Why bother?

Recently I’ve been very into self-help books. Whether they are religious or not, I love them. They serve as a constant reminder that each one of us is great in our own way. They are full of all these awesome pointers that should help us out if we know how to apply them to our lives. The main objective of these books are to remind their readers that they can overcome and accomplish anything. Positive thoughts = a positive life. Can I be the first to admit that I have a hard time following their positivity. It sounds great and all, until you actually try to apply their words to your life. Even when it comes to reading devotionals or reading the Bible, the messages state that God loves us and we can do anything through him if we have faith in him. Often times we read all these encouraging words that have the power to change our lives but nothing happens. We read and re-read them, but we struggle to understand how they fit into our lives.

Lack of confidence?

It came to my attention that a lot of us never end up doing what we have envisioned for our lives. We stray away from the things we would “love” to do. Why do we do it? Why don’t we ever go for the things that would make us happy? For many of us, we might believe it to be a waste of time. For others that might want to pick up a hobby or apply for their dream career, we might believe that there are better candidates than us or that we might simply suck at it. Learning to play an instrument? “I’ll never learn how to do that!” Learning to paint? “Why would I? There are people out there much better than me. I’ll just buy theirs.” Begin to write your own blog that you’ve been dreaming of doing for a while? “Who is going to read my content? There are like a million other blogging sites that are more popular than mine ever would be”. Start a business of your own where you are your own boss? “No…there are already plenty of businesses like that, mine just won’t be able to compete”. Why do we keep doing this to ourselves?!

So here is my truth:

For as long as I can remember, I have been wanting to write a blog. Never did I think I would do it but here I am. Did I think I would be any good at it? Heck no. Did I think anyone would take the time to read through my post? Not really. All those negative thoughts just held me back from doing something I really wanted to do. Why did I allow myself to think that way? I mean, Thank God that He took that fear and negativity out of my head. I had finally done it but then the other night it was like I had forgotten to be positive and trust God. I asked my boyfriend, “Why am I even doing this? I don’t think anyone is even reading my blog. There are so many other people doing the same thing. I am probably just wasting my time”. He told me the same thing the self-help books had been saying “Do it because you want to do it. You never know who you might make a difference too”. This conversation got me thinking of two very important things:

-Why was I really doing this and with what expectations?

-What made me stand out from everyone else?

And here is what I concluded: I wanted to do it so I could publish God related messages that I believe could be relevant to at least one person out there. I am not quite sure what would make me stand out but there has to be something right? (my boyfriend said that he could read the “Miami” in my post, so I guess that counts as standing out).

Andddd here is the self-help talk.

Why do we choose to do anything that we love? Simple. To make ourselves HAPPY. We put a downer on our own happiness. Who cares if it makes those around you uncomfortable? Or if they might disagree? At the end of the day, you do what you need to do for yourself. I decided to do this because I wanted to get my words out there while trying to honor God as best as I could. So if 1 person reads this or if 50 people read this…I ‘ll be happy regardless. The other night I came across a verse in the book of Matthew where Jesus was telling the crowds to not publicly do things for the acceptance of others but to instead do things to honor him and shed light of his kingdom. At the end of the day, I would like to be a worker that is working on His harvest and doing what makes ME happy at the same time. I encourage everyone to do the same. Go skydive, go take those salsa classes you’ve been wanting to take, go get in shape, or go and take church and reading the bible serious. When we do what we love, we radiate goodness and positivity. No need to be a debby-downer because you believe it’s to far out of your reach. And yes, there will be other people doing EXACTLY what you are doing but guess what? Each and every single one of us has our own set of talents and special gifts. We have our own perception on how we see things and how we do things. So while you may think you are copying the person next to you, your perception will always be different from theirs. No one two people are alike. So good news! Go ahead and do what you have seen others do without thinking you have to compete with them. You will add your own twist to it and furthermore expanding what is already out there.

“ All that matters is what’s true for you, and if you can stay connected to that without straying, you will be a mighty superhero”.

Jen Sincero

-Brigette