Let yourself be seen

What is your definition of a strong, capable and influential woman?

I ask knowing that we each have a unique answer and can more than likely visualize someone we consider to be strong, capable and influential.

But what about you? Are you strong, capable and influential?

Wait!!  I’ll answer this one for you!

Absolutely! Yes, you most definitely are!

Yet more than likely, you’ve placed a very specific frame around how you describe these three characteristics. And you may add a few more side notes, such as: I’m definitely not as strong as ________, or as accomplished as _______ and definitely not as popular or inspiring as _______.

You know we can all fill in those blanks!!

Throughout many years of my life I covered up my struggles, hurts and weaknesses, in order to appear—if even to myself—that my life was the example that I desired it to be.

And even during some of my most challenging difficulties, I still remained ‘thick-skinned’ in effort to not allow anyone else see me in my suffering…

…because, I wanted others to see the strong, capable and influential woman within.

But in my effort to do so, (and truly with the purest of intentions), I was living with such limitation, that my internal light dimmed, and ego shined more than the real me ever could.

My uniqueness was shadowed by whom I thought I should portray outwardly—which in hindsight, were my conditional definitions of fearless equals strong, education and knowledge equals capable, and well-known and powerful is most definitely influential.

Did you know that we can spend years (and for some, our lifetime), not only comparing who we are to others, but living our lives with such conditions, that we truly don’t give ourselves the gift of living at all?

And without ‘real’ living, we cannot adequately use our gifts, give and receive, grow, or come close to living a fulfilled and abundant life, that we each are intended to experience.

• You can give and receive more, if you lay down your conditions of what perfect giving and receiving looks like.

• You can serve others in limitless capacities, if you re-write the conditions you’ve placed on what you consider to be your gifts and the standard at which they should be given.

My desire for you and I, is to daily rewrite, revise and refine our current definitions, until we discover their life-giving truth and abundance, because you are strong, you are capable and you are influential.

How will you redefine strength, capability and influence?

May we embrace all that we already are and grow through our imperfections and weaknesses.

Mwah!

D

Be you, and thrive

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Art by: R.Cagle