Even after all these years I still get discouraged when I am ready to go into a new venture. I am a firm believer in reinventing yourself no matter how old you are. I have experienced so many changes with age, some good and some not so good. I think one of the biggest changes is still moving forward even when I’m tired or burned out or insecure. I sometimes think of where I would have been 10 years ago if I had taken another path and then I realize it doesn’t matter. I’m on my path right now and I have to remind myself that this is a perfect time. I look around and see other people doing the same thing or having the same ideas and I worry if there will be a place for me. And then I see someone I haven’t seen in a long time, run the idea by them and realize that I am really unique in my own way. Those years have given me the edge to have experienced more, traveled more, met more people and made the mistakes that I hope will help others avoid.
But I would be lying if I said I don’t have those moments of panic when I wonder if I’m crazy in believing I am going to pull it off. It doesn’t seem to matter that I have been very successful in other things. This is new and this is putting myself on the line one more time. And discouragement starts to creep in again. The disappointment and fear if I fail. If I fall flat on my face. What will people say? What will they think? Do I really have what it takes? I get discouraged it’s not happening fast enough as time is going by so fast. So many things are swirly in my head that inside I’m screaming and then I know it’s just me making another shift. Because I’m still moving forward and little by little small victories are happening.
I am determined to yet again move through. And how are you moving through? How are you moving through the discouragements you come across from friends, family, and peers who question when you are ready to move into that unknown. Regardless of age, there are always questions about whether we have what it takes. In the word discouragement is the word courage. That’s how I want to look at it. When I think of the courage I am finding in myself I am far from being discouraged.