Here I Am

WOW! I knew that it had been a long time since I had posted anything but I definitely did not realize that it had been over a YEAR! Considering that when I originally created this blog, I was dealing with quite a bit and was using it as a way to process all of the emotions and trials in my life, no big issues in the last year that needed that much thought means that the last year has been pretty damn good if I do say so myself! I already knew how to give everything to God, but I learned how to truly let go. Not that things don't still get to me, they do, but no longer in the way where they hang on forever.

In the last year, I have become a more confident person, a more relaxed person, a more peaceful person, a happier person. And on top of all of that, I officially earned my doctorate!

How's that for a badass year?

xoxo

Success

 Success. This tiny little word can mean such different things to different people at different points in their lives. I thought this drawing was rather a good description of success because the only thing that you can know is that you really have no idea what your success will look like. You can goal-set and make checklists until the cows come home, but in the end, you will never be able to predict the ride that you end up on.

When you're young, success if very simple. Maybe you get an A on your spelling test, maybe you get 90% of your times tables correct in the allotted amount of time, maybe you join the softball team and actually learn to hit the ball. But as we get older, our definition of success can change. Maybe you graduate from college, maybe you get your doctorate before the valedictorians from high school, maybe you have a family. But maybe those are also the things that people expect you to pick.

Maybe success really is so twisted around that you very often find yourself further behind than when you started, maybe you sit in the same place for months on end and have no idea how to move forward or where to go next. Maybe success is really about getting out of bed every day and trying your best. And maybe the "highlight reel" successes are made up of tiny, barely noticeable ones that make up your every day life.

I don't know what your pathway to success will look like, where it will take you, or where you will end up. Heck! I don't even know where mine is going! But the thing that I'm reminded about each day is that you can only be successful if you get up, show up, and work your a$$ off every single day.

But the other thing that I'm learning about success is, that you can be the most "successful" person on the planet, and if you aren't happy with yourself, no amount of highlight reel success will make you happy. Now, I know that's really cheesy, and a quite overused piece of advice and even one that I don't always take - but I think that it is the absolute truth.

Today, a friend asked the question, "what is your definition of beauty?" and my answer was someone who is happy and healthy in mind, body, and spirit. And I've decided that that is also my current definition of success. What's yours?