On today’s episode of Finding Finish Lines – The Podcast, I share stories of imposter syndrome telling lies in my own life and explore how courage and apprehension can sometimes share space.

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Show Notes:

Welcome to the very first episode of Finding Finish Lines – The Podcast.

Something incredible and timely happened today. As the circle of people who know about this podcast highlighting courageous women grew, I suddenly felt far less brave myself. It’s funny how life works like this sometimes, right? 

Join me as I touch on:
-Imposter Syndrome
-The words from my sister that always snap me back to life
-My experience with the Disney Parks Moms Panel
-Attempting endurance events for the first time
-The loneliness of new parenthood 
-Serving other moms
-Applying for a new job
-Stepping out in Faith
-Growing our communities
-Being stretched in scary situations and coming out better 

I share an excerpt from You Are The Girl For The Job by Jess Connolly

Here is a Facebook post from Jen Hatmaker that I referenced about “Christianese.” It’s worth a quick read if you have ever felt out because of the interesting language used in some circles.

Thanks for joining me today!

 Episode transcript

Hey friends, it’s Sally Bulavko, the creator of finding finish lines, the blog and this here podcast. Though I had a totally different episode that I was going to post as our first episode for this podcast; It’s edited, it’s uploaded, it’s ready to go after this morning; I’ve decided that I wanted to change it up a little bit. I wanted to share a little bit of my heart with you before we head on out on this journey.

I am completely blown away with the incredible, supportive women that I have in my life. When I shared this morning that this thing was going live, you guys have completely overwhelmed me. I can’t even say thank you enough.

The pod is real. So is imposter syndrome.

To share a little bit about what happened this morning that has me changing my entire plan for this podcast: I woke up this morning to an email from iTunes. It was an email I’d been waiting for, just wasn’t what I expected today. This podcast had been approved and was now in their directory. Combine that with some other directory emails I’ve had in the last few days and that means that this thing is like a real show. It’s actually available and if anybody wants to listen to it, that they could find it and that they could listen. It means it’s actually real. So this thing that I’ve been dreaming about for, I don’t even know how long, and actively working on for months is real. And friends, that absolutely terrifies me. I don’t know about you, but I am, I guess what they would consider an old millennial. I’m like right on the cusp between a generation X and a millennial and something that is always joked about as being part of who we are is that I’ve like crippling imposter syndrome. Raise your hand if you have this. 

Okay. And if you haven’t heard of it, it’s when no matter what happens in your life, if it’s good, if it is a chance that the spotlight is on you, you just want to run and hide. Because the reality is that we know our insides and we compare our insides to other people’s outsides. So we think that everybody else is valued and capable and we completely dismiss that we are. My friends, that is the whole point of this entire endeavor.

I just don’t want to pretend to you like that is not an affliction that I carry around with me. There is no chance that I’m going to show up here and tell you that I think it is completely easy to stand in your power and know who you are and what you’re supposed to be and celebrate yourself when I know full on well that I’m terrified to do it myself. 

So this morning I find out that this thing is real, that I can no longer keep it a secret that I want to brighten up the lives of women around me and women I’ll never meet. And that I want to do it in a big way. Here it is. This is the way I’m doing it. It was time to let the secret out of the bag, so I posted it just for my friends on my private Facebook and man, Oh man, did you guys show up? And with every single comment that said that you subscribed and that you liked it and you were looking forward to hearing it or every person who just hit the like button, I pretty much wanted to go hide. I know that sounds ridiculous. I know and I know that it is all coming from a place of love, but let me tell you something about myself:

Friends, I consider myself to be an excellent soldier. I want to be in the background. I want to be building you up. I want to help everyone around me, but there is a 0% chance that I want to be the one that’s up on the stage. I do not want to be the one speaking behind the podium. I want to be the one preparing the remarks for the person speaking behind the podium. But what do you do when you’re pretty sure that this time you’re supposed to be up there? I don’t know. That’s the honest truth. I don’t know. I don’t know what that’s like, but I feel like this is that moment and so I’m going to wing it. I’m here, I’m going to try it, use me. And because this show is about normal women showing up and being brave, I’m not going to start it by not being a hypocrite. 

