And that’s a wrap on the Love Your True Colors Challenge! Thank you so much to everyone who participated. I had a great time working alongside you all this week, looking inward and giving ourselves the gift of self-love. I am so grateful that so many of you decided to join the challenge and that we had so many others engaging and cheering us on along the way. I love this community and I am so glad you all choose to spend time here with me.
If you finished the challenge, didn’t you love yourself and your creativity so much more by the end? I hope you answered a resounding YES. If you were watching from the wings, what did you glean from the challenge? Send me a DM on my Instagram and let me know!
As for me… My experience with the challenge wasn’t what I expected. However, I did learn valuable lessons.
- Let go of expectations
This was my first social media challenge. I wanted it to be perfect. I wanted it to be a success…for people to participate and for there to be tons of engagement. However, life has other things in store for me. Right when I was going to promote the challenge (and do it with tons of energy) I got COVID. I was scared for me and my husband’s health but also, annoyed that I did not have the energy to focus on my business. While we were lucky to have mild cases and recovered in a short period of time, I was wiped out for ten days. I couldn’t focus, and I was tired all the time.
But then I realized that I had everything in place to go ahead with the challenge. So what if I wasn’t able to promote it as much as I wanted to? People had signed up and I was going to go ahead with it. The expectations I placed on myself were crushing my spirit and I decided to let them go. (Good riddance.)
2. You are brave. You have it in you to be vulnerable.
I really enjoyed doing the daily tasks in the challenge. They actually did challenge me. They challenged me to show up in my truth. To embrace sides of myself that I usually avoid or hide. I picked the word “stubborn” because it was used to describe me in a negative way by family members growing up. And when it came to doing creative work based on the word “stubborn”, and all the emotions it brought up for me I clammed up. It is one thing to create in privacy…it’s a whole other thing to share your work with the world. Vulnerability. It is the backbone of good creative work. I learned that this is an asset. I learned to choose bravery. To be Bravely Original, and share. I wrote a cool song about being called stubborn. You can listen to a snippet on my Instagram Reels.
3. Don’t focus on results as much. Your joy will increase.
Because I was sick with the virus… I had no energy to put on makeup, dress-up, and focus on all the bells and whistles. Guess what? I posted on Instagram stories every day, checking in with you guys about the challenge anyway. I posted my song about the word “stubborn” wearing horrible sweatpants and I was OK with that. It didn’t change the fact that I enjoyed doing the creative work.
4. I need to practice what I preach.
I am not being my own “Bodyguard”. I have not been making time for my craft… I need more creativity in my life and I have allowed myself to get lost among daily responsibilities. This challenge made me realize how much I love singing and songwriting. It gave me a good kick in the behind to practice what I preach.
I will be my own Bodyguard and choose consistency. I choose to consistently show up every day to focus on my creative work. This is a choice that you can make as well. You have it in you to fiercely protect your commitment to your art.
Thank you for joining me on this journey.
