Yesterday I sat down to re-write my blog’s media kit and work on a few other blogging bits and pieces that mostly involved pitching my blog to people. It took me bloody ages to belt out a couple of sentences, because I just wasn’t comfortable talking myself up.
I sent off an email to a couple of blogging mates, asking them for advice.
‘how the hell do I write this stuff without sounding completely up myself?!’ I asked
‘You have to sound up yourself!‘ and ‘Sell it, Sister!’ were their wise replies.
Well ok, nobody actually said that last one, but it’s basically what they meant.
And it really got me thinking. Why was this such a difficult thing for me to do? I mean, back in the 90’s I used to get called up myself all.the.time. by my uni friends. Mainly because while they were standing at the bar knocking back jugs of beers, I was quietly standing next to them sipping on a Sub Zero. With a straw. Yep, totally up myself!
And then, many years later when Bailey was born, I went on a bit of a bender at Pumpkin Patch and had the poor kid dressed in nothing but overpriced lime striped onesies (with matching bib, booties and muslin wrap, thanks very much) for months on end. Yep, still up myself!
And don’t get me started on the time I decided to ditch my curls and bleached blonde hair for a sleek, straight, brunette concave bob! Yep, I dedicated 12 months of my life to basically doing nothing every morning except running a GHD through my curly locks in an attempt to have sleek hair. So yeah, that was a fairly up myself year of my life that I’ll never get back!
So I sat in my study (which btw is completely colour co-ordinated in the blog’s colours of hot pink, black and white. Again, so up myself!), staring blankly at the computer screen, while all of the memories of being a little bit up myself came flooding back and I thought, yep, I can totally do this.
I mean, what exactly is wrong with shouting your achievements from the rooftops? Although I have to say there weren’t that many to actually write down, but I’m only 41. No need to peak at this whole winning at life thing too early!
But seriously folks, after a fair bit of thought and several cups of coffee, I came right back to the one thing I’ve worked out since turning 40 and that is
When people say or do mean things to you, it says more about them than it does about you.
So if people want to eye roll out loud, or throw some sort of back handed sarcastic comment my way all because I’m reasonably good at throwing a birthday party together or enjoy baking chocolate cakes AND taking OK looking photos of said cake, well, I reckon that’s their problem, not mine!
Yes, I’m a little bit Martha Stewart but there’s also a fair bit of Roseanne Barr running through my veins too. I can be fancy and dead set up myself but I can also drop the f bomb like it’s a comma, although ironically, that usually only happens when I’ve had a couple of glasses of champagne!
So if you’ll excuse me, I’m about to fire off a few emails that talk myself right up and just quietly, if you’ve got some goals to kick and some dreams that you want to come true, I reckon you should get on board the up yourself train too.
What are you good at? What do you love to do? Share it with me and we can be up ourselves together!
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