I’m sure that there are dreams you have that you haven’t reached yet. Even if that dream is just to slow down long enough for a nap. We work so hard that sometimes we forget what we’re working for. We have trouble following through on some commitments. Then, when we’re over stretched, (here’s the kicker), we get upset with ourselves and every one around us pays for it.
Slow down take a breath. This week’s book of the week is Girl, Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis. (For guys I recommend Think and Grow Rich which can be found in the book store.) If you feel like you won’t be able to make the goals you’ve laid out for yourself, there may be a very good reason why. “Your subconscious knows that you, yourself, cannot be trusted after breaking so many plans and giving up on so many goals.”¹ Basically, you don’t trust yourself.
That lack of trust has come from repeatedly letting your own self down. Not because you weren’t good enough. Not because you lacked talent. Not because you weren’t pretty enough or smart enough or all the other things we girls like to wrestle with in our heads. We don’t trust ourselves because, we break promises to ourselves. As Rachel Hollis says in her book Girl, Wash Your Face, “If you constantly make and break promises to yourself, you’re not making promises at all. You’re talking.”²
I am also writing this to myself. I have big goals and dreams. I realize that if I want to achieve those dreams and live to a higher calling then where I am now, then I’m going to have to change my thoughts and change my behaviors. Rach says, “When you really want something, you will find a way. When you don’t really want something you’ll find an excuse.”² Excuses are a dime a dozen. They can be bought and sold at fair market price. But what excuses will never do, is bring you one step closer to your goals. They may be a momentary buffer between you and guilt. They’re great at that. For the short-term that is. And then they present a large bill when you are sitting there wondering why you never were able to make your dreams come true.
It won’t be easy to do. Nothing worth it ever is. It will be a fight to stay true to your words, especially at first. But eventually, the fight will become less awkward, and more aligned with the person you were meant to be. “Whatever standard you’ve set for yourself is where you’ll end up… unless you fight through your instinct and change your pattern. That’s how I changed my own patterns and behaviors – how I established the rule in my life that I would no longer break a promise to myself no matter how small it was.”³
Leadership cannot be found in a one page article of a blog. It can’t be found in a simple one line quote. Leadership is defined by the small moments of character. Those small moments of character come together to a foundation on which leadership is built. There are no quick fixes in the game of leadership. True leadership is built-in the quiet moments of daily decisions.
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Sarah Jackson
Vigilant Poster Girl
References:
- Girl, Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis pg 13
- Girl, Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis pg 14
- Girl, Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis pg 15
Influenced by songwriters like Lucinda Williams, Roseanne Cash, Bruce Springsteen, and Dar Williams, Sarah Popejoy’s songs blend storytelling with an Americana leaning groove. After living in Nashville for 10 years, Sarah moved back home to Tulsa, what Rolling Stone calls the next Austin, where she is producing her 3rd studio album called “The Oklahoma Storyteller”. Most of the album has been recorded at the newly renovated, world-class studio, The Church Studio, in Tulsa, Oklahoma which was previously owned by Leon Russell. All songs on the new album are written by Mrs. Popejoy, a previous award winner of the American Songwriter Magazine Lyric Contest and The Billboard Song Contest.
The intersections of I-40, The King of Trails (Highway 75), and the largest stretch of Route 66, Oklahoma figuratively and literally is the crossroads of the American Story. It was the end of the trail for many indigenous people during America's dark history of forced removal, birthplace of one of the biggest heroes of America's pastime, home to the struggles of those who lived and breathed the Dust Bowl, home of some of the biggest trendsetting influencers in modern American music, and the site of the worst domestic terrorist attack in U.S. history. This is why the first album in The Oklahoma Storyteller series, is called, "The Oklahoma Storyteller: Crossroads of the American Story", set to be released Summer of 2024.