Blog Launch Recap: It Takes a Village

Have you ever experienced that feeling when you accomplish something so huge, something you once thought was out of reach and then when you are in the moment of accomplishing that goal, you are so wrapped up in excitement and disbelief that it doesn’t hit you until hours later that you actually did it, your hard work actually paid off? I truly hope you have, as the feeling I have right now after accomplishing my first blog event is making me feel unstoppable and that no dream is out of reach.

When you put your full mind, heart and soul into something, you can truly accomplish dreams you never thought you would ever actually see with your own open eyes. When I started this blog, I knew I wanted to have an accompanying blog launch event to help bring the community together and start breaking down the walls of stigma around mental illness. I wanted to start a dialogue, I wanted people to actively learn about the beauty of self-love, and I wanted people to begin to believe in themselves and their dreams. Doing this event was nerve-racking, it challenged me in a way that allowed me to see that I was stronger than my negative perceptions in my mind and that I was capable of having ideas and making them reality.

I truly had no expectations for my first Beautifully Simply You event other than the strong desire and passion to help at least one person, but in the process of not having any expectations, I learned so much about me, my dreams, and what it takes to truly accomplish those dreams.

Here is what I learned…

If you don’t ask, the answer will always be no.

I have heard people say this phrase time and time again, but I was still very fearful of asking for something that seemed unattainable, until I hosted this event. This event taught me that even though someone may say no to you, there will be someone else that says yes to you – someone that donates space and time for free, someone who donates goods and services for free, someone who promotes you on social media, all because they support and believe in your cause. It is about being bold, taking that chance and simply asking people for what you want. The worst they can say is no, but sometimes that response of no opens you up to even better opportunities you didn’t see coming.

Be flexible – Go with the flow, even when going with the flow is hard.

Doing an event helped me to see how important it is to have a go with the flow attitude. Things don’t always go to plan, quite frankly, things rarely go exactly the way we envisioned them to go. I had to adapt, and adapting is a skill that I have always lacked. When giveaways that I ordered didn’t come in time for the event, I automatically equated this deviation from my plan to be a sign of my event being unsuccessful. And when I pushed my event back due to fear of rain on the original day and then the rain never came, I quickly became frustrated and began to second guess my decisions. I needed to be constantly told that it was all going to work out, as my brain reverted to negative thoughts. As I forced myself to adapt to my unwanted circumstances, I had to grapple with those negative thoughts, work through them, challenge them and trust that things were going to work out exactly as they were supposed to go. As I repeated the infamous words of my track coach, “you have already put in the work, now it is time to perform”, I adapted and thankfully I thrived. Learn to be okay with the curves and twists that take us off of our original plan, better things are on the horizon, far better than our wildest dreams.

It’s beautiful to ask people to join in on this self-love journey.

As part of my event, aside from the numerous giveaways and free ice cream, I asked people to begin their self-love journey by taking a handmade daily affirmation card as well as writing one thing they loved about themselves on my self-love community board. For quite a few people, finding one thing to write was difficult, but it was really awesome watching them come up with something that they loved about themselves and hopefully this will spark something in them that will allow them to point out something every day that they love about themselves.

 

Whatever your event, and no matter how many people show up, just be who you are.

Even without expectations, I still hoped that my advertising efforts paid off and that people would attend my event. Although I wasn’t expecting people in the masses, I realized that by me just being the quirky person that I am, the few people I did interact with that did not know me prior, provided me with positive feedback and made me feel good about myself and my initiative. As time went on and the event started to slow down, I cared less about the number of people I attracted and more about the impact I had left on those few I had interacted with. Just be exactly who you are, remember that is your superpower – the people meant to be in your life supporting you will flock to you.

Finally, I could have never done this alone.

Behind every successful person is a group of people who have their back and lift them higher. It takes a village, and I am so thankful that I have that village. Friends and family who came out of their way to spend their afternoon with me and learn more about the message I want to put out into the world, thank you. My parents and my boyfriend who took the time to get there early, deal with my indecisiveness of where to set up, take pictures and keep statistics of how many people came and who those people were, thank you. And even those who couldn’t make it to the event but sent me the sweetest, most supportive messages anyway, thank you. This village, that I am so fortunate to have, keeps me going. Keeps me pushing forward to accomplish my goals and dreams. This village inspires me to get up every morning and do something for this blog and try to make a difference. Each and every one of you reading this makes my village special, you have touched me in a way that makes me feel on top of the world. So for that, my beautiful friends, I thank you. From my head to my toes, I am filled with gratitude for all of you.

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What I really want to emphasize here is that things don’t always go our way, we have a plan and our plans laugh back at us. We wish for sun and it rains, we wish for timeliness and our cars break down, but we learn to adapt and trust the process. We trust that the hard work we have put in will pay off and carry us through to the finish line, no matter how far away it seems. Surround yourself with people who encourage you and support your dreams. People who stay up late at night with you because they want to see you succeed just as much as you do.

Have a dream. Live it. Breathe it. Put it out into the world and watch how much you succeed. I am doing things I never thought were possible, you can too.

Let’s go change the world, together.

Xo,

Be Beautifully Simply You