Make yourself Proud

  

We always try to make others proud. Our parents, our family, our kids, our partner, the company we work for, maybe even friends. In the entire game we forget the one person that really matters: ourselves. 

I had a little exchange with Danny from Dream Big, Dream Often about conformity. Exchanged thoughts about how conformity, social norms, simple manners and letting someone find their identity can become quite and interesting mix and how everything can be thrown out of balance. Then I saw this and then I saw a very interesting post on Facebook, written by Molly Galbraith (you can also find her here):

“This is my body. 

This not a before picture. 

This is not an after picture.

This just happens to be what my body looks like on a random Tuesday in December of 2015 — it’s a LIFE picture. 

This is a body that loves protein and vegetables and queso and ice cream.

This is a body that loves bent presses and pull-ups and deadlifts and sleep. 

This is a body that has been abused with fast food and late nights and stress.

This is a body that has been pushed to the brink of leanness in figure competitions and maximum strength in powerlifting meets. 

This is a body that begged for mercy when it was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s and PCOS. 

This is a body that has been called:
– too fat
– too thin
– too masculine
– too strong
– too weak
– too big
– too skinny

…all within the same week. 

This body has been publicly evaluated, judged, and criticized, and those judgments have been used to determine my level of skill as a coach and a trainer, and my worth as a person, both positively and negatively. 

Some people say they would “kill to have this body.” 

Others say they would “kill themselves if they had this body.” 

(Yes, unfortunately that’s actually a thing humans say to one another.)

This is a body that I spent too much time, energy, and mental space wishing would look differently.  

And today? 

Today this is a body that is loved, adored, and cherished by the only person whose opinion matters — ME.

This is the first year in as long as I can remember that I have made NO resolutions to change the way my body looks.  
This is a kind of freedom I didn’t think I’d ever experience, and it feels really, really good.

This is the picture she posted with this text:

 
And somehow it all kind of comes together for me. 

Way to often we worry about what others might think of us, what they expect from us and in doing so we forget to really listen to ourselves, to make ourselves happy. 

Time to change that and finally listen to what we want and make ourselves proud.