I’m going to show up and I’m going to be brave. So this morning when I felt like, “Hey look, people want to listen to it. So I think that means I should shut the whole thing down and never mention it again.” I called Haley, who is going to be my cohost for many episodes. She’s my sister and she’s amazing and I can’t wait for you to get to know her. I told her exactly what I was thinking and she said the words I always need to hear because she is the truth-bringer in my life. And what did she say?

“Suck it up, Bulavko! Get it together.”

She was right. That is always what I need to hear and I’m grateful for her this morning. So today instead of a posting that we now have a podcast and then deleting it, I decided to fight it in a big way. 

I took a deep breath and I reached out to somebody that I really wanted to interview for one of the early episodes of the podcast. I was super nervous. Was she was going to think I was crazy and possibly, a stage five clinger? You know what? The worry was for nothing. She didn’t think I was a stage five clinger. She didn’t think the whole thing was weird. She was incredibly flattered that I wanted to talk to her and she’s excited to do it. Right guys? Isn’t that kind of the scoop? Isn’t that the difference between whatever is playing out in our heads and what is actually real and on this planet and we gotta be done with it? Friends, we have to stop allowing ourselves to be captive prisoners of our nasty narrative. So I’m not saying that I’m done entirely or that I’m completely over it, but this morning has been a success. 

I’m just telling you that I’m declaring that I’m over it and I’m going to take small steps to try to get there. So, after I scheduled that interview, I decided that I really needed to change my self talk. Of course that means for today, I’m sure I’ll have to do it again tomorrow. One thing I decided to do was to make a small list of things that I have decided I wanted, have been brave enough to work for and lucky enough to achieve. Then I wanted to think about what that actually meant for my life. It turns out I have stories about how I’ve practiced this bravery in small or big ways and I’m positive that you do too. If the whole goal of this show is to remind you to see it, I’m going to go ahead and need to remind myself, too. 

My Disney parks Moms Panel Journey

I thought I’d start with the story of the scariest thing that I have ever done in my whole life. You might think that I’m talking about marriage. Nope. It wasn’t very scary to me. Ten years in, I’m still not too afraid of it.

Was it having my first daughter or my second? Nope. Those beautiful babies didn’t scare me either. I’m an adventure by nature and those were legit adventures. They were adventures I got to take out on my own. They were of my own accord and I just felt ready. I knew I could do it and it was fun and I, I enjoy it. I mean, I enjoy the difficult tween years right now. I love all of it. I can’t say I completely expected that I would grow up to become a stay at home mom and a wife. It definitely wasn’t in my plan, but it is my reality and I love it and I’m grateful for it and I never considered it scary. 

Nope. The truth is, the scariest thing I ever did was when I actually applied for the Disney Parks Moms Panel. You can laugh, you can laugh. I’d be willing to bet that some of my friends who are listening to this right now, they know what I’m talking about because they’ve been in that boat too. You write down your thoughts and feelings about this place that means so much to you, or me, or means so much to us. Right? And you think this is something that is huge in my life and I am sharing my heart about it and I’m asking a stranger to evaluate my thoughts. What if a stranger doesn’t like my thoughts? You know that’s hard. That’s a hard pill to swallow for sure. Hey, I’m there right now.

The first time I applied, I made it into a round two. 

The night that I got the email, I was so excited that I went out and ran and I ran what is to this day, my fastest 5k. Not going to lie friends, that was in 2014. Five years later, I haven’t beat it. I’m a little salty about that.

In that process, not only do you have to write, but then you also have to make a video of yourself. That was crazy, but let’s not even discuss how many takes I had. In that year, I decided to sing! Friends, I am never going to sing to you on this show because I’m not any good at it. I don’t know what possessed me to do that. But I did and it worked out because I was invited into round three which for the Disney Parks Moms Panel is an interview portion.

I had the single worst interview of my entire life. 

Oh my friend’s I can’t even tell you! I think I was on the phone for like 15 minutes and I think I might’ve said three words and nervous giggled 20 times. It was not good. Of course, that year I was not asked to join the Disney Parks Moms Panel and rightfully so.

