Building Confidence by Doing Hard Things | The Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans LLC

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In four weeks, a lot of wonderful men and women will be taking our sneakers to the streets of Seattle, and walking 60 miles in 3 days. Yep, that’s 3 consecutive days of 20 miles of walking! Sounds pretty daunting, doesn’t it?

My first year taking part of the Susan G. Komen 3-Day walk, I really wasn’t very confident. I didn’t have faith I could do it, and I doubted my abilities to walk 20 miles x 3 days and raise the $2300 the charity required. I was full of self-doubt, and honestly, I didn’t know if my friends would be willing to help me raise the money needed. But….this is my FIFTH year, and every year I have been more and more overwhelmed by my friends and their unwavering support.

Being part of the 3-Day walk has been more than just an amazing experience. It has help build my confidence, and pushed me out of my comfort zone. In the process I have gained friends I would never have met, and reconnected with so many friends from my past. I have been blessed beyond belief because so many people believed in me.

This year, I stepped out of my little shell a bit more and formed Team Shrinking Jeans to represent, and walk with, some women from the Sisterhood! Our team is small (just three of us), but we are traveling to Seattle with another group of women that have become like family.  I am certain we will have a blast walking, talking, and laughing away the entire 60 miles!

Yes, we’re going to have fun walking a lot of miles, but we will also remember why we are walking. We are walking so we can raise awareness for breast cancer and funds for research. We want to help find a cure for a disease that will take 40,290 womens’ lives THIS YEAR . We want to make sure the 231,840 women diagnosed with cases of invasive breast cancer in 2015 are treated with cutting edge therapies. So much progress in research and treatment has been made over the past 30 years that today being diagnosed with breast cancer isn’t an automatic death sentence. Early detection and treatment is so important in making sure a patient survives.

The purpose of my post today is to remind you that you can do hard things! You can do scary things. Things you’ve never done before. See that bridge? It’s over water and is a suspension-type bridge. Bridges like this totally creep me out, but I know that I can walk over this bridge, and 7 other similar bridges. Why am I so confident? Because I have have a very important goal I’m working hard to reach, and I will not fail.

Whatever your goal, if you believe in yourself enough you can reach it! If you want it badly enough, even if you don’t think you can do it, step up and get involved. Surround yourself with people who can help push you, encourage you, believe in you, and help you make your dream a reality! You’ll be surprised at what just taking that initial step will do for building your confidence.

The biggest things I have learned about myself in this 3-Day journey is I am tougher than I ever thought, and I have fought harder than I ever thought possible, and I am stronger than I imagined. I’ve also come to realize I am an athlete, even though the last thing I EVER thought I would be is an athlete. If training and walking 60 miles in 3-days (5 years in a row) doesn’t make you an athlete, I don’t know what does.

Self-doubt is the killer of dreams. Even if something seems scary, just putting yourself out there is the first step to building the confidence you need to reach your goals. Just remember, you can only do it one step at a time.

What do you want to do? Tell me about it in the comments and then go out and take those first steps!

xoxoxo,

Ann

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