Birthdays have always been my favorite time to reflect….
I remember last year August like it happened just yesterday. In fact, on the first day of August this year, I accidentally wore the same outfit I wore on Aug 1st last year. Not that I keep track of my outfits, but when I close my eyes, I’m back at Bluebird cafe in a striped jumpsuit talking about moving to Paris.
Paris was my most exciting adventure last year, it was a huge leap—one that came with the insufferable anxieties of leaving my life behind, but it was what I needed. In contrast to last year, I don’t know where I would be in the next 3 weeks, but if I learned anything this year it would be the power of staying at rest and trusting God.
Rest & settle. Two words that are notoriously interchangeable with laziness and deprivation were for me, this year, something conversely powerful: Trust & Self-acceptance.
After having more than my fair share of self-doubt this year, it took a few lessons to make me realize that I am and have always been fully capable of anything. All I had to do was calm down, stop panicking and believe it. That is what settle meant for me, to enter into an unwavering place of power and self-belief. Rest on the other hand meant to simply trust God to do His part. It is not always the easiest thing to believe in anything you can’t see and that includes believing you can be great at something when you’ve watched yourself, firsthand, fail repeatedly. However, when you start looking beyond what you can see: the failures, the dream looking like it will never come true, finances that seem to only get worse or whatever else you may be struggling with and look to God and what He is capable of, it changes everything.
Come to a place of Rest that everything will work out. & Settle, settle into who you are—your power & what makes you unique—love and honor it. Never dim it or hide it. Choose the person you are over everything and everyone and allow it to magnetize your tribe and your share of the amazing gifts of life.
I believe that one of the things that transform a person from ordinary to amazing is a combination of these two: Settle—listen quietly to your heart, get to know yourself and accept yourself and dreams as valid… & Rest—wholly and confidently believe that you have already been blessed with the power and capability to achieve anything on your heart.
& Rest—wholly and confidently believe that you have already been blessed with the power and capability to achieve anything on your heart.
Women that continue to push boundaries and inspire me are my mom, Serena Williams and Beyonce! (to name a few)
When I talk about believing in myself I am really talking about believing in the power at work within me – the power of a mighty God. Just what would our lives be like if we started to really believe we held power that great. Well, I certainly can’t wait to find out this new year.
