Hey y’all, I hope you are having a delightful Monday so far. I woke up this morning in such great spirits. I haven’t felt this good in a long time and I finally felt like I had the ability to make this post all that I hoped it would be. I hope that my message to you all today will be able to serve a purpose in your life somehow.

Today’s post “Finding Your Passion For Life,” has been something I’ve been trying to write about for months now. I have been in a constant cycle of beginning to type out the message I’ve been looking for inside myself to share with you all, but it has taken me a little while to figure out what the message was that I was trying to share because I hadn’t truly found the answers for myself until now.

The past 6 months or so I have been going through some serious personal struggles that have all been stemming within myself. My mind has been filled with self-doubt, worry, confusion, and worst of all sadness. The hardest part in all of this was that I couldn’t figure out how to find happiness within myself. I couldn’t figure out how to believe in myself again. Going through this has been extremely confusing for me because what is there to be sad about? I have an amazing fiancé that I’m getting married to this year, an incredible family that loves me, awesome friends, and a great job, yet I have been beating myself up almost every single day with self-doubt and worry. I kept telling myself that I wasn’t enough, that I needed to be better at everything that I was doing, and I hadn’t been feeling passionate about anything really. The last few weeks I’ve been trying to figure out what things I can change to make me feel like I’m not just going through the motions of life each day. I wanted to figure out how to live each and everyday with passion and a purpose.

Yesterday, Jordan and I attended church with Mila and I finally felt the fire inside me ignite. The message we heard in the sermon felt so personal and it really opened my mind to what I have been doing so wrong lately. Our pastor at the Woodlands Church, Kerry Shook, spoke into the fact that we weren’t put on this earth to worry about pleasing others or finding perfection inside ourselves, but to serve and put our love and faith into God. When we make it our life mission to serve the Lord, our unique plan that He has created for us will follow. I don’t know about y’all, but I feel like I’m always trying to “find myself” and now I’ve realized that you don’t “find yourself,” you already are yourself, but you have to learn to live your life with a purpose and your passion for life will surely be there. Finding your passion rather than finding yourself is the key to self-growth and evolution. Learning this simple lesson made everything that I had previously been so confused and worried about seem so much smaller. I love helping others whether it’s teaching them how to grow in figure skating, waking up early to make Jordan breakfast, sitting in the hospital with my friend after surgery, driving my parents to the airport, or writing content that I think will be beneficial to others. I started this blog to write about things that I’m going through or trying out to inspire & help others. I haven’t been writing nearly as much lately because I’ve been filled with so much self-doubt and I worried that my posts would start to come off negative, which is something I’ve never wanted them to be. I’m so grateful to be able to find a way to share my struggles with you while looking at them with a positive mindset. I’m also so happy to have found the answers that I have been searching for the last few months.

I think it’s so crazy that we get so wrapped up in negativity within ourselves and we think that we’ve got to be the only person going through this. Social media is such a great place to share your ideas and messages to others, but it also is so easy to look at someone else’s pictures/posts and think that their life is perfect when in reality, nobody’s life is perfect. Everyone is going through their own individual struggle and being able to know and accept that makes it so much easier to know that you’re not alone. I want to share some of the things that I have learned along my journey to help me work on believing in myself again:

Own Your Sparkle:

I have fallen in love with listening to podcasts lately. I’ve mentioned before that I love reading books, but as I’ve gotten older I haven’t made as much time to read (I’m working on getting better at that), so being able to listen to people share their personal knowledge through podcasts has been amazing. My favorite podcasts revolve around self-empowerment/self-love, nutrition, financial guidance, and healthy mindset tips. One of the Podcasts I listen to is called “Rise and Conquer” by Georgie Stevenson. I listened to one of her episodes recently and the guest that day shared some tips on how to “own your sparkle.” She explained how helpful it is to grab a notepad and write down on an entire page everything that you love about yourself and that you are good at. I never intended on sharing my list with anyone because it’s hard to be vulnerable and sometimes it feels silly sharing things like this, but I can’t even try to explain how helpful it was to write down the things that I love about myself and that I think I’m good at. Sometimes with something simple like this, we might believe that people are going to think that we’re being cocky or self-absorbed, but in reality we’re supposed to love ourselves as Christ loves us. We’re supposed to have self-confidence while also being selfless.

