Happy Birthday to ME!
No, I’m not 35. I’m 36 today. What just passed was my 35th year.
#Thriveat35 was my mantra for the year. I didn’t make a big deal out of it. I didn’t post it everywhere. I told only a few friends, half-heartedly because frankly…. I didn’t know what it really meant & what it would look like.
Could I really #Thriveat35?
Now that my 35th year is drawing to a close, I would say that I did indeed #Thriveat35
What did that look like? What does it look like to #Thriveat35? TBH, it looked like a big ole crazy, scary, season-ending, mind-boggling, jumping off cliffs, sloppy, broke-*** mess!
Here’s what I learned in this 35th year (in no particular order).
I wanted the New Beginning but avoided the Ending. The two are connected.
PERSPECTIVE IS EVERYTHING.
Say yes to things that scare the CRAP out of me.
Sisterhood group chats are essentially the “hype man” that every good rapper needs; they repeat all the good parts for emphasis. Don’t begrudge your role as “hype man” for you will need one soon.
Success lies in habits.
There is no formula. They’re lying if they say there is.
Early rising is life-giving & life-saving.
The Bible be right. For real.
Making the bed helps me focus throughout the day.
Healthy partnership is essential for…so many things.
I could be wrong. That is completely okay.
Marrying my husband? #OneoftheBestDecisionsIveEverMade
Addendum to the above: Only marry #ThriveEnablers
Rooting for (or clapping) at someone else’s trouble shows what’s really in my heart.
The sound my feet make walking away from things not meant for me is music.
There is a peace in not having it all figured out.
Sometimes self-care is getting my ish done.
I cannot serve both God & Money.
I cannot serve both God & my Ego.
I cannot serve both God & my insecurities (which is essentially my Ego)
I cannot serve both God and YOU as Ruler in my life.
God is speaking. I’m the one with the hearing problem.
Kindness matters. So much.
Being kind to myself matters even more.
Love TRULY COVERS a multitude of sins.
Learn other people’s lessons too.
God IS and always has been waiting for me.
I’m my own competition, I’m competing with myself.
I’m not late. I’m not behind.
My voice matters & has POWER.
Decisions have consequences. Sometimes God graced me that I didn’t feel the full effects. Sometimes He graced me to feel it in as much fullness as I could take. Both are GRACE.
Discovery of my “whys” has been the best part of the year.
My brain is expensive.
TRY.
35 has been a most enlightening year. I’ve learned so much about myself, what makes me tick & what I’m capable of. The best thing I’ve learned is…
35. Candace, accept your magic.
It’s so much easier to pick out every flaw. Those, I’m already intimately acquainted with. I wanted to meet my magic. And, I did.
I’m interested to see what 36 has for me. I have so many projects in the works. Projects that make me excited. Stories that need to be told. Creativity, that is a direct result of me discovering my “whys”.
I don’t have a cute hashtag for 36. Yet. Leave your suggestions in the comments below along with anything you’ve learned this past year.
A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps. – Proverbs 16:9 KJV
Soundtrack for this blog is brought to you by B. Reith ft. PJ Morton – For Once in my Life.
I told ya’ll that 2017 was fittin’ to be LIT, but I certainly didn’t expect some of this ish.
I’m currently writing to you all from my couch. I am not off. I am currently jobless. I was at my company for 14 years, and in 6 months, it all came to an end. It wasn’t all bitter, but it was still an end. I haven’t gotten another job yet (at least not a steady one). While all of this was going on, I was eerily calm. I wasn’t nervous about not having a job.
I also knew that this year, God was really going to be opening doors for ubu4him. Not because this year is special, but because I had planned to be different this year. I had planned to not squander opportunities and to hustle a little harder. Because I’d planned to invest in MYSELF; in my own God-breathed vision instead of working hard for another’s.
WELL, the beginning of the year started off great (as it often does for me). I was writing, I was hustling, I was networking. Things were moving right along.
THEN, it hit.
That feeling. That tired, worn out, I don’t feel like doing anything feeling. I didn’t want to write. I didn’t want to network. I didn’t want to revamp any more of my website. I didn’t want to create any more databases. I didn’t want to listen to any more business podcasts. I didn’t want to set up my LLC. I just got OVERWHELMED with the sheer enormity of it all.
I envy people who have this 2nd, 3rd or 4th drive that kicks in when life gets this way. Some people (at least from my view) are able to burrow through how they’re feeling and just PUSH to get things done. I tend to retreat & escape. Whatever I’m doing comes to a full stop and then I find something to take my mind away from all that I’m doing.
I said to myself “I’m taking the month off.”
