Stop Doubting Yourself

Has someone ever doubted your abilities? Has someone ever suggested that they were better, smarter, more capable than you because they have more degrees, an impressive resume?

Has someone ever told you that you were too dumb, too old, too fat, too ugly, too [insert] to chase your dreams? I knew I was going to be a dancer at a very young age. The first time I saw Judith Jamison perform Alvin Ailey's, Cry, I knew I was going to be THAT. What I never expected, and am still often shocked by, is how people raise their eyebrow or smirk at me when I tell them I started my career as a dancer. In college I remember the joke going something like this: Them: What are you studying? Me: Dance and Theater Them: So you study how to be a tree all day... (Insert laugh) And then later in life, as I have owned company after company (some of them successes, some failures) there has been this inside joke amongst supposed intimates that, "well Lindsey's just a dancer..."

Watching the Cirque Du Soliel performers yesterday I started to cry as I remembered just how much I used to internalize these off-comments, and side-wards glances. And how much energy I wasted trying to get approval from these sorts of people instead of removing them from my life. Because the truth is, being a dancer is #hardAF! We would go fifteen hours back to back, seven days a week, enduring the hardest physical and mental training you could imagine. We perform with broken toes Temperatures of 103° After traveling all night with no sleep While strapping injuries in the wings And we do it with an effin smile on our face, because that's the job. That's the love of the game. That's the price we were willing to pay for our passion. Now when people ask me how a dancer become an entrepreneur the conversation goes something like this: Them: So how do you go from dance to being an entrepreneur? Me: I was looking for something easier to do... (And then I AM the one who smirks) Dearest, if there is someone in your life who you are allowing to make you feel less than, to question your abilities, to drive you crazy with their doubt, then it's time to choose life. There are more people than you could ever imagine who are ready to support, nurture and guide you to do that impossible thing that you are dreaming. If you can't think of anyone off the top of your head, well, there's ME! Put me down as numero uno! Our time is now! I remain #enlightenedAF Lindsey T H Jackson