Focus on your strengths

When I first started writing my blog, my ultimate goal was to inspire women to go after their goals, because why the hell not? I wanted to examine what I inherently believed and use that to motivate and support women to take action towards life-changing goals, the things they always wanted to do, but never had the accountability to actually accomplish. But, I struggled with what to really write about.

Because of this very dilemma, one of my early articles was titled Finding Clarity in a Sea of Creativity. Even though I wrote this to encourage people like you reading this article, I still struggled with my focus because of a number of different factors. One was creativity, but many others things like finding balance between my home life (which included a new baby at the time) and my full-time job, I was overwhelmed with the push-and-pull of being the only person on the team.

As I shared in that post, I had newly discovered my virtual mentor, Rosetta Thurman, and was working my way through her book, Launch Your Business . In the post, I encouraged the reader to learn and take advantage of their strengths.

That's not to say, run from, hide or avoid your weaknesses, but it's a reminder that you do bring something to the table and you have to leverage it to manifest what's missing, if anything.

If you're anything like me, it may take you some time to really leverage your strengths, especially if you keep running from your truth. The truth is, you want something different. The truth is, some people won't understand that, and that's ok. That doesn't mean that you love or value them any less. It means that you are shifting your focus to what you think and feel about you, rather than trying to manage their thoughts and feelings.

The reason why we spend so much time trying to manage other people's thoughts and feelings is because we are seeking their validation. But, when you realize that God has already called you to your purpose, you'll know that you don't need their validation. That doesn't mean that the desire to please others will away overnight, it just means that your focus will keep you true to your purpose.

I almost let my book fall through the cracks, because of my need for validation. I put it on the shelf so many times and figured that it just wasn't my time to finish it. I mean, there were so many other important things to focus on...or so I thought. Not only was I chasing validation, I was also chasing someone else's idea of success, which happened to be money. I spent a lot of time thinking about how to make money (which is important in business) and not on actually doing the work. Then after putting the work off for so long and missing my personal deadlines, I was defeated. So defeated that I stopped writing.

It was business coach that gave me 3 simple steps to get back on track. She told me to first, open the document. Second, she said use your words to inspire and encourage yourself, and third just start writing. It was so simple, but to actually read my own words and realize that I actually wrote them helped me to remember to stand on God's promises and focus on my strengths.