I find myself beginning to draft my blog posts on Sunday afternoons while my son has been taking tennis lessons. Tennis is something neither my husband or I played beyond youth, but we figured he would enjoy. You see, he likes baseball for the hitting but wasn’t loving the fielding part, so we thought why not play to his strengths? He has really enjoyed it thus far, but has had moments of doubt and frustration, as we’ve all experienced at one point or another with things in life.
Recently, I got involved with an amazing and socially conscious company, Beautycounter. In case you didn’t know, I have been a stay at home mom since having my son and daughter. While I love the freedom of not having a job at times, I found myself not really having a passion for much, or not possessing the drive or resources to do a lot from being out of the work game for so long. I have a desire to do well for Beautycounter as I believe in their products and their mission above all. From that, I have found the love of writing again and my outlet of having a blog. But with all of this there have been challenges. Call it naïveté or just being rusty, but I am finding it difficult to reach out to certain family or friends. And I’ve also taken the lack of response to heart. It has been harder at times than I had anticipated.
This brings me back to my son and his lessons. The things I have been preaching to him about perseverance and not giving up are the same things I have not been practicing in my own life. I have come to a hard conclusion about myself and how I’ve lived my 38 years: if something that people say should come easy to me doesn’t, I want to give up. I have been fortunate enough in life to have many skills come naturally to me, and I’ve capitalized on them. But I’ve thought back on my failures as a whole, and many of them have been things that have been suggested to me and that I have assumed I could do. Take for instance, skiing. “Oh, you’re athletic so you should pick this up easily.” Well, I didn’t. I have wobbly, weak ankles that hold up an almost 6 foot frame and I just couldn’t get the hang of it. And I’ve tried again in my older years, and still no. I then go into a deep state of self pity and embarrassment which then manifests itself into anger and self defense. I know this about myself, but it is only now that I have admitted it and committed to changing it for the better. It is ok to fail, as long as you learn from it and try to improve for the next time. It is what I encourage my son to do, so why should I be above my own advice? I am the example. I want to make choices that are positive enough to change the course of genetics as well. This self destructive behavior ends now.
Promoting myself and my love of Beautycounter hasn’t always been smooth, but I know what I believe in and the positive changes I am committed to making. My point is that we all start somewhere. It may not be easy, but what matters is that we simply begin. Sometimes the bumpiest of roads can lead you to the best of destinations! I could go into details of some great examples of such, but those are stories for another day…. 😉
The Brooke Book 