Sesame Street:Song: I Love My Hair

Sing Along & Embrace Who You Are!!!

Loving You

Loving ourselves regardless of our perceived imperfections can sometimes prove to be a challenge. We look in the mirror and compare ourselves to the mythical perfect being. For some strange reason this nonexistent person gets most our attention as we try to live up to someone else's standards.

When we compare ourselves to others, we often feel less than and thus go on that endless quest to be somebody that we are not.

Sesame Street released a new video about the Black muppet who embraces who she is and sings about how much she loves her hair.

When we stop comparing ourselves to others is when we can see the perfection in ourselves. Today love yourself as the beautiful human being that you are.

Dare to Be the Person You Want Be!

Pursuing the Dream

I have been off the blogosphere and I miss all of you. I am glad to be back and want to share with you what I have been up to. I finally finished the book that I had been writing about my mother called In Memory Of a Saint: Lessons from My Mother that I Didn't Pay Attention to Until She Died. As you know, I have written many posts about her and as a result, I wanted to capture her spirit in a book.

The journey has been marvelous as I have been able to put into practice what I preach which is to strive for your goal and to go for your dreams no matter what. I also had the opportunity to take part this summer in Jack Canfield's Breakthrough to Success Training and was able to be among others dreamers.

Today, I hope all of you are pursuing your dreams with passion!

Bossiness is not being a Bitch

I have been told that I am bossy. I have been told that I can be a bitch. I have been told that I am too opinionated. It is interesting to me that people define a woman's strength as bossy, or bitchiness whenever they assert themselves. Yet those same traits in a man are deemed as courageous, bold, a leader. Why is that?

I have decided that I am going to wear that label as one of honor and not a defect of my DNA. No, I am not a female dog. Yes!! Dammit I am a leader. I stand before you proud to be forthright, direct, bold, and sometimes even bossy.

I do not need to step on people to get ahead. That is not the trait of a leader but of a dictator. However, I will use my intellect and my mouth to forge my own path.

I have been told that I am a dreamer. I have been told that I am passionate. I have been told that I march to the beat of my own drum. What labels are holding you back or giving you the strength and determination to blaze your own star trail?

Be Bold! Be Proud!

Dare to Be the Person You
Want to Be!

The Letter

In these challenging times, we need all the encouragement possible to be loving, encouraging, and forgiving to ourselves. This was posted on the Ripples Project and I thought I would share it here. Peace!

I promise you that I will help you whenever you are troubled.

I will do everything in my power to make things better for you.

I promise you that I will be there for you whenever you need me.

I will help care for you and keep you healthy.

I promise you that I will get up every day with a positive outlook, with my chin up and I'll never deprive you of hope.

I promise that I will love and respect you and never take you for granted.

I will remind you each day that you are a child of God, that there is a purpose for your life and will spend my life helping you discover that purpose.

I promise that I will listen to you when you need someone to talk to, I will not pass judgment or condemn you for mistakes you make.

I promise that I will always forgive you and I will not let past problems overshadow our relationship.

I promise that I will be a true friend to you and love you always, no matter what.

Love,

Yourself YYY

-written and submitted by Mary E. Bentley

¿Are You Somebody?

Recently, I taught a class and afterwards a student asked me, if I had resource name to back up a statement I made. I said, “Yes, that resource is me.” He then asked me if I could quote somebody who was famous, a celebrity, or well known. I reiterated, “yes, me.”

He was so shocked that I confidently stood beside my name and my statement. I said yes, I am somebody. You can choose to heed my words or not, the choice is yours. I am my credible source because the story is mine.

He was so startled that I said that I was somebody; he did not have a comeback. I thought to myself that so often we look for validation on who we are from other people.

Boldly and confidently, declare to the world

you know who you are.

You are somebody!

"I am larger, better than I thought. I did not know I held so much goodness."-Walt Whitman

¿Why Are you Special? Me Is Not an Answer

I was chatting with a colleague and she was intrigued by my question that I had posed to her as to why she was special. She was so perturbed by it that she went on to post that very question online as to what about friends in her online community made them special.

In a later conversation, she said “Sandra most of them replied because I am me. Do you get that a lot, she asked.” I laughed because that is a standard response when we are uncomfortable with our own introspection. It is often difficult for most of us to look inward and articulate an answer.

Many of us have been taught that if we talk about ourselves in too positive a light, we are being braggadocios. We are advised to be modest and to be humble. The worst part is we are told not to say anything but to let people discover what is special about us on their own.

Honestly if you cannot proudly cry out to the world why you are special, no one else will be able to either. An ineffectual answer is because I am me. A dazzlingly response is I am special because and shout from the rooftops how special you really are.

Stay tuned as I collect answers and look for it in my upcoming book, "Why Are You Special". So, I have asked it before and I ask it again…

¿Why Are You Special?

¿Why are you special?

You know one of my favorite interview questions is to ask someone why they are special. People become dumbstruck or better yet they look like a deer caught in headlights. We can easily talk about our skill sets and why we are qualified for a particular job. But when we get right down to the heart of who we are, why you are special seems to leave us baffled.

Yet if you ask a small child, why they are special, they have zero hesitation and zero limitations to their answers. A child might tell you that they are special, because they can jump, their parents told them so, they are beautiful, they are smart, they know how to share, they can color, they can run fast, and the list goes on.

What happens to us, as we become adults that we can not even put together a list of what makes us special? The fact is that we are all unique and amazing individuals that God created us to be.

So I ask you this today…...... Why are you special?