We often share stories about how much we love being our own boss or how we are living our best lives but leave out the moments that we endured to get there.
We glamorize business ownership while leaving out the long hours, lack of time with friends, truth that you now have many bosses (clients) instead of one, and endless decisions and projects that go on when others are off with their families.
We share the story of how wonderful life is and how we are doing everything we love while forgetting to share with you that it took many boxes of Kleenex and countless compositions books to reach this point.
We tell people about the good and leave out the bad because we don’t want to admit the ugly. We only want to show up perfectly filtered.
But sometimes, we hurt people by sharing only our stories and not our moments. They see the beautiful couple but miss the numerous sleepless nights it took to get to that place. They see the thin, sculpted mom of eight but miss out on the battles it took to get the family into a routine that allowed for daily fitness sessions. They see the mom and daughter with a great relationship but miss out on the moments where one didn’t know if the other would come home. The story is a beautiful part of our lives but the moments matter too!
For every person we look at and admire for what they have or how they live, someone is watching us admiring the same about our lives. While we complain about not having a large circle of friends, someone is envying our strong friendships with a small circle. While we long for the spouse, someone is admiring how we thrive independently. When we appreciate where we are, we can evolve and become stronger while sharing with others how we overcome.
Start sharing your awkward moments, painful moments, and elevating moments so the people who are watching your story in the making can realize that they too can become strong, confident, and secure. When we share the moments, we will appreciate the story more AND empower others to embrace their moments.
I’m not sure I have any other painful moments to share. I’m standing here with the skin stripped away, for all to see, and I’m enjoying the breeze blowing on my rawness.
Love the message….blessings to you, my friend.
I think that why I am drawn to your writing Bill! It’s transparent and truly inspiring to where we KNOW that it won’t be easy but it will be rewarding to push through and conquer those trials! Thank you for being you!! Have a wonderful weekend!