“Life is great.  If you’re tough enough to live it.”  ~ Aunt Connie Gill

Good Morning!  

Perhaps this quote exemplifies what some of us are missing – a “toughness” that enriches our lives.  I created the Make Today Matter program and authored The Change Your Life Challenge as a means to help myself and other women “toughen up” and challenge ourselves to rise above challenges and live our best lives.  To me, “becoming tough” is parallel to becoming “personally accountable.”  We become tough when we quit diffusing blows to outward circumstances and events, and instead, work to improve ourselves.

Maybe the word is not tough, but brave.  To stand up for ourselves and what we believe in and what we deserve requires courage and bravery.  It is much easier to walk away from a dream than it is to pursue it.  Pursuing a dream involves falling down, bruises, tears, and getting back up one hundred times plus.  I’ve walked both paths – chasing a dream and abandoning one – and the scenery is vastly different.  I would take the scenery of a dream, complete with its bumps and bruises, over the “easy” path any day.

Your Turn:  What do you love enough to be brave and courageous for?  What do you believe in so strongly, you are willing to risk a bump and a bruise and become “tougher” so that you may diligently pursue the dream?

Today’s Affirmation: I am brave and courageous in the pursuit of my dreams.