The following year I was! I went through that process again. I picked myself back up, made another video, did not sing. It’s clutch. I answered the questions from my heart. I gave an interview I was very proud of, even though I was so nervous, I could hardly stand. I told myself I was going to stand cause they say you can hear the difference. I did that interview out on my pool deck in West Texas.

Side note: I miss my pool deck in West Texas

I was really proud of it. 

When I hung up, I felt great. Somehow I had overcome those feelings in my belly, I stood there, and I was legit. They asked for my favorite quote. I quoted Walt Whitman, which is me, my friends. It was me and I loved it. I felt good and a few weeks later there it was. I got the phone call and I was invited to join and that felt awesome.

Let me take you to the scary part.

Not too long later, I got to enjoy the Disney parks moms panel training trip, which anyone who’s been in this universe for a little while, the Disney Parks, Moms Panel universe knows that training trip becomes one of the highlights of your life. Man, did I have fun! I met nine fellow panelists who would be my classmates and I adore every single one of those nine people, eight women and a man. I was going to make some sort of Star Wars reference but didn’t come to me. So eight women and a male Jedi. I will say they are some of my closest friends and I appreciate them and showing up for that was not too scary.

I realized over time it’s because it was real. It was because it was my real face, my real body showing up in real time on this actual planet with my feet on the ground, meeting other people and that does not scare me.

What does was that not too long after, our pictures showed up on the internet. Of course they were going to, it’s a job writing on the internet! I don’t know why this blew my mind, but the day that our bio’s went live and the first little bit of my writing on the Disney Parks Moms Panel website with my face, I did not think I was going to be able to handle it. 

My friends, I lost my mind. I don’t know what that’s about. I still wonder. I think maybe it’s because people on the internet feel a little bit more freedom to say whatever they want. Right?

Hi Trolls. You’re not welcome here. Bye.

I was so afraid. Maybe it’s because Disney vacations mean so much to me personally and so much to my family that I was going to be sharing directly from my heart because Disney knowledge isn’t just on your brain. It’s on your heart. Now I was going to share that with strangers and it was going to be evaluated by strangers. It has, and I’ve seen some unkind things written about it.

I’ll tell you what, for an entire year, I’m not sure I ever got over it. Every single time I sat down to answer one of those questions, I knew, I knew, I knew that I knew the answer. There’s no question. You want to know how to get from one resort to a park girl, I got you. This is what I do. I could do this in my sleep. When I sat down to write those answers, all I could think of is, “What if you’re wrong? What if you actually don’t know? What if you give somebody bad advice? What if they don’t like it? What if you have a typo?”

Guys, is that productive at all?

No, it’s not. It’s absolutely not. That’s silly because who cares if there’s a typo? It will be just fine. I knew the answer! It’s that weird imposter syndrome thing that just pops up out of nowhere and could just attack you and it can steal your joy. It did for much of that year.

Now, I am incredibly grateful for that entire process. I’m one of the very lucky few who has had that experience and from it, I think I grew. I was maybe less fearful at the end than I was at the beginning, though it still existed. I didn’t let that fear over take me. I still answered those questions. I still showed up. I still reminded myself every day that I was lucky to have that position, but it didn’t mean that the fear entirely went away. And from it, my community grew. Not only did I make a new family with my classmates, but also several other Disney parks Moms Panelists, and in a much bigger way, the entire community of people who are involved in that, the staffers and the hopefuls and the people who were hopefuls who’ve moved on to do something else. All of them. They mean so much to me. None of those people who actually mean anything to me ever said anything unkind. They never said anything unkind. So why did I allow that fear to stay in my heart? I don’t know. I don’t know. 

