Tag: overcomingobstacles

Overcoming Challenges

As part of a leadership class I am taking, I’m starting a 30 day challenge of Daily Journal Prompts. This is outside of my usual realm, but I’m excited for the challenge!

Prompt 5 – What challenges have you overcome in life?

Well obviously I haven’t overcome the challenge of completing these daily prompts! I’m like 5 behind! I got distracted while on vacation, and then when we returned home, I didn’t think about it until I looked at my materials for the leadership class!

In all seriousness, I’ve overcome so many challenges in life that I don’t know where to start. My first thought was of a challenge around the age of six. As a child, I remember having difficulty running. It turned out that I have scoliosis which had caused one leg to be slightly off and caused a slight off balance to my running. Somehow, I learned to adjust myself over the years since diagnosis which lead to being able to enjoy many sports and activities. Then from the time I was a teenager, I’ve had to deal with the challenge of coping with loss be it friends, pets, or family. This was an emotional challenge that at times can still be difficult. For example, my grandmother has been gone for 12 years, but sometimes I still feel sad moments. Finally, I think of challenges with education and careers. There have been a lot of challenges for me in these areas. It took me 11 1/2 years to finish college from start to finishing my Masters. That season saw me through various careers, and when I decided to step away from a full time traditional career to that of work from home mom, I also experienced some challenges. Sometimes I think having to overcome challenges is such a key part to life that we don’t even realize we’re going through a challenge because we just grab the bull by the horns so to speak.

What challenges have you overcome?

XOXO,

The Great Kaysby

Overcoming Obstacles

Our Memorial Garden

Earlier today, I made this post on my Facebook page:

At 2:30 today, the weeds were still so high that you couldn’t see the sunflower lights. I’d been putting off weeding it for WEEKS because my mind was full of thoughts like:

*I can’t do this without help.
*If I ask for help, it will seem like I can’t take care of myself.
*I can’t do this, I have a toddler. When would I have time?
*I need to use weed killer because my natural remedies haven’t worked. I can’t use weed killer!
*If I weed the garden and use weed killer, I’ll have to shower afterwards and wash the clothes. Who has time for that?

Today, by 3:20, I had weeded it, gone over it with weed killer, put the clothes in the washer, and showered. It isn’t perfect, but it is much improved! Guess what? I did it by myself during toddler nap time (hubby was in the house while I was outside)! It didn’t take near the time I’d built up in my mind, and it wasn’t as hard as it was in my mind! It’s amazing what the brain can convince us we can’t do when we are perfectly capable of doing it!

While in the garden, I felt like I was in one of my two elements where I feel the most relaxed. When I’m in my relaxing element, I get a lot of deep thinking done. Today’s thoughts? One, our brains telling us something is impossible keeps us from achieving greatness. Two, why is the hardest thing in the world to ask for help?

The first thought came from me realizing how easy weeding the garden was. I’m not exaggerating when I say that I had built it up in my head as an impossible task. As I realized how simple it was, I started thinking about all the other things I’ve told myself are impossible over the years like “you’ll never be able to earn the use of a career car” and “you’ll never be able to lose weight”. How many of these am I actually able to accomplish? What all has my brain been holding me back from achieving? My conclusion? Stop listening to the brain say “you can’t” or “you aren’t”, rip the weed out so to speak, and say job well done everyday progress is made towards a goal! I know that’s easier said than done, but I feel realizing I can do things the brain says I can’t it’s a step in the right direction!

As for my second thought, it’s a doozy! It is super hard for me to ask for help. I feel like society engrains in us that asking for help is a sign of weakness. Like if you have to ask for help, then you’re not good enough to do it on your own or have no business doing it in the first place. Both of these are absurd given at some point in life we all need help to get things done! Last week when my AC needed fixing, I couldn’t have done it without a repairman’s help. No where in my skill set is AC repair! That was easy. Dishes piling up that I don’t have time to do today? I can’t ask for help, I’m supposed to be Super Mom/a Wife! Maybe that right there is the answer! Maybe asking for help is only hard when we feel like something is expected of us! Ooo…that really might be it! Either way, I hope that LilKsby grows up being willing to ask for help! I also hope that he never feels people are judging him for asking for help!

So those are my deep thoughts for the day! What are your deep thoughts today?

XOXO,

The Great Kaysby