Throughout my life something I've experienced is being told by various voices that "you are not good enough", "you are not enough", "you are too much" and I've lived with those thoughts inside my head every day for 44 years.
I have days where I doubt myself, I doubt my work, where the last thing that I feel is enough. Now I don't want this blog post to turn into some kind of maudlin self critical analysis of myself because I want it to be positive and this message I'm writing now, isn't just for me, it's for you, yes, you who's sitting there reading, and thank goodness you are, I didn't write for nearly a month over summer...
Many times in my life I have tried to tone down me, the person that I am, I thought to get acceptance, to make friends or even to win business I had to try to be someone else, someone more confident, someone less crazy, I had to try really hard to be more businesslike, more professional but it doesn't work and if you're trying to do the same thing, you will fail, it will be exhausting pretending to be someone that you aren't and look, I realise that it's almost even more of an effort to be who you really are because those thoughts of self doubt, the angry voices of self hatred, well they're all waiting in the wings to laugh at you but let me tell you this....
You do you lovely, you do you!
The more you become you, the more you will attract the right people to you, people who will love you for who you are, clients who will accept the crazy and run with it because they know, to let you be you is how they'll get the best results. For example, being given carte blanche at a wedding is such a freeing action that it will always herald the greatest results.
Over recent years I've had very few clients who have had fixed ideas about what they wanted me to do, I'm so laid back about my approach that being micromanaged just inhibits all of my creativity, when I work it is, after all, the only time when in my whole life I don't suffer from anxiety, once you try and hem me in with parameters of what I have to do with exacting instructions, the magical pill of anti-anxiety breaks. The magic pill being my camera.
I think when I became the CEO of The Inspire Network my first thought was to try and be more CEO like but you know what, heck, that's never going to work, it doesn't work with photography and it's never going to work in the corporate world either. As a CEO you get me, imperfect, slightly odd me. I have the most awful social anxiety but the more I can go into things being myself the less it flares up so at events and talks it's really not evident and people rarely guess.
So I want to give you a message today, a message of hope...
It's okay to be you, in fact only you can be you, you are enough, you are never too much, you are wonderful and purposeful and you are plenty of good enough. The human race is a magical thing because not one of us is alike and throughout your life you will meet people, some you will love and some will love you, some people you meet, they may dislike you but that's not your fault, yes it would be great to have a world where everyone loved each other but you can't be someone else, you can't change someone so just continue and go forward being yourself, be all of you, be everything you carry in your heart, wear your feelings on your sleeve and before you know it you will not only feel happy and brighter and better but you will attract the right people into your life and your world, no matter how big or small it is, will be a world you'll adore.
You are enough.
You are enough.
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