Today, I posted this on Instagram.
On this Saturday, February 26, not only will I be speaking at the IDEA Personal Training Institute (a conference where I served as support staff previously because I couldn’t afford the ticket) but I will also be celebrating 15 years of the LLC I had incorporated without a clue on what I was doing or how to do it.
I was 31. By this time, I had
1) been married, divorced and remarried.
2) lost my first after his birth.
3) was in a horrible custody battle.
4) filed bankruptcy.
5) had a house foreclosed.
6) had my car totaled.
7) had to drop out of massage therapy school.
8) took at job making $5.15 with two degrees.
9) was told that my talent wasn’t needed at a gym and it was declared that I would never make it as a personal trainer.
10) battled two eating disorders
11-1,000) there isn’t enough space on IG.
And, it's this last line that has had me thinking and being thankful all day:
I say all of that to say go for it anyway. Live for who you want to be not who circumstances and critics want you to believe you are.
I need you to hear me when I say your critics should NEVER have the last word. As Teddy Roosevelt stated (and as Brene Brown basically started sharing her work worldwide with this quote):
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man
who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again
and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
I just want to remind you that your efforts will trump your errors EVERY TIME if you can override the voice of the critics, including the one in your head. I am not making light of it as if some magical dust or meme is going to change your life. I am suggesting that it's worth the fight. You and your dreams are worth the fight.
I was interviewed for a podcast (I won't say which one yet since it hasn't been published yet) but I was asked what would this chapter of my life be called. Honestly, the South Side Chi in me today thought, "It's called "I TOLD YOU SO." That would be giving "those people" too much airtime.
I would say this chapter of my life is called, "Just keep swimming." For every time I've wanted to quit (then and now), I want to remember that no season lasts forever; good or bad. My job is to keep it moving.
...and it's on.