I recently sent an encouraging note to an old friend and thought it might serve you as well.
I wanted to send you a little love. What you’re doing is hard but as Tom Hanks told us in A League of Their Own, “The hard is what makes it great!” You are building, growing, and learning, I see a seeking in you that I am feeling too. An urgency is creeping in to do, complete, and prove I haven’t been wasting my time. I forget to appreciate that if our younger selves saw us now, they would be amazed. They would be so proud of us – and that’s what I want to share with you. I’m proud of you. I’m proud of us. And even though it is hard now, it is also pretty great.
Life can be challenging but there is nothing that we cannot face. We will handle this moment with poise, dignity, and strength. Our fears only get smaller once we face them. Let us rise to the occasion.
When we’re feeling fear it’s easy to compare ourselves to our heroes or the examples of success we see on social media. And that fear feels so real and heavy. However, and this is a big however, we are eons ahead of where we were when we began. When you look back at your college self, high school self, middle school self – could they imagine the life you have right now? When you were growing up was the life you have right now guaranteed? Have you accomplished nothing since that time?
Or perhaps, like me, would your younger self be stunned. Her hair would be blown back at the audacity, the calamity, the sheer will that brought us to this point! She would be delighted. Impressed. Proud! More than anything she would be so full of love. We have succeeded. We have pressed on and pressed through. Rising above to stand in our truth.
20 year old us could not believe their good luck. As we begin this new year – I am challenging fear head on. Because fear is a liar. We have done some incredible things and will continue to do more. There is so much waiting on the other side of this new year. It does not serve us to play small. We are in the driver’s seat, this is the route we are on. If it’s time to take to the skies or go off-roading we are up for the challenge. I am proud of us and everything we’ve done up to this point. Let us plan to make ourselves even prouder in the year to come!
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