Inktober Day 18: You Will Be Unstoppable

This is actually the third version of this quote, the other two I cut up and threw away. They weren’t right for the words and did not exemplify what I think Anna Quindlen was telling us. I also find that a bit ironic as I was working to make it perfect, when in fact either version would probably have been more than enough. I actually chuckled outloud when I realized how I was thinking and how these words were ringing true for me even as I wrote them.

I started working in the corporate world in the late 1980s. It was a strange and daunting time to be a woman. Lots of opportunities, lots of erroneous comments about what I could, should, would do AND how I needed to behave in order to get ahead. I had people tell me what I should look like, how I should act, what I needed to say or not say, and I also heard a lot about how I should just get married and stay home with the kids…even though I didn’t have any kids nor was I dating anyone. Things that make ya’ go hhhmmmm.

Eventually, I found my own way, my own path, my ability to verbalize my options AND what I did or did not want from my future. Looking back I see that all of that meant I realized I was enough and could have enough if I was willing to do the work. Of course there were bumps in the road, setbacks and disappointments. Who hasn’t had those? My point is that once I realized that I was enough just the way I was, I was unstoppable.

So what is preventing you from feeling like you are enough? What is that voice in your head – the voice of your peers, family, neighbors, friends, partners, spouse – telling you about you? And how are you using the space in your head to counteract any of the gobbled-dy-gook that others have been feeding you? The words will keep coming your way, because everyone has an opinion about how you are supposed to be you. What matters is that YOU think you are enough and begin acting that way. Sometimes we are our own worst enemy because we have not figured out how to be our own greatest fan.

Let me encourage you today to relive without a doubt that YOU are enough – just the way you are, right now, today! Once you know that you will be unstoppable!