You are a Warrior

Life is exciting, colorful, and yes, difficult. Just when you think you’ve got everything under control, an obstacle will write itself into your perfectly planned story.

Friends will let you down. Companies will let you go. Illness will creep its way under your skin and threaten you in ways you never knew possible.

But you will rise to the occasion. Because you are a warrior.

A warrior isn’t necessarily a winner. There will be times that your fight leaves you in a puddle of tears and shaking with exhaustion.

And you will rise up to fight another day. Losing a fight doesn’t mean you’ve lost the war.

Some battles you will win with ease. I hope these wins are plentiful and joyful. But your character will grow the most in the battles that you lose.

Sometimes you’ll win. Sometimes you’ll learn. And there’s a lesson in every loss. Dig deep and find that lesson.

What may surprise you is that some of the greatest challenges you’ll come across won’t be from friends, family, or colleagues. Your biggest adversary is often yourself.

Inside your head, there is a whirlwind spinning around. It’s a tornado filled with ideas, to-do lists, and worries. And deep in the center of that storm is a voice that is telling you to give up. It tells you not to take the risk, not to make the change, not to follow the path that you want so desperately to follow.

This voice is your greatest enemy and the hardest challenger to conquer. It will give you a million logical reasons why you should be safe, why you should not forge your own path, why you should stick with the crowd.

Fighting this voice is what separates the passive participants from the ultimate warriors. Warriors don’t put on sneakers and walk down the paved path. They lace up their hiking boots, rip down barriers, and bring a first aid kit to patch themselves up along the way.

Listen to your heart. Listen to the butterflies in your stomach. Listen to the tiny little voice that is whispering quietly to you to do something different. Stay with the struggle. Fight through the explosion of voices in your head that are telling you that you are too average, too inexperienced or too whatever else that you aren’t.

Straighten your spine and rise up.

Fight for the you that your five year old self wanted to grow up to be. She’s never stopped believing in you.

You are a unique combination of experiences, skills and emotions. Don’t silence the whisper in your head. Turn down the volume of the detractors so that your true voice can be heard.

Be difficult. Challenge norms. Question the status quo. Cause a ruckus. Have guts for miles.

Be a warrior.

Photo by Timothy Eberly on Unsplash