Today's post is by guest blogger Aja Seldon. Visit her personal website for more awesome "Hustlenomics" and "Snackables" like the one featured below.
As a woman striving to be the best version of myself, I often wondered would I ever be enough. Questions invaded my psyche and haunted me in my dreams. Would I ever be enough for the world? Do I standout or fall in line? How do I make my presence known? Would my legacy be one that is remembered or would my likes and follows be the determining factor? Did my name hold enough weight to go down in history? All I wanted was for someone to show me the map or blueprint to greatness and I would simulate.
For years, I battled between creating my own image and a carbon copy of what I thought the world defined as a Black female pioneer. I translated that as, an educated Black woman who was headstrong, opinionated and assertive. I ordered my steps according to those I thought the world exalted, but my feet began to trip up. The shoes I was attempting to fill didn’t fit. See I had traded in my vulnerability for detachment, my fear for anger, my inquisitiveness for being a “know it all” and my charisma for being brazen. I had it all wrong. The problem didn’t lie in the praiseworthy female leaders. The problem rested within me.
There is no blueprint to greatness! No one can hold your hand and lead you to the pot of gold. There is no playbook or cheat sheet to attaining success. I had to stop measuring my greatness to those I idolized and fancied. We remember those who are great because they are innovators and visionaries who not only push the limits but surpass them.
Ladies, I challenge you to stop working to be a replica of someone else and grow into the skin you were given. Find your gift or your calling and stop answering to the command of someone else. Women’s History Month is about remembering our ancestral leaders, but commemorating those in the present. I’ve never been more cognizant of the amount of goal oriented women with completely different missions, but standing on the same platform which is to be great in their own lane.
Are you becoming the woman from your dreams, or one from the history book?