The Blog Lives Again
About a year and a half ago I started a personal blog and kept it up for a few months. I started it because I wanted to share part of my story, and I always wrote in hopes my words had an impact on anyone who chose to read my entries. I chose to share my thoughts freely and vulnerably, and sometimes that didn’t sit well with everyone. I allowed a couple negative comments to shut down my confidence in my voice, and therefore my blog, while I figured out what the heck I wanted to do with my life. As I got myself refocused on my purpose (hello, MG Coaching!) I was writing, but only for myself. Now, I want to bring those words back into the light.
It can be hard to share a part of ourselves with the world and then not have it received the way we anticipated. The person I was back then wasn’t writing for all the right reasons, and had too much weight put on the expectations of others. The person I was back then was not prepared to handle external negativity and didn’t know how to maintain her inner balance. The person I was back then had barely started on her journey of personal growth, but she was taking the first step. I’m so grateful she did, because I am a completely different person (in a positive way) today.
What I’ve found through my own personal growth journey is that not everyone will understand it. Not everyone will understand my perspective, or thoughts, or why I would share so much about myself with strangers on the internet. What I’ve had to learn over and over again is that MY journey is not for anyone else to understand. It’s mine, and I have to focus on supporting myself before I can be ready to support others. That’s the work I’ve been doing the past couple years to strengthen my ability to serve others. I’ve been doing the deep work that is messy and scary and vulnerable and drags up stuff I thought I’d buried too far down to ever see the light of day again.
That stuff that was buried deep down ended up being just what I needed to break through to the next part of my life. Once I brought it out of the shadows and put it under a spotlight, I realized it wasn’t so scary after all. Once I gave myself the time to look at that mess from every angle, understand how it was made and why I’ve kept it around, I was able to break it down and turn my mess into my message. Some of that mess tries to work its way back into my life every once in a while, but each time it does I’m stronger and more prepared to handle it. I can recognize its sneaky ways and choose not to engage with it. That’s the cool (and sometimes annoying, let’s be real) part about personal growth. Personal growth doesn’t change our challenges and obstacles - it changes our ability and strength to handle them.
Personal growth never stops. It’s a lifelong commitment to getting a little bit better each day, and a commitment to choosing success more than choosing failure. Personal growth isn’t linear. I’ve gone up and down more times than I can count, and cried enough tears (of joy and anger and disappointment) to fill a swimming pool. But I persisted. I kept choosing to move forward, even if it was a millimeter each day. Small steps in the right direction will get you to your goals.
I share this not to gloat about my own personal transformation but because it can be easy to think I’ve got it all figured out, that I no longer experience anger or frustration because I have the tools to manage such emotions. I’ll be the first to say that the obstacles and challenges in my life have not been removed just because I’ve chosen to keep a growth mindset. What has happened though, is that I can now shorten the time between when I recognize old, unhelpful patterns to when I’m refocused. It used to take me days, or weeks, to get out of a funk. It used to take me that long to even realize I was in a funk. Now I can shorten that time to mere minutes by choosing to not let that moment control my future. I can choose not to let a bad day turn into a bad week. I’m still tested every day, and sometimes I don’t do as well as I know I can. But I don’t beat myself up over one slip - I choose to learn from it and then get refocused.
I’m relaunching this blog to share my insights into personal growth, stories from my own life and travels, and thoughts on how we can all get a little bit better each day.
Thanks for joining me on this journey, and for allowing me to be a part of yours.
Onward,
MG