Then one month turned into two into three…and here we are…August 2017 and I feel like I’m hitting the restart button…AGAIN.
Some days I am just sick of myself. WHY AM I THIS WAY?! WHY CAN’T I JUST KEEP IT TOGETHER?!
And let’s not mince words. I’ve been unemployed since June. THIS would be the time to go FULL hustle into my dreams. Why not? I have the time! Can’t use that as an excuse anymore.
But I didn’t & I haven’t. So in only the way that the Lord Jesus can… He sent folks into my life to get me together.
I have a group of girlfriends that I’ve had since college. The Holy Spirit loves nothing more (it seems) than to tell on us to each other. We’ve been dreaming/rebuking/praying/speaking to each other since we were in our early 20’s.
So maybe 2 months ago, my friend hit me up RANDOMLY with the following text
“Are you considering giving up on something? I had a dream last night. You were telling me you were getting an abortion.” (The fact that she knew not to take that dream literally should tell you the level of discernment).
ME: COME ON MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (The fact that I knew EXACTLY what the deal was should tell you how the Holy Ghost was already in my ear!) Yeah, I guess that’s an accurate description. Anytime the Lord has spoken to me specifically about my purpose it’s been in the form of “birthing.” So yeah, not currently on ubu4him like I should be…the writing, the prophetic…I just stalled.”
She goes on to tell me that I wanted to have this abortion at the “Y”. She said to me that I wasn’t thinking this all the way through and that I just didn’t want to be pregnant and she asked me why.
I told her that I felt like maybe my pregnancy just wasn’t that serious. That maybe I had been indoctrinated with all this super hype Christian stuff, but maybe, ultimately, it just wasn’t that deep. She told me that it was indeed very serious and I really needed to think it through. She told me it was my decision, but that it would follow me the rest of my life. It would never go away. It would affect everyone I had a relationship with. You will always have it in the back of your mind, you’ll always grieve it and you will always think about what if you hadn’t.
My final text to her on the subject was “The Holy Spirit does too much.”
Isn’t the Holy Spirit ignorant to me? You see how he doesn’t care about my feelings?!
I just didn’t want to be pregnant anymore.
Truer words were never spoken.
God has ALWAYS connected my purpose with me being pregnant. And here I am about to abort this baby. Maybe a decade ago, another friend of mine (same group) had a dream about my baby being stillborn. BUT THIS? This time it’s on me. This was me making a conscious choice to kill what was growing on the inside of me.
Pregnancy is inconvenient. It can be painful. Your body is expanding and if this is your first baby, you have no idea what to expect. It’s so scary. And it’s not that you don’t want the baby. You want the joy of the baby but can you endure the uncertainty of pregnancy?
*sigh*
I am an expert at getting in my own way. And why? I am SO SCARED that I’m going to found out to be fraudulent; that what I’m carrying isn’t that great. That I’m not that great.
It doesn’t matter how many people tell me how awesome I am, how awesome my ministry is and will be, how many dreams, visions & prophetic words come down the pike, I HAVE TO BELIEVE IT FOR MYSELF in order to bring this baby to full-term.
In the Holy Spirit’s final effort to get me writing (and doing all the other stuff I need to be doing) another friend hit me up to ask me if I was writing. I told her no. I was honest with her about how scared I was about not being able to hack it in this Entrepreneurial life. How I was being told from various sources that I wasn’t going back into a 9-5 life and the thought terrified me. I was worried about my lack of discipline & stick-to-itiveness. You know you need those when you run your own business.
She mentioned something called Imposter Syndrome. It’s where you have all the talent, all the ability, all the knowledge, all the skill, but you don’t THINK you do, so you don’t think you deserve the promotion, the opportunity, the chance that you’ve worked for, or are aiming for.
My Life.
At the core, I don’t believe I deserve success. I don’t believe I could keep up with being successful on my own. I don’t believe I have the skills necessary for success; I don’t have the knowledge. I just took a freelance position as a social media marketing manager. I almost didn’t take it because I didn’t BELIEVE I could do it. MIND YOU, I did it for my last job and trained someone else in it too! WHY do I always talk myself out of opportunity?
Everyone sees my gifts, all I see are my flaws. Does anyone else out there feel like that? Am I alone?
I don’t have any answers at this time. My current remedy is a 4 step process. . .
1) Do things that scare me
2) Redeem my time
3) Believe more of what GOD says about me (He’s the more credible source on me)
4) Take on more opportunities that scare me.
I have no idea on how to attack this issue any other way than to #DoItAfraid
So do not fear, for I am with you: do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. – Isaiah 41:10 NIV
Soundtrack for this blog is brought to you by Hello Fear-Kirk Franklin
CanWil 