Rough Draft(s)

Recall a split-second you dreadfully & sincerely wondered to yourself:

"How will I ever get over this?"

Whatever "this" stands for in your unique story...

We've all had similarly lonesome instances where a trusted confidante somehow unbelievably could not have felt any further away 😔

But you're still here...are you not? 👀

Absolutely, you are! 100% 👊🏼

As Dr. Joe Dispenza says:

"We are defined by our adversity."

As Marie Forleo says:

"Everything is figureoutable."

As Dr. Jodie Eckleberry-Hunt said in her 2023 release Badass Stories:

"Imagine if your story was written by somebody else.

Wouldn't you find some level of admiration or even inspiration?"

I know that I would! How about you, reader? 🤔

Through strenuous breakups, powerful grief, influential feuds, livelihood hardships, and/or monetary struggles, we've all ignorantly learned a distinct lesson (at one point or another) that life isn't as certain as we tend to assume ❌

Life is a rough draft ✏️

Or rather...a series of rough drafts 🗓️

"Even the careless driver who cut you off in traffic feels unsettlingly worried, uncomfortably anxious or unbearably distracted about a particular person, place or thing 🚙

We ALL have minds evidently plagued by a prevalent, well-known thought, often one of our own making 💭

One that we’d wish nearly anything away to be able to entirely ignore 👋🏼"

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Sure...it would feel indescribably marvelous to know the destination of your journey(s) prior to setting out on them...wouldn't it?

Realistically...how much of your growth would you be squandering entirely for a mere sense of avoiding a bit of uncomfortable confrontation? 🤔

Trust me, I hate that I'm saying it too...but ⬇️

A complicated life is still worth feeling immense gratitude over ❤️

For example, the juggernaut of a job market is nearly impossible to navigate these days 😩

I recently discovered that the job market today is worse than it's been in over 50 years.

Every time I visit LinkedIn, I swear every post on my feed is captioned with #layoffs or #opentowork ❤️‍🩹

But! 👇🏼

That doesn't mean we should give up and simply settle, right?

Positives are repeatedly hidden within negatives if you keep your chin up & eyes open 👀

Keep in mind that I've had a bit of experience in this arena.

(Skip past this tiny section to hear less about me 👇🏼)

In my case, if I weren't laid off back in early 2022, I would've never:

Launched a freelance career
Failed (a lot) before flourishing
Redesigned my website front-to-back
Crafted a vast portfolio featuring new references
Set time aside to write personally & professionally
Earned certifications in digital and promotional marketing tactics

And of course, the most important:

Lost 30+ pounds 💪🏼
Inscribed 2nd Edition's for grateful loved ones 💖
Took up DJing as a delightfully challenging hobby 🎶
Caught up on every favorite show, book, and series 📺
Spent precious moments with family, friends, and doggos 🐶

If you know me, you know of a literal lifetime of working toward the ability to compliment myself, though that's not our focus today ⬇️

As Jay Shetty notes in his 2020 release Think Like a Monk:

"We are defined by the narrative that we write for ourselves every day."

Powerful, huh? 👏🏼

My question to you, reader, is this:

How are you talking to yourself?

In your pending rough draft(s), what vocabulary are you using in conversations with you?

Jay Shetty continues: ⬇️

"We say things to ourselves that we would never say to people we love.

We all know the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

To that I would add: Treat yourself with the same love and respect you want to show others."

I'll be the first to admit that I can be awfully crude to myself.

I wish that weren't the truth, but it is. I'm improving, though 📈

In all seriousness, many of us fit all too easily into these vile shoes 👟

Other than continuously outting myself again & again (at the expense of a timid childhood personality of reputable secrecy and modesty), the only real way for us (as a collective group) to revel in satisfaction is to eye ourselves in the mirror and ask:

"What am I writing in my rough draft(s)?" ✏️

And thoroughly remember that...they're rough drafts! 👍🏼

They won't be published until long after we've departed this planet 🌎

Dive deep & indulge me for a second:

Let's get serious.

Step into the shoes of your past self 👞

Visualize 3-5 moments (in your lifetime) that felt legitimately insurmountable. The conceivable idea to conquer these forgotten milestones of the past were once a dreamy, unrealistic fairytale.

It would've felt like less of a fantasy to conquer Everest ⛰️

Have you ever sat down and wholly revisited these terrifying seconds that you've willingly blocked out of your memory bank? (Unless, of course, that's just me? 😅)

My stubborn conscience refused to reminisce on occasions when I wholeheartedly didn't like the person that I was whatsoever. It's sad, though transparently true.

But if I willingly ignore times overflowing with insecurity, self-doubt, and swarms of unmanageable worry? What exactly am I left with? How does one take note of progress without a notable starting point? 📈

That's the thing...they cannot.

The past is unchangeable & the future is unknowable.

The present is a sequence of countless unending opportunities to reinvent yourself (using the inspiringly dynamic duo: the context of the past plus the achievable promise of the future) ✨

Allow me to rephrase my point a different way:

Say you're happily married in 2023.

Bravo! Cheers! Hats off to you 🎩

Wind the clocks back 5-10 years, however...

You haven't met your lovable partner just yet.

Instead, you're in a relationship with someone else 🫢

Perhaps cringey to revisit, but assuredly worth it 👌🏼

Trust me, we're not calling or texting anyone today ❌

But stick with me here...⬇️

Believe it or not, this person brought value into your life (and continues to do so!) 😳

Let me explain ⬇️

This is the human being who displayed the future of what you're romantically in search of 🔍

Without them, you may halt the development of your personality significantly! After all, how do you learn the right one without experiencing the wrong one?

Every experience you endure/enjoy is part of the journey 😊

That journey is what made you!

As Oprah famously said:

"No experience is ever wasted, everything has meaning."

On top of that, she added:

"Everything that is happening to you is being drawn into your life as a means to help you evolve into who you were really meant to be here on Earth."

Everything is a matter of perspective 🧠

Hollywood provides countess examples of this 🎥

Rocky could've called it quits after Apollo squandered his reputation to the press 🥊

Eminem could've fled into self-pity and never appeared at the final battle 🎤

Luke could've been too distraught to take on Vader after losing Ben 🚀

Simba could've used overwhelm to turn a blind eye to Pride Rock 🦁

We could go on for days but here's the point ⬇️

A traffic jam causes distress until you've been laid off.

A layoff feels like a tragedy until you've experienced the loss of a loved one.

A stain on your shirt feels like a disaster until you've just survived a car accident.

A parking ticket feels like a catastrophe until you've endured heartbreak from a breakup.

Again, we could go on for days, but I'll cut us all some slack 👊🏼

After all, none of us have it figured out, am I right? 😅

If I could hit you with a friendly piece of advice before you go...

It'd be to kick off your morning in the best way possible ☀️

Ultimately, mornings are the essential building blocks to the mindsets we construct throughout our day 💡

Mornings become afternoons, afternoons become evenings 🌙

Therefore, they're more like the kickstart to our entire life 🦵🏼

Find what works for your mornings & stick to it 🌞

Can't figure it out? It'll come to you 😎

Until then, Bon Voyage! Thanks for reading along 🙂

Keep track of your rough draft(s) 😊

And above all, be kind (to others and yourself!) 💕

"What if kindness were our currency? 💰

... life can throw you some of the highest highs and lowest lows within a matter of months, weeks, or days.

...life holds a distinctly melancholy role of controlling the tempo & tone of how we tend to carry ourselves, with the ability to surprise you with effortless smiles at any given second 😌