by Sherrell Dorsey of OrganicBeautyVixen
What is your personal legend? In the midst of reading The Alchemist I’ve been working on defining my own personal legend. I’ve been planning, working, grinding, struggling and rejoicing in finding my own path and defining my own way hoping that it will all lead me to my personal legend.
Giving up is easy. Take a look at the millions of homeless people that walk the street (granted that they are not suffering from some sort of mental illness) or people that simply walk through life doing what they’re supposed to do but not really live their purpose. Can I admit something to you readers? I’m terrified of potentially becoming the same way — walking through life with no purpose, goals or direction.
Seeing the movie “Red Tails” reminded me of how hard I must work every day to be great. Those heroic Tuskegee Airmen weren’t mediocre. They were the best. They didn’t have a choice to be anything but extraordinary. In a world of degradation, discrimination and verbal abuse, those pilots excelled. So what’s our excuse? What keeps us from being extraordinary at everything that we do?
I’ve come to the conclusion that the only one keeping us from reaching our full potentials and discovering our personal legends is ourselves. A particularly notable writer once tweeted one of the most important messages I’ll ever remember when she said, “people need to get out of their own way.”
Are any of you standing in your own way of becoming everything you were meant to be? What are you going to do differently to step out of your own way?
Sherrell Dorsey is a natural beauty expert, writer, speaker and advocate of health, wellness and sustainability in communities of color. In addition to creating OrganicBeautyVixen.com, Sherrell writes beauty articles for Tyra Banks’s beauty and fashion site TypeF.com, Jones Magazine, MySalonScoop.com and Posh Beauty. Follow Sherrell on twitter at www.twitter.com/organicvixen
I must say the Tuskegee airmen were awesome, the movie Red Tails (utter sh!t) does NOT do them justice.
Well my giving in was about to happen today, when just about 10 minutes this stupid arse white old man in a jeep with another male guy. Who almost ran through a stop sign and hit me and I blew my horn, and cussed him out to slow it down. Then this bastard had the nerve to pull up behind my car after I park, to tell me he wasn't gonna hit me. That he stopped and there was no need for me to be rude to him. I'm like sir no you didn't do a complete stop, otherwise I wouldn't have blown my horn. He's like again I wasn't gonna hit you I saw you, then I'm like rolling my eyes. Then this is the kicker he outright calls this statement.. Bitch go to hell…. I rolled my head back and told him thanks ok, and you go right on to hell yourself. I'm like where is a cop or myself to have a gun or taser around, or even my cellphone. Because I was to go off on this old guy in the parking lot, and I have alot of vent up frustation. Sometimes people catch me at the wrong times, and I'm like don't let me go off and wind up in jail over this mutherf….a
Hey Anonymous 1:12 Nikki is also a psycho therapist so she incorporates that within the blog. It all is interconnected.
To get out of my own way, I keep telling myself:
"Go hard or go home".
I was tired of being mediocre, and I knew I had the potential to be so much more, so I had to stop "getting by" on my natural gifts.
I worked in the same career from 1982 to 2009. I worked my heinie off to get to the top of the sh_t heap, only to realize I was still on a sh_t heap. It hurt more to stay where I was than to scrap it all and start over.
That "hurt" was the catalyst for changing my career.
"Getting by on my natural gifts" was like doing enough to stand head and shoulders above my peers. It was like traveling to Tanzania and taking pictures of Mt. Kilimanjaro.
"Go hard or go home" took me out of my comfort zone. It made me sweat, it made me scared, and it made me see myself in a new light.
"Go hard or go home" can be compared to traveling to Tanzania and actually CLIMBING Mt. Kilimanjaro, and by this accomplishment I will join the elite who mastered their potential.
Dear myilanna at 10:39:
I have been where you are. I took inventory of all my positive attributes, thanked God that I had positive coping skills like prayer, talking to friends and a love of reading. I decided I was tired of sitting at the wall watching everyone else dance.
Slowly and bit by bit, I am teaching myself to dance, and it's hard when you're a late bloomer like myself, but I keep telling myself this is part of the abundant life the Father intended for me.
So, Go hard or go home.
Hi Anon 1:19
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That's that New Beginnings word! I love it!
This post is so on time. My biggest fear too is going through life just wandering aimlessly. I fear going through life and never finding my purpose. It was a sharp, painful situation that forced me to never allow myself back down from anything I want to do. Where there is a will, there is a way.
Homelessness does not equate giving up. Everyone has a personal legend. When you stop judging others, your own path illuminates. The Alchemist is divinely inspired. I hope you get as much out of it as I did.
I have been soul searching as well and i have come to the conclusion that i need help first off by getting to know me through and through so i started seeing a therapist to help me gain self esteem, insight, as well as help give myself the direction i need to live life to the fullest its pointless to just exist and i have been doing just that for past 32years time to step up and be who God intended me to be…