How many of you have made a New Year’s resolution and then shortly after the New Year, it failed? I know that I have.
According to a study done by Strava, the social network for athletes, they found out that the second Friday in January is considered the “Quitter’s Day.”
Several years ago, I heard about identifying a word for a year that will guide you for that year instead of having a New Year’s Resolution. After much reflection and noticing this word always coming up, I chose the word COURAGE.
Courage originates from the Latin word ‘cor’, which means heart. Brene Brown states “the original definition of courage was to tell the story of who you are with your whole heart.” Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines courage as a “mental strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulties.”
What this means to me is I need tell my story and be me with my whole heart. I understand the consequence when I become vulnerable, but I will make the choice to move forward despite danger, fear, pain or other challenges that may arise.
Even writing this is super scary to me because I worry about my grammar. I also have a fear of people knowing about my personal struggles. Ultimately, I don’t want to be judged. However, I am going to do this in 2020 and remind myself about COURAGE.
The first step in taking courage for 2020 is to be more visible with my Adoption Coaching Business I created in 2019. My Adoption Coaching Business is working with adoptees and adoptive parents. One way that I guide adoptees as a coach is for them to define and re-write their stories.
As an adoptee, I often felt my story was being told to me by my adoptive family, birth family, adoption papers, the orphanage I lived in, or by society.When do I get to rewrite my story? Through work with a therapist, coach, and trainings; I have defined and re-written my story.
However, there is one story that I have been too scared to re-write.
This story is ……
Part 2 (Moving Forward) will be coming soon.