Take a Bow and Give Yourself Some Goddamn Credit

I am a natural cheerleader. For my children, for my husband, for my extended family and for all the amazing women I surround myself with. But I’m really horrible at cheering myself on, and I think the majority of us are in the same boat.

I think as a society we have been taught over time that if we talk too much about our accomplishments and accolades, we are viewed as cocky or arrogant. So, many of us never take the credit when we achieve things, or we brush it off, sweeping compliments under the rug or being very uncomfortable with them.

Why? Why not be proud of the things we are doing in our insanely chaotic and ever changing lives? We are not only surviving, a lot of us are THRIVING! And it’s a beautiful thing to not only celebrate but to talk about our accomplishments to the people around us. We all deserve a pat on the back, and not just from our loved ones, but from OURSELVES!

The last 20 days I have been taking part in an online challenge called #Last90Days, put on by author/blogger/speaker Rachel Hollis and her husband, Dave Hollis. The premise of this challenge is to take the last 90 days of the year and put as much effort into ending your year strong as you would into beginning your year strong! We all make New Years resolutions (don’t lie, you know you do!), and leading up to that magical reset of a night, we are probably sabotaging our health and well being because we make excuses that it’s the holidays, or that we will be resetting in January so we can treat ourselves. So Rachel and Dave started this challenge a few years ago just between themselves, and then they released it to their online community and people LOVED IT! It’s so simple, yet SO CHALLENGING!

The first concept they teach us is to commit to our Five to Thrive! These are the 5 things that you will do each day of the #Last90Days Challenge.

#1-Get up an hour earlier than you usually do and use that time for YOURSELF!

#2-Work out at least 30 minutes each day.

#3-Drink half your body weight in ounces of water every day.

#4-Give up one food category you know you shouldn’t be eating.

#5-Write down 10 things you are grateful for each day.

At first, this seems like a piece of cake. Until that alarm goes off that first morning. Until you are running to the bathroom every 10 minutes to pee. Until you are passing by Taco Bell during a super busy day. Until getting active is THE LAST thing you want to do with your day.

Now I admit, I have not been doing my 5 to Thrive everyday. Waking up early to have time to myself never works, because no matter how quiet I am, my kids sense that I am up and there goes my “me” time. But I have been strong on my no fast food, water goal, and writing my gratitude. Dave spoke in a video that by the end of this challenge, you will have written down 900 things! 900 GRATITUDE ENTRIES! That really spoke to me and it has been my favorite part of this whole journey. I have even included my boys in this aspect and I love hearing what they are grateful for each night.

So how does this all tie in to giving yourself credit? Well, there is a #Last90Days FB group, and I almost had to remove myself from it. I was blown away with the negative comments, the women being so incredibly mean to themselves, and mean to each other. This group was supposed to be this place of support and accountability, but of course, there are humans in it and humans ruin everything. It got me thinking about how lucky I am to have such an amazing tribe of women in my life who are constantly uplifting each other and supporting each other. But do any of us take credit for the things we do? Not really, and that is a shame.

So I am putting my foot down! I am giving myself some god damn credit, and I invite you to do the same, whether it’s to your tribe, to your family, or just in the comments of this blog post! I do a lot of shit, each and every day to make life run smoothly for my family, for my kids school, for my Arbonne team, and for other things that come up throughout my journey.

Every morning, I get my kids ready for their day along with myself. Some days are better than others, but I do it every day! I try and keep up on the daily household items so our home doesn’t turn into a tornado of chaos. My husband and kids are usually dressed in clean clothes, they are fed, our schedules are set, I take my kids to any and all appointments/playdates/activities. My house might not be the cleanest, but it is livable! I cook healthy meals almost every night and cuddle my boys before bed every night.

I run my elementary school PTO as the President, which is a lot of work! I mediate between parents, I keep everyone informed on important dates/events, I help plan events, I communicate with the school leadership team and our principle so we are on the same page. I work with businesses in the community to get donations for our school.

I run my own health and wellness business with Arbonne International. I have a solid client base that I absolutely love and cherish, and I do my best to serve them to the best of my abilities. I help our local team by training on anything they ask me to, I created a website for our team to utilize, and I create tons of marketing graphics to share with our amazing nation. We put on team events where I usually help present our products/business, and I usually provide healthy food for our clients to enjoy during the event.

I write this blog because it helps me stay sane, but I also am a contributor for our local Moms Blog where I write about things I think parents would enjoy reading or I feature awesome things in our town that parents and kids would enjoy. I love being involved in what our city has to offer families.

I’m also part of a women’s connection company that brings women together to build lasting relationships and strong business connections. Being a part of that group motivated me to share more of my story on a public platform and I have done 3 public speaking events since being a member (if you know me, you know that that is a HUGE deal).

I’m also part of a giant crazy family and I try to be as involved as possible with my siblings, parents, and extended family. I support their businesses, I am an ear to listen, and I’m always sending my love, prayers, thoughts to everyone in my family. We are an amazing group of people, and although we can drive each other completely insane, we have so much love for each other.

I’m sure there is even more, but that’s all I got for now! But I want to hear from you! What can you give yourself some credit for? I want you to toot your own horn, brag a little, and tell me some of your accomplishments that you are proud of. Because you should be proud! You are an amazing human being and you contribute to life every single day, whether it’s big or small!