Bra Barrette

As the time approaches for the 3 Day walk that Team Bra Barrette has dedicated ourselves to (60 miles over 3 days), I have been spending some time thinking about where self confidence comes from?  Is it when we successfully finish something?    When we decide to take on a challenge and forget about the consequences?  When someone tells us we are doing a good job?  When we win the lottery? In wearing the perfect outfit?  In realizing your bra straps aren’t slipping anymore?

I want to share with you what I recently discovered.  

10 days ago we walked our longest distance yet in training, 18 miles in one day, near the end as my feet would barely move those last few miles I couldn’t help but think: “I’m crazy, what have I gotten myself into!”   Listening as my teammate Jackie, kept swearing, the car is just around the corner and that we’re almost there…I thought to myself “can’t keep going, must stop”  but yet I kept going.  Why?  I realized somewhere in my own misery that while I had voluntarily done this to myself, those I walk for in the 3 Day don’t have a choice, they didn’t volunteer to get cancer.   I had my Ah-ha moment!  I realized that my own self confidence is not acheived in making it to the finish line, but in continuing on when I didn’t want to.  While I certainly felt relief at finally seeing the car at the end of that long day, it wasn’t then that I felt that sense of internal strength and pride, it was when I picked up and kept moving even when I really wanted to quit.   I realize now more than ever how much real strength for me is not in finishing a task, but it continuing on even when I want to quit.

It’s so appropriate that my realization would come when that is where I am in my life right now, wanting to quit working as the economy has made things difficult for selling the Bra Barrette and making money.  I turn on the TV and see competitive products flooding the market with paid advertisiments, something I can’t afford to do.  I see potential customers buying a competitive product that I know from personal experience is not as comfortable and durable as mine.  I realize now that this is where my self confidence comes from, as I sit here struggling to make every small sale, to keep going even when I don’t want to.     

We’re all different in what gives us strength and confidence, where do you find your self confidence? 

Lara

Tags: Finding Confidence

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 25th, 2009 at 12:29 pm and is filed under Finding Confidence. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.