We move towards what we think about.
Sometimes, I think my mother must have known this too without knowing it. Even though we may have come from a humble home, she always made me believe that I had something special to contribute - that I was somebody important.
She let me get a smaller bed so I could turn our one-bedroom trailer into my bedroom slash office. I had a little twin bed and a desk. She slept on a pullout sofa bed for years in our tiny living room.
I started a trailer park newsletter to report on all the happenings at Suburban Villa Trailer Park written on a used typewriter from the goodwill. I was a nobody, but I decided that I was gonna be a somebody and for that moment, I declared myself as the trailer park news reporter.
And sure, since those days, I've experienced some colossal failures on epic levels personally and professionally too. In those early years, I learned by watching my mom that you never really lose until you stop trying, stop hoping, stop believing in yourself.
I once said something in a work meeting that turned everything sideways, and I was promptly excommunicated from all future meetings with that group of folks - and rightfully so! I couldn't sleep for days because of that mistake. But a colleague called me afterwards and told me to 'chin up'...yes, I had made a mistake but if I could learn to swallow this defeat, then it's not so bitter you know. You adjust. And you just keep moving forward.
How we think about ourselves is so powerful. It changes how other people see us for better or worse.
I see my oldest son has learned this lesson too early on. He's 23 years old and is the top earner in Washington state for his plumbing company. He's out earning me. I asked him what he thought he is doing that is so different than the 40 other plumbers who have been at this trade for years. You know what he said...confidence. A belief in himself. That's it. He has all the same skills. The same tools. But how he thinks about himself is a game changer.
Not only how we think about ourselves is important, but our thoughts are like boomerangs. So what we put out there will come back ten-fold to you. Good or bad.
And I don't care what fancy school you attended or the degrees that hang on your wall. My mom was the fastest chicken plucker. My oldest son is known as The Toilet King. Have passion. Give a fuck. No one else is harder on you than you. Remember that. And most importantly, if you think you can do it, then you can do it.
And I say all of this to say, I'm still practicing looking in the mirror and saying "I am an author" without laughing.
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