Hello everyone, how are you, I am amazed and happy that I am back in the “Love yourself better”  mode.  I read a few different blogs and it has made me want to pick it up again and it turns out that with a bit of encouragement from a few of you that today is the day.

Today is International Women’s day and I was going to write about that but to be fair to the men I didn’t write about men on International Mens day on November 14th 2014 so I will just focus on all of us together, we have a nice balance then.

“When you know you are destined for greatness, your potential haunts you. It keeps you up at night, you won’t feel complete until you succeed.”

It is no secret that I did not do well at school, my grades were not brilliant, I had to do a year of re-sits before I did my A-levels.   I found it a particular difficult and upsetting time. I genuinely do not know why I failed, I am very conscientious and apply myself 120% in everything that I do, I thought that I had done all the right things. I sometimes wonder if it is because half the subjects I did were not the ones I really wanted to do, you could only choose certain options in certain streams or we were sometimes discouraged from certain subjects, for example I really wanted to do Chemistry but teachers thought I would be better at Biology.  I am always quite amused by this because in my re-sit year I chose Chemistry and completed the course in one year and obtained a high-grade pass. My A-levels weren’t exactly a success either and because I was a year behind everyone else all my friends went to University and I felt that I was left behind. I do not remember it being a particularly happy time. Luckily for me, even though I felt lost and scared for my future my parents just kept on encouraging me to keep going.

When I look back at that time I realise that even though the experience was quite an unhappy one I was being shaped for my future, I was being taught a valuable lesson to never give up and that there is not just one path to success, in fact there are many.  Once or twice in my life there have been times when I have been reminded of this. As American author and journalist Krista Tippet says,

“The things that go wrong for you have a lot of potential to become part of your gift to the world”

The day I got my exam results I remember sitting on the floor at home with my Mum trying to console me, I was so upset, thinking how much of a failure I was. I wonder what I would have said if “older me from 2015” paid younger me from 1991” a visit and said please don’t cry because you are going to have a Postgraduate Diploma, a Degree, and two more Diplomas. You will be a success, you will travel the world, write and manage your own business.

I guess what I am trying to say is that there are times when we do fall in life but do not worry, just pick yourself up and carry on. Sometimes it can feel like you are banging your head against the wall when one idea after another seems to go wrong and you are lost in what direction to take next.  Progress isn’t about the big achievements,  progress and achievement comes in small ways too.  Just keep trying and don’t give up and above all don’t let the fear of failure stop you from playing the game…..