You may or may not know that last week I won the title of ‘Working Parent Blogger Of The Year’. An award I am extremely proud of and worked hard to get. I was up against some very established and much bigger Bloggers than myself, like Mother Pukka & Laura’s Lovely Blog, but little old me took the award. It truly was a shock to actually win but then I did believe I could win, otherwise, I wouldn’t have put myself forward to be nominated. I have written many times about how you need to have confidence in yourself to get anywhere in life. This doesn’t mean you have to be up your own bottom and I hope I don’t come across that way, but you do need to believe you can achieve your end goal before you start out. The 6 months it took me to complete my Social Media Management Course was hard. Hard work that wasn’t paid, was on top of running my blog and being a fulltime mum of 2. There were times when I saw my old colleagues off on fancy ‘away days ‘ and buying the latest Mulberry handbags that my heart sank and I wondered if I had made the right decision, then I would give myself a virtual slap around the face and remember what I was working towards.
Every one of us has a passion for life, whether it’s a hobby that will always stay a hobby or something we dream will eventually become a business. You may have seen a new job online or heard about a promotion but it takes that extra bit of effort to apply and put yourself forward. As the old saying goes ” You have to be in it to win it “. As women we can come up with 101 reasons not to take a risk, to stick to what we know but with the ever-increasing gender pay gap and fight for equal rights, how can we stand up and be counted if we refuse to move off our chairs?
Not for one second am I telling you all to quit your jobs and take the financial risk of setting up a new business without a care in the world, but I am telling you that you need to stop making excuses and push for what you want. That ‘more’ could be to apply for flexible working hours to be able to pick the kids up from school 3 nights a week or it could be to audition for the lead role in your drama society next musical. At some point, we all need to take ourselves out of our comfort zone, cross our fingers and believe we can achieve our personal goal. So next time you find yourself making excuses and putting your dreams & ambitions off for another day, remember ‘ You have to be in it to win it ‘