Character vs. Reputation

"Be more concerned with your character than your reputation.  Your character is what you REALLY are, while your reputation is MERELY what others think you are!"     -John Wooden

How to Find You

Okay let’s be honest….no one will ever know, have you ever wished you had features and/or qualities like someone else.  I have, several times.  My first experience with this desire was around six or seven years old.  At such an early age, I found myself wanting to be more like my mother.  I am from a single family home in which my mother was the sole bread winner and I knew early on that my quality of life depended on her.  As a result, I always paid close attention to my mother’s work ethics, personal drives and ambitions.  Witnessing my mother handle her responsibilities so well in the 70’s made her my hero; therefore I wanted so much to echo her in various areas.  I wanted to look like her; she is what we define as light-skinned, and physically framed very well.  She was able to speak her mind freely with eloquence and never allowed people to run over her.  She was awesome in my opinion.  But I soon realized that I didn’t look like her.  I am dark-skinned, full-figured, and beautiful I might add.  Therefore, I had to spend many years discovering myself.  So, let’s talk about how to find ourselves! 

Allow me to start by saying that I think it is okay to admire certain attributes and characteristics of others.  I would even go so far as to confirm that it is within reason to adopt certain traits from others.  Sometimes we gain helpful points that we take on as our own in order to build our character, nevertheless it is very crucial that we embrace who we are as individuals, which leads to a better stay here on earth.  In my personal quest to find me, I focused on what brought out passion from within; I learned what caused me to feel hurt, what caused me to smile, how I influenced others, and then I learned to LOVE it all.  I now embrace my personal make-up and who I am.  All the love and understanding that I have for myself allows me to love others for their differences and how they were developed and fashioned for life.  Nevertheless, in order to capture this love for myself and maintain it, I’ve learned that I must reflect on my life daily.  Therefore, I spend moments throughout the day identifying attributes regarding my personality.  In all honesty and fairness, I must admit there are times when I do not enjoy going through this process out of fear of becoming aware of things I do not like about myself.  But, I became skilled at being committed to this course because the reward is so POWERFUL and fulfilling.  Life can be so enjoyable and purposed when we pledge ourselves to the purpose of our existence!  Therefore, I hope and pray that all of you who read this post will make a personal pledge to becoming more familiar with YOURSELF and what makes you, YOU!

Love,

Mandy