You know how Facebook and Snapchat will show you ‘on this day’ memories from years and years ago? Last week one of the pictures of me jumped up and really hit me. I had just posted a picture for social media that morning and I went and compared the two. I saw me from three years ago and I felt her strain and her struggle. If you’ve read my bio on my website, I speak of my clients looking different when they move from striving to thriving but I hadn’t really paid this much attention to my transformation. There it was.
The word strive means battle and conflict and yet we’ve been using it as a moniker of success for years. The girl on the left was striving big time. Striving to plot and plan her way into success, battling the internal struggles, both real and perceived expectations of her. She desperately wanted to get it right. Whatever it was.
What I find most interesting is my diet and exercise habits are exactly the same. They’ve been pretty much the same for over a decade. I eat healthy but I’m not militant, I work out regularly, I like to run. What’s different about me in these pictures is what was happening in my mind and in my heart. And most of us women go right to diet and exercise when we want to look and feel better. Sometimes I think that just makes the striving worse.
The girl on the left is hopeful but not happy. The girl on the right knows a joy that comes from within no matter the stress and struggles circling around her.
