The first time I ever confessed a crush to someone, I cried.
I was experiencing a lot of fear around saying how I truly felt to someone when I didn’t know how they might respond. Honestly, it was messy and I felt very awkward.
But when I look back, I don’t feel much cringe…I feel proud.
Doing something that scares us is never going to look amazing or be perfect on the first attempt. Or the second. Or the fifth, probably. So we have to STOP waiting for perfection before we do hard things like holding a boundary or confessing feelings.
Me awkwardly dancing to my own drummer (Credit: ThePotatoFrens)
When you’re a kid learning to ride a bike, you tip over a bunch. And even when you first get going, you’re super wobbly.
Why is it that we pretend as adults that learning new things isn’t gonna be wobbly?! Because it IS.
As we head into the often challenging holidays (because we deal with family and increased social gathering), you may decide that you want to try holding better boundaries. When you do, please remember it’s okay to be wobbly at first.
Knowing that you’ll be wobbly as you attempt new things is the best way to be compassionate to yourself and cut down on the inner criticism. You deserve to be deeply loved in the midst of your changes.
