Last Thursday, Lindsay Baumgartner, one of our SOAR! Recipients wrote a powerful blog post in regards to the progress she’s making with the Business Coaching challenge of  Three Steps to Increase Your Income.

In fact, all three ladies knocked it out of the park last week in their blog posts.  If you didn’t get a chance to read them, head over to the SOAR! blog and click on the Business Coaching category.  Lindsay’s post touched me on such a deep level, I had to share it here.   Get a Kleenex box.  You may need it, but it is so worth it.  And yes, it has everything to do with Increasing Your Income.  (thank you Lindsay, so very proud of you)

________________________________________________________________________________________________

So two months ago I set an income goal with my business coach Fay, and it felt good, right, and obtainable at the time.  I  was having interest and booking sessions.  Now two months later, I am at a stand still and that monetary amount is taunting me telling me that I will never meet it by the end of the year.  What was I thinking?  Who do I think I am?

So in Karen’s blog she talked about loving the little girl in you.

“Do you feel unsure or uncomfortable? Too small to do this? Do you stop yourself before you even set a goal cause you worry you’ll fall short? Do you feel embarrassed about asking for what you are worth so you ask for so little that they don’t trust that you know what you are doing?  Does it feel like you stop yourself before you really get some momentum going?”

In reading Karen’s post and I realized something.  I realized that I am not being very kind to that little girl.  In fact I would say that I am more abusive to her than I am loving.  Would it ever be okay for someone to treat my sweet little girl like this?  NO WAY!!  Momma bear would come roaring out and that would be the end of that.  Why don’t I do the same thing for myself?  Perhaps because it is so much easier for me to see the good in others, their beauty, and their worth.

I like to think of myself as a kind and supportive person.  I hope that I encourage the people in my life.  Somewhere along my journey in life I have forgotten to do this for myself.  If I can’t be nice to Lindsay why should I expect anyone else to be?!!  I recently found these pictures on my computer of myself.  There was so much joy and innocence in those images.

I want to grab that little girl and hug her.  I want to tell her how special she is and that she could really go places if she would just learn how to love herself more.  I would tell her that she is beautiful and gifted, and all the things that made her odd will some day make her special.  I would tell her that life can be hard, but that the good will always out way the bad.

I would tell that little girl to be herself…and that is good enough.  I would tell her that I love her, and that more importantly someone much bigger than anything else that loves her unconditionally.  I would encourage her to forgive herself for mistakes she makes, and do her best to learn from them.  I would tell her to smile that beautiful smile and trust that there is a greater plan for her.

I did not expect to sit here crying as I wrote my business Blog, but alas those tears are a flowing.  But perhaps this is one of the moments that Jen spoke so eloquently about in her Blog last week.

“Challenges make us vulnerable.  A lot of times vulnerable is not comfortable.  But I realize that if I don’t experience vulnerable, I can also feel a false sense of security…like I’m in control.  It takes me feeling vulnerable to understand that I am Protected.  And if this understanding adds depth to what I can “see” as a person, a wife, a photographer…all the more worth it!”

I think that changes are happening in my life.  Some expected and some completely unexpected, and in working through this assignment I think I realized some very deep things about myself on a very personal level.

So to bring this back around to what it was supposed to be about…while I have fallen off the path of reaching my monetary goals at the moment, it is not to say that I will be off it for good.  I want to succeed at this so bad I am terrified of failing.  I put obstacles and expectations in my way that prevent me from ever knowing if I really could succeed.  I don’t want to do that anymore.  In this moment I am not afraid of disappointing anyone…but that beautiful little girl in the pictures and my Provider.

Shine On,

Lindsay

***All of these pictures were taken by my Momma when I was growing up.  I think she did a wonderful job, I love you Mom!!***