Own Your Story

I've been thinking a lot lately about our "stories". This weekend at our Super Saturday event (a quarterly Beachbody event), a top coach talked about how she was molested at a young age and how she has been able to share her story to help other people.

Then someone said to me "I can't believe she said that up on stage. That would be so hard for me to share."

And I replied with "I probably would too because I know that it would help SO many people in some way."

I try to do my best with sharing "my story" with everyone. As a health and fitness coach - people have to trust me enough to want me to help them. Reaching out to someone for help in this area of your life is not easy. So making sure you choose a coach who you trust and who you can relate to in some way is very important. So I know that sharing ME is the most important thing I can do so people can make a good decision....if I'm the right coach for them or not.

But sometimes we don't really know our stories. Or we think we don't have one. I'm here to tell you - we ALL have one. And we all have a lifetime of events that have led us to the point we are at right now. Just because you might not have something very dramatic in your story - doesn't mean that you do not have a story. What are you passionate about and why are you passionate about it? You have a story.

Sometimes we are too scared to share our story. Some people are scared of sharing it because it's too horrific or there is too much shame associated with it. Some people are scared to share their story because it involves other people and they don't want to hurt them. I totally get it. There are parts of my story that I will elaborate on some day...but I do have that fear sometimes of unintentionally hurting someone else. And how do we tell our stories without telling our version of someone else's story in the process? Because won't that ultimately always happen?

Our stories do not DEFINE us. They are a part of us for a reason. We learned, we stumbled, and the beauty of it is - we choose the ending. Our story isn't done because of our past. We decide how the rest of the course goes. There shouldn't be shame in your story. There is BEAUTY in it.

Honestly if we set our fears aside....so much good can happen. I truly believe that. Sharing your story is not complaining. Sharing your story is not something you do for sympathy. Sharing your story is something you do so people can understand you better. And most importantly for me...sharing your story is a powerful tool to be able to HELP other people. I feel a calling to help other people. A calling to inspire other people, especially women, to be healthier and to feel less alone in their journey throughout this crazy, beautiful life.

I think so many of us women keep things bottled up inside because we want to appear to be the strong, "I got my shit together" type woman. And if you're a Mom...forget about it. You're not going to show your weaknesses that easy. Not when you have Pinterest Moms showing you up on social media with their fancy birthday parties and play dates and ahhhhh...it's just SO MUCH.

I just feel like if we truly share our struggles...along with our victories.....we will all stop trying to compete so much. We will stop feeling so badly about ourselves. Why must we always feel this need to measure up? There is nobody you need to measure up to. You just do your best, girlfriend. Some days you will royally screw up and just be thankful for the next day. But I can assure you - you are NOT alone. And you are not doing worse than anyone else. We all suck sometimes. We all rock sometimes.

And we all have different, amazing stories that make us unique. If we share those and if we aren't so scared about being judged, we can all be in this together just a little bit easier.