You are enough

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A little drawing of a girl to remind you — you are enough, as you are. With green skin and stick legs, and someone forgot to draw your ears. And you have three fingers and no knees.

If I had only one opportunity to speak to you, and it was in this article, what do I want you to know?

“Let go of who you think you are supposed to be and be who you are.”
— Brené Brown

When my father was dying, I asked him what was the one life lesson he wanted me to know.
He said, “Mail your birthday cards out on time.”

My father died on March 17, 1998. He has been dead for twenty-two years, two months, and seven days. Of all the things he would want me to remember, it wasn’t, “Don’t use a credit card or make sure you floss your teeth, or if someone hands you a gun always make sure to see if it is loaded. Even if they tell you the barrel is empty. Even if it is your dad that is handing you the gun when you are going hunting. Always check the gun.”

He didn’t want to give me financial advice, dental hygiene advice, or gun safety while hunting advice, he wanted me to remember to value others. To let my friends know they mattered.

I haven’t met everyone who reads my blog and I don’t know when your birthday is, and we might have never met. But I want you to know you are enough. You don’t have to be someone else to be accepted. You don’t have to copy someone else’s art to be liked. Or sing someone else’s’ songs. I appreciate you and am grateful you read my stories. (I would also be grateful if you helped me clean my cat’s litter boxes.)

You can be you. And to remind you that you are enough, I would like to give you a copy of the little green girl, you can print it out on your computer.

Click here for a free drawing of the little green girl

Or click on this picture

How to believe you are enough

Write down on a piece of paper. I am ________________. (Write down your name.) And then write: I am enough.
For example, if your name is Em, write down. “I am Em. I am enough.”

In the national bestseller, Influence, The Psychology of Persuasion, Robert B Cialdini, Ph.D., talks about the committing power of written statements. “There is a magical pull to believe what you have written.”
Based on Cialdini’s research, if you want to change your behavior, write down what you want to believe. If you have a goal, writing it down gives you something to aim for. Aiming for a new belief about yourself is as valid as believing you will make a certain number of sales.
When you see someone else’s creation, say out loud, “That’s really cool. They are them and I am me.” Which means you don’t have to compare what they created to what you did. If you want to get rid of the negative script that is on a constant feedback loop. “They are better at drawing than me. They have a better sound when they sing, They have more litter boxes than me.” You need to replace it with a new track.
Believe what God says about you. “You are fearfully and wonderfully made.” I struggled with believing that about myself. I could believe it for you, but not for me. Then I realized I was letting other people define me, and not letting God define me.
God knit us together in our mother’s womb. He knew who we would be. He knew that Cathy would have curly hair and he knew that I would have really hairy legs. If someone is mean to you, it shows their character not your worth.

Today you are enough. You might learn something new tomorrow. You might fall, not fail. There is no failing, it is just learning from what you just made. You might trip on a cat who is the same color as your carpet. You might spill paint on your painting, or sing a note a little off-key. And that is okay, you are creating, and learning to be you. (And learning to look where your cat is laying down.)

You are enough.