Why Are We So Hard On Ourselves!?!

I can be pretty brutal to myself sometimes, ok a lot of times. It's funny how we can hold so much compassion for others, but not for ourselves.

I am very self motivated and driven, maybe to much at times. I am working on slowly down and enjoying what I have accomplished already, instead of focusing on all the things I have fallen short on so far.

Ok, I am going to get pretty vulnerable here, I set business goals for myself and this past year I fell quite a bit short. Looking back I was not realistic in my goals, but they were my goals just the same. I set goals for sales, social media growth, and art shows. I was of course being especially hard on myself and feeling pretty low for being such a failure.

The TV was on one night and there was Donald Trump in the middle of a speech of yet another rally for his Thank You tour. Please let me be very clear, I am not here to discuss political view points or support for either side. Anyway, there was Trump talking about election night. He was going on and on. I was like get to the point already, and I was about to turn off the TV when he said something that made me stop in my tracks. He was saying how he thought he was going to loose, all the exit polls pointed to him loosing, and how he was ok with this because he knew he gave it ALL he had. He played ALL his cards and left nothing on the table. I just thought, what a great way to look at things! It doesn't matter who you are, you cannot win every battle. As long as we did everything we could, and the very best we could, then we have to be at peace with the outcome.

I sat down and thought of myself and knew I did everything I could and that I had to be proud of the work I accomplished. I worked on marketing, work on my pots and always improving my clay work. I revamped my website to look a bit "cleaner." I switched around the way I ran my website allowing my customers to order things that were out of stock. I left nothing on the table and I need to be proud of that.

I then took it a step farther and looked at everything I had accomplished. In the matter of 14 months I had launched my website, improved my work, got my pottery into three different art galleries, had my pottery accepted into three different juried art shows (before this I had never even applied to one), ran two blogs, organically built my newsletter mailing list to several hundred, built my social media following to close to 1K. I had also been written up and featured in the Northwest Herald newspaper, Skinny Mom, Manta, Focus Fitness, Spark Rise, and into a few different holiday gift guides. What the heck am I belly aching about? Yes I still have a long way to go to be where I strive to be, but look at how far I have come in such a short period of time. I know I will reach my goals because I continue to work towards them and I am consistent.

Where are you at in life? Where do you want to be? Stop and take time to think about how far you have come. Think about the steps you take on a regular basis to continue to move forward. Give yourself acknowledgement and credit for the work you have already accomplished. If you have not made any steps towards reaching your goals yet have today be the day that you start! Don't overwhelm yourself, start small and stay consistent and moving in the right direction. Be realistic in your timeline to achieve everything. If the date you set passes that doesn’t mean you stop, just set a new date. We all need to be more patient with ourselves and acknowledge how far we have come. Don’t always focus on what you have not achieved yet, just keep moving forward.

If you enjoyed this, or if this resonated with you at all, I ask that you pop on over and take a look at my handmade dinnerware. If you see something you like, or a great gift, please pick it up. 

I so appreciate you support, thank you. And for reading this blog save 10% OFF your order by using checkout code: Journey 

Lindsay Klix

Off Your Rocker Pottery