In recent life events I have gone through, I have been given two options: 1. FEEL SORRY for myself or 2. DO SOMETHING with myself. I am choosing Option Two.
Here is a little recap of my adult life thus far.. I became a mom half way through college at the age of 20, graduated college at 22, became a single mom at 24, got married in September of last year, worked as a paralegal for 7 years up until December of last year when I had my daughter and now I am currently going through a divorce. So here I am, a stay at home mom, now single, jobless, in a pandemic and wondering what my next move should be. I have never been the type to not work. Being a stay at home surely is work, just a different kind. My kids are my life, so having this time home with them especially with everything going on in the world right now has been a blessing. Sure, I have moments when I compare my life to my friends or other people that I see on my social media. I have thought, “why me?”, “why can’t I seem to find my person?”, “why does it seem so easy for others to have a seemingly picture perfect life?” Your mind will always bring you to that place of darkness. A place where it is hard to find your way out. This is when you find out that only YOU can help YOU.
Like I said earlier, you have two options. Feeling sorry for yourself is easy. It requires little to no strength. It will also get you NO WHERE. On the other hand, doing something with yourself is hard. Breaking out of your comfort zone is not easy. It requires work. It requires confidence. But this is something that only YOU are capable of.
I like to set a goal for myself each year. My goals are always completely different. I am a really random person. When I get interested in something, I become obsessed with it. For example, in my mid-twenties, I began working out as a hobby whenever my son was with his dad. I randomly saw an advertisement on the billboard at the gym for a 5k. I told myself I would train for two months and run it. I only ran short distance in high school. I, by no means, considered myself a runner. I honestly only ran track my sophomore and junior years so I could get a letterman jacket my senior year, haha! I won’t even talk about the summer my friends and I decided to do cross country workouts when we were in junior high! The struggle was REAL! So anyways, I ran the 5k, placed 2nd in my age group and gained a lot of confidence and thought to myself, “If I never ran this 5k, would I ever have known I was decent a runner?” Fast forward two years, I trained 5 months for a marathon and ran it in under 4 hours. I learned a lot about myself in my running days. I really learned how strong I was and realized if I put my mind to something, I was all in and would do anything to accomplish it! Now here I am again, doing something completely new, random and really stepping out of my comfort zone. I am writing my first children’s book. I have started painting. I have been diving into my creative side that I always knew existed, I just never was in the right state of mind to bring it to life. My writing career may not go anywhere, but I know for a fact that it will teach me something whether it is a success or not! For the first time in a long time, I am EXCITED for my future potential career path. I wake up everyday and research all there is to know about the self-publishing world. This is how I know I am on the right path, when I wake up everyday excited to work!
If you are reading this, you need to do that thing that you have been wanting to do. Whatever it is, JUST DO IT! Why not? What have you got to lose? Seriously, go do it! It is NEVER too late to learn something new. Life is short. If it fails, you will learn from it. Failing is an important part of success. Failure teaches you how to appreciate everything you did to get to where you are in life.
NEVER SAY NEVER & ALWAYS REMEMBER IF YOU ARE FEELING STUCK….you WILL smile again, you WILL laugh again, you WILL be YOU again. Only YOU can help YOU.
