Tuesday Tidbit

One of the things I learned the hard way was that it doesn' t pay to get discouraged. Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore your faith in yourself.  ~Lucille Ball

So I have this thing I do at work, I send out motivational quotes and call it Monday Motivation. Sometimes I am off on Monday's or just flat out get so busy I forget and I send out Tuesday Tidbits. This month is Women's History month so I chose quotes from prominent women in American History. Lucille Ball was an amazing part of my childhood. I have probably seen every episode of I Love Lucy and was once so engrossed in an episode that I almost burned my parent's kitchen down. I lost focus on the oil that was heating up to "fry temperature" for my lunch and poof went the cabinets above the stove. My parents did get a nice new set of cabinets out the damage I caused, but I digress. The above quote is my Tuesday Tidbit, the post that follows is not so bitty :o)

In addition to the wise words of Lucille Ball I also read recently a great article on Scott Jurek, ultra running super hero. He was quoted in the most recent runner's world as saying elite athletes need to have some level of arrogance to be successful. Now I know I am never destined to be an elite athlete, but Mr. Jurek and Ms. Ball are on to something. If you haven't picked up on it yet, I am a terrible pessimist. I lack a general self confidence. One of the things I admire about the bloggers I follow and people I read about, is that they can say out loud how good they think they are...ahem, KNOW they are. I am jealous of that fact. If I were to ever say I was good at anything, I would immediately have talkers remorse and wonder how many people hated me for saying something so arrogant. Once, I posted on this blog that I was good at leadership. I regularly consider removing that post for how awful it makes me sound, but while elite is a little too much for me to own at this stage in my work career, work is the one realm in which I feel I regularly excel. Sure I have room to grow/improve, but what elite person would settle for their current accomplishments? For me, work is my space to really exhibit my natural abilities. Unfortunately, I don't carry this confidence over into my real life. Instead of exuding the confidence I should have in myself, I instead take "modest" and manipulate it down to self-deprecation. This trait we'll call it, is amazingly frustrating to most people. I can't tell you how many times people have challenged me by asking, "why can't you just take a compliment?"....well I just can't. I aim to be better, but that is all I can commit to right now.

While I am not sure arrogance is the right route for me, I do plan to be more self confident as a wife, mother, and runner/athlete. Maybe when I become an elite wife and mother, some arrogance will surface, but we'll have to wait and see. Elite athlete? No, but maybe elite Athena Athlete in my own way. Elite meaning I try harder and work harder to earn the athlete title. Elite meaning that I stop racing just to finish and start racing against myself. Often times I don't push myself as hard as I can because I fear success. Success means I would need to sustain my efforts, replicate them, risk failing and probably my worst fear...that people will have expectations of me that I can't live up to. SCARY! It is at this point that Lucille Ball in her perfect way will help me on the path to optimism. I need to remember it really doesn't pay to get discouraged, I need to keep busy doing my best and staying positive about my efforts. Making optimism a way of life is probably going to be my toughest challenge in life, but one I need to stop shying away from. Optimism is the key to restoring...maybe better said, establishing faith in myself.

Thank you, thank you to those of you who already have faith in me, your optimism is truly an example and I want to be a positive example to myself and others. Good night bloggy blog world.