Starting over? Here’s why it might be the best thing ever!

I grew up thinking that I was too opinionated because my opinions were so very different from those around me…

And so I shrunk for many years because nobody was interested in hearing what I had to say.

And I was more than happy to pile on that idea… I was too loud, too bossy, too controlling, too, too, too… until I believed these were facts.

Is it any wonder that speaking my truth was so difficult for me for so long?

Then I moved from my small hometown…

I met new people. Started a new career. Travelled in circles I never had before.

And despite fighting some pretty hard cases of imposter syndrome and feeling like a fraud, eventually I allowed myself to look at me the way these people saw me… through fresh eyes.

They weren’t telling the same old stories I had heard my entire life.

They were curious how I got to be me.

They wanted to hear what I had to say…

They thought that I had value and wisdom. Imagine!

They didn’t have all the beliefs tainting them that had been bouncing off my brain.

And with this newfound love, encouragement and support, I flourished…

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The unknown is scary, yes.

When we aren’t sure of the next step and terrified to move at all for fear it might be more wrong than the one we previously made.

But switch out that fear you are using as your lens to the world for a lens of curiosity and wonder.

And allow yourself to be viewed in a new way – not just by others but by you. 

And if they start to tell you new stories about yourself, instead of rejecting it, try accepting it.

Because they are simply reflecting back to you what you are showing to them.

They are mirroring back every bit of growth you have embodied.

You’ve already done the hard part.

Now just walk through the door.

And even though you don’t quite yet believe it yourself,

Smile, say thank you and accept it.