Stop Putting Yourself Into One Box:

Another podcast I love to listen to is “She” by Jordan Lee Dooley and this one is my absolute favorite. This girl shares so many helpful life tips, but one of my favorite messages from her was when she said to “stop putting yourself into one box.” So many of us feel like we have to be one thing, but most of us are multi-passionate. For example, I have a career as a figure skating coach, but I also love to write, run, share nutritional tips with people, organize events, and many other things. You don’t have to be one thing, it’s okay to be multiple things and not feel like you have to stay in that one lane because that’s “what you are.” Learning to be open minded in that regard has made it so much easier to accept that I love to do multiple things and to allow myself to make time to do them because they are all important to me.

Making Time To Do The Things You Enjoy:

One of the biggest things for me is to set aside time to do things I enjoy, things that bring me happiness. For example, I love to go on long walks on the trails, have my morning cup of coffee out on the back patio, to read a book, or take a bath with a bath bomb and face mask. There are many other little things that bring me joy, but sometimes in the midst of my crazy schedule of working and trying to also make time for chores/time with my family and friends. I just have to remind myself that “me time” is also really important and figure out how to set aside some time for myself even if it’s only for 30-45 minutes of my day. Taking the time to do things that genuinely make you happy is not an act of selfishness. It’s important to allow ourselves to do all of the things that we need to do as well as the things that we want to do.

Positive Mindset:

When people say that “positivity is key” they’re not lying. It’s so awesome to see how different your day, month, or even your life can change when you try to be as positive as you possibly can be. Now there are definitely days where being positive is going to feel like you’re pulling teeth, but if you just try to wake up each day thinking it’s going to be a good one and making the best you can out of each situation it will truly go a long way.

Your Body Is A Temple:

Something that I have really struggled with since I was about 14 or 15 years old is issues with my body image. The issues stemmed from my sport that often revolves around what your appearance looks like and it has been a very hard thing to outgrow. I have gone through many phases of feeling content with how I look while still picking myself apart or thinking that I have to completely transform my body on a daily basis. It’s something I have been struggling with very hard lately and has played a huge role in my self-doubt and feeling like I need to be better. Naturally as you get older and especially when you go from training as a competitive athlete to barely making time for at least a 30 minute workout, your body changes and change can be a hard thing to accept. My goal has always been to learn how to love the body that God gave me, but at the same time I need to remember that my body is a temple and I need to treat it with health, love, and respect. Implementing healthy eating & exercise is what we’re meant to do, but we’re not supposed to kill ourselves or over criticize ourselves over it. Be kind to your body and remember what it was created for.

Be Authentically Yourself:

I think it’s so awesome that each person has their own unique quirks and personalities, so why not own ours? I feel like we try to hide the things that make us who we are because we feel like it makes us “different.” We are all different and that’s okay, that’s how we were made to be. I’m an extremely clumsy person to the point where it can actually be embarrassing and I also can be very awkward by saying things and doing things at odd times, but that’s me and instead of being embarrassed why don’t I laugh about it or find happiness in the things that make me who I am? We’re too hard on ourselves and we don’t need to be especially when it comes to situations like being clumsy or awkward. Every person has their own flaws, insecurities, achievements, and good traits, but as long as you are authentically yourself and continue to strive towards loving yourself and others no matter what your quirks are, I find that you will truly be happy with your whole self. Now I still believe that we all need to continue to become the best versions of ourselves by working through our flaws and insecurities, but at the same time we need to own them, we need to recognize them, and we need to love ourselves anyways.

The End:

I feel extremely blessed to be able to have a platform to share my message with you all and I’m also so grateful that Jordan & Mila wanted to go to church because I honestly don’t know how long it would have taken me to climb this mountain if I hadn’t heard the Lord speak to me yesterday. I hope that my message is able to help any of you going through the same or similar things that I have been going through.

Please comment and share your thoughts with me. I would absolutely love to hear the things that you’re passionate about and see your “Own Your Sparkle” lists!! Happy Monday y’all! I’ll be back soon. 💕

XOXO, Paige.