Midlife Will Test Your Mettle
When I was young most things - except for math - came very easily to me. With moderate effort, I could do pretty well in school, have friends, be good with horses, school sports, etc.⠀
Not amazing. Pretty good.
Things got harder in college and because I had never built that resilience, my grades and relationships went from pretty good, to marginal. I graduated, but I remember one English professor handing back an essay I'd written just bleeding red. He asked me to stay after class, then he sat down and sighed, and asked me,⠀
"Why don't you try harder?"⠀
Ouch.
Why am I sharing such a humiliating story? Because it's instructive to all of you who want to make your lives matter, live your purpose, master something, change some unjust political structure, live on fire and on purpose. You have to know that it's going to cost you some sweat.
It wasn't that I couldn't work hard, I had just learned how not to. Nothing great ever comes out of that posture because it's reactive, not creative.
Any business coach worth their salt will tell you that you will want to quit your business 1000 times in the first two years. Many people do. For some reason, I didn't, and instead, learned how to persist through all the uncertainty, fear, frustration and failures. That built emotional resilience in me I never cultivated when my life was too easy.
All that to say, Happy New Year! How was the gym this morning?
Brutal?
Good. Keep going.
Please keep going on the things that matter to you. If you don't know how to persist just start by not quitting when things get hard, forgive yourself and show up again tomorrow. Over time, you will be amazed at what you can do.
ps. Did you know you can get free coaching from me every Friday at Noon CST. Just hop over to Girl Catch Fire on Facebook where I go live each week for 15-20 minutes and go through your most pressing coaching questions. You can ask one in advance or ask me LIVE.
Also, isn't it time to get yourself unstuck and moving toward your purpose so you can grow your impact and build a happy second half? If so, I can help. Check out our brand new midlife program, where we help you navigate the confusing and sometimes painful identity shifts that happen in midlife.