As I was listening to a speaker recently I was reminded of a time back in my life when I thought my life was an accident or a “series of unfortunate events” so to speak. I mean really when your father leaves your family, a mother and 6 children and chooses not to be involved in their lives – well it changes the way you think about yourself.

That was at age 6. The first real memory I have of thinking my life wasn’t going well. My family’s life wasn’t going well. But we persevered, one of the traits my mother taught me over and over and over again. One that I learned very well. And it served me very well. But it also limited my life on so many levels.

You see perseverance is good when you have your head on straight. But when you have so much self-doubt and lack of self-confidence; perseverance can be a bad thing. The choices you make are usually not the best ones – but persevere you do. And you keep persevering all the while for the wrong reasons.

Why wouldn’t you – it was all you knew to do. It was all you felt you were worth. As it turned out – my mom’s strength was the very thing that catapulted me out of a huge series of unfortunate events that led me to moving away from my family and what I knew to be true.

But guess what – all that baggage – it comes with you. You drag it everywhere you go. Every place you move and you hand it over to everyone you meet. Imagine slugging around 5 pieces of luggage, your briefcase, your handbag and throw in for good measure a 12-lb bowling ball and bag – and there you go. A baggage-carrying heap of pain and sorrow.

So what does a person do with all that? Well I’ll go over that on part 2. In the meantime be thinking about all your baggage and imagine what it would feel like to set it all down and rest….

until next time

m