Moving Past The Fear

Part of my moving past my fear was letting someone else read my story. I asked two friends to read it. Both are editors, so I value their comments.

The first one read it in one night. She loved the story and the main characters. OMG. My sagging ego needed to hear that. She agreed it needed some help to make it shine.

My second friend agreed to edit it, so I’m in the editing stage. Next month I will start the revision stage. I’m excited and nervous to see what she has to say. I’ve told myself, I can handle the criticism because it will make my story a better story and that’s what I want.

As I go on this new journey in my life, I will keep you posted. I’m so ready to get past my fear and see my dream of a book with my name on the cover come true.

How do you move past your fears?

I Love My Hair

One of the first lessons I learned when I went natural was that I knew nothing about my hair.  I had to learn to love my hair for what it was and not what I wanted it be.  This was a hard lesson because there were so many products out there promising to turn my hair into my every dreams.  Unfortunately it can be an expensive lesson if you don’t learn it early.

I had to learn to love my hair for who it is.  This is my hair, not my sisters, not my best friend, not the lady in the hair video. 

Don’t try to make it into someone else’s hair. 

It will never happen and you’ll spend too much on products that don’t work on your hair. 

Learn your hair instead and you’ll fall in love with what God placed on top of your head.  I learned to listen to what my hair needed and what it didn’t like.  It took time, but I believe we are now on good terms.

My suggestion to you if you’re on this natural hair journey,  ask yourself these questions:

What type of hair do you have?

What does your hair need?

What does your hair like?

What does your hair dislike?

What is your hair like in different seasons?

How much time do you want to spend on your hair?

When you know the answers to these questions you are on your way to having hair you love.

Do you love your hair?

Challenges

I’ve decided to start the New Year with two challenges, an exercise challenge and a personal challenge.  I decided to do both because I wanted to change some of my habits this year.  I needed a little exercise in my life and I thought the squat challenge would be the way to start without feeling overwhelmed.

As you know 2012 was a rough year for me so I signed up for the Starting Over Challenge to see if I could get my mind back on track.  I didn’t know what to expect from this challenge, but I was willing to learn.

We had our first phone call and I realized I was starting on a new journey with this challenge.  One of our assignments was to write out a statement.

I want to lose ----- to gain ----

I didn’t do the assignment because I didn’t know what I wanted to lose or gain.  As I read over the groups posts I realized I wasn’t ready to face what I wanted to lose or gain.  For every other post, someone was ready to lose FEAR.  You know my history with that word.  I wasn’t ready to admit that was my issue too.

After the call, I was ready to admit, that I’d let that word creep back into my soul last year.  It popped up when I received the yes for my historical.  It slowly took over me as I read over the story.  You’re not ready it kept whispering to me.  No one will like this story.  No one will buy this book.  I slowly let the words, stop me from moving forward.  I didn’t want to admit to myself that I was scared, instead I told myself the book wasn’t ready.  I missed my own deadline and almost convinced myself that I wasn’t going to submit it.  Thank God for writing friends, who refuse to let me wallow in my fear.  They kept questioning me on my progress.  I didn’t want to say I wasn’t doing anything, so I kept pressing pass the fear.  I finally submitted it to a reader and I beat the fear.

This morning I decided I was ready to admit what I was ready to lose.

I want to lose FEAR to gain SUCCESS IN WHAT EVER I WANT TO ACHIEVE.

I’m ready for the New Year and these new challenges.  I’m also ready to move pass my fear.  I know it will always pop up in my life, but I also know it is a symptom, that I have to learn how to treat.

What new challenges are you trying this year?

Squat Challenge

If you want to join me in the challenge