I originally planned to publish this blog post on the eve of whenever I happened to start the next exciting chapter of my life. It was to be a cause for celebration after a long and hard battle won. Now that my original deadline has passed and said chapter still remains in the draft stage, I had to re-evaluate what I was going to do with this post.
Recently, I poured out all of my fears and frustrations after facing a devastating setback. I felt so inspired by the outpouring of encouragement, support, and love I received from friends in response. When I am surrounded by darkness, my friends are always there to help me see the light, and I am truly blessed to have them in my life.
One friend brought something to mind which I found to be perspective shifting. The way we measure success tends to be limited to whenever we reach significant Facebook-worthy life events. Landing the promotion, getting married, starting a family… all the landmark milestones you share on your timeline and watch as the likes pour in. But why don’t we treat our moments of personal growth with the same regard and value? How have you transformed from the person you were ten years ago to the person you are today? What challenges did you overcome through hard work and dedication? How has the way you see the world evolved and expanded? Let’s not forget to measure our success by how much we’ve achieved and how far we’ve come along the way to hitting those milestones.
2017 has been filled with ups and downs, triumphs and heartbreaks, accomplishments and disappointments. Every goal unreached tests my ability to get up, persevere, and move forward in the face of hard blows. This whole idea of growing through what you go through in life is what keeps me moving along this obstacle course and moving on toward the next big thing. I realized I don’t need to wait until I’ve reached that big milestone to share what I have learned over the past year, because my success story has already begun. So, here goes….
Elizabeth Rosalyn 