But if you look fear in the eye and you use it to compel you forward instead of making you stay in the same spot, that’s when we really make change. That is what drives me to do what I do.”

Today, alongside taking bookings for motivational speaking presentations, she offers retreats and six-week online courses ranging from group experiences to one-on-one training sessions. With a focus on giving oneself permission to expand, the programs promise to equip attending women with practical tools to assist in overcoming limiting beliefs blocking true potential and finding freedom from painful pasts.

 “As women, we’re taught our whole life to conform and be what we’re supposed to be. And what we’re supposed to be is created by those that are in power, which generally are white males. So, in order for us to break through those boundaries and reconnect, we have to overcome the fear, we have to overcome the centuries of conditioning, and we have to really connect back into our inner voice. It’s so important for women to feel that they have permission to do that.

Whether you’d like to check out Tara’s different transformational courses, read her free e-book Permission to Rise on her inspiring journey as she climbed Mount Everest, or to join her Inner Circle to receive monthly empowerment love notes and news regarding upcoming events via email, head over to her website taramyshrall.com today!