Last week Jeanne AKA @whollyjeanne tweeted something that’s been rumbling around in my head ever since:
Write it down: you are amazing just the way you are.
— wholly jeanne (@whollyjeanne) January 26, 2013
I loved it so much, I made her a little graphic for it and posted it all over Facebook. And then I started thinking about it. Am I really “amazing” just the way I am?
Amazing is as amazing does. Or is it?
I often say that I am a completely different person now than I was when I was fifteen or twenty-three, or even just a few years ago at thirty-one. But the reality is that I’m the same person, I just behave differently.
At fifteen I was scared and rebellious, and my actions showed it. I lied, I stole, I hid. My fear would tell me I was a bad person, but really I made bad decisions.
At twenty-three I was still scared but not quite as rebellious. I had curtailed the lying and stealing, but I still hid from everything I feared. I believed I was a better person than I used to be, but certainly not amazing.
At thirty-one I had let go of many fears, stereotypes (about myself), and allowed that rebellious fire from my teens to creep back into my life. The lying and stealing were still kept at bay, and I’d started to come out of hiding in a way I never believed was possible. I had begun to see myself as amazing, regardless of my past, present or future actions.
As I sit here today at thirty-seven (dear God, who sped up the clock?!), I am the same person I was all those years ago. I just behave differently.
This isn’t to say that I’ve thwarted all my fears, that I don’t struggle with hiding, or that I believe everything I do is amazing.
This is simply to say that I am amazing on the inside. And if I use that deep knowing as fuel for my behaviors, there’s nothing I can’t do. After all, I’m amazing.
This isn’t about ego. This is about clearing self-doubt, owning who you are, and taking that person from the depths of your heart and soul and showing that person to the rest of the world. Because that person is amazing. YOU are amazing. That’s what authenticity is all about.
So in Jeanne’s words about this image: “I hope it’s hanging where it’s the first thing you see in the morning and the last thing you see at night cause you are.”
Get to right-clicking, saving, printing, and hanging, you amazing thang, you!