My first marathon

There was the time that I signed up for my very first marathon and, for anybody who hasn’t read the story, that was a ridiculous move that made no sense at the time at all. I could not run three miles without stopping. I am not saying that you need to be able to run three miles without stopping to be a value. I’m saying that I probably should have had more of a running base under my belt before I signed up for my first marathon, but I didn’t and I decided not to just do it, but I was going to do it for a charity. I ran for Homes For Our Troops because I knew, look at me recognizing my imposter syndrome and finding a way to overcome it. I knew that if I committed to raising money for wounded veterans that I would have to tell people about it and like couldn’t fail at it. Just couldn’t. Absolutely not. There’s no way I was failing them, so I was going to have to do it. That’s how that came to be.

I signed up and immediately signed up for Homes For Our Troops. In that process I learned about Garmin watches. I learned about all of the gear that you could use to make running more enjoyable and let me tell you what I absolutely fell in love with the sport, completely fell in love with it. I started posting about my runs. I started posting about the distances. You guys all know. You know how it goes. As soon as someone starts a new fitness activity, they want to tell everybody about it. You want to shout it from the rooftops and that’s where I was and I started to overcome my fear of failing. 

Now, I still definitely felt like an imposter for sure. I will tell you what, I’ve run three marathons at this point, training for my fourth, a half Ironman, registered for an Ironman at the end of the year. I still feel like an unbelievable imposter. I don’t know how not to, I am not here to tell you not to. I’m just here to tell you that sometimes there is space, even for that and success at the same time. Maybe we should be able to focus a little bit more on the success part.

What came out of deciding to do that and conquering the fear of doing it was a bit more peace about my body. I’ve always had a fight with it. Come on ladies. I can’t be alone. I’ve always had a fight about it, but now I know what it can do. I know a piece of what it can do. I know that I have gone that far and not failed. Now I’m on an adventure to see how far I can go.

I have a friend who has run a hundred miles through the woods when it was freezing! I was there to support her. I saw her at mile 60 something and the girl looked fresh as a Daisy. Let me tell you what, friends, that girl has not found the limits of her body yet and she’s pushing it.

So I learned a little bit more about my body, had a little bit more peace. Once again, my community grew. The community of runners and endurance athletes is amazing. Absolutely incredible. I’ve never met more encouraging people. There’s hardly a, “You can’t do that” in the entire bunch, and if so, it’s normally a troll. And this is an important one: I realized I had a home no matter where I was. It was out on the road because even though we’ve moved a few times from that experience, you can always just strap on your shoes no matter where you are. Get out there, just you alone. I’m a single runner. Sorry for it. Just get out there, learn about your new place and learn about yourself and man, am I grateful for that. And I would never have had that if I hadn’t just hit the button. “Oh my gosh. I feel like I might throw up” and I’m registering anyway. Raise your hand if you’ve been there. I’m sure a lot of you have.

Stepping out in faith

This third and final time that I want to give myself a shout out for being brave… Um, I feel like before I can talk about it, I want to throw out there that this isn’t a preachy pod, but faith is in the center of my life. So, sometimes you’re going to hear some Christian-y words. I just don’t want anyone to feel like you’re not welcome here because this is for absolutely everyone. But if we’re talking about my story, I feel like this is part of it. 

This story, in order for it to make sense, actually starts 10 years ago because shortly after getting married, my husband and I had our first daughter and she was only two months old when we moved from our home state of Florida all the way up to Pennsylvania following my husband’s new job and 11 months after that our dear sweet second daughter was born. 

So there I was in Pennsylvania, which did not feel familiar to me at all because I’m a beach bum from Florida. There I am in the center of the state and I felt so lonely. We didn’t have any family there for the first two years. We didn’t have any friends there. We’d somehow start it out in a tiny town, an hour away from a grocery store and from where my husband was working and we then moved into a town home in what turned out to be really like a retirement community. I wish our realtor had shared that with us, but he did not and it was just lonely. My friends… lonely, lonely, lonely.

It was a bit of a dark time for me. I mean, of course I was so grateful that I had my precious babies and they were amazing. But you know that motherhood in the beginning can feel lonely at all and I was a thousand miles away from anybody I felt like cared about me. It was rough. It was super rough.

Fast forward several years and we’ve now moved to Virginia. We’re so lucky that the church that our family had started to attend is literally in our neighborhood, literally in our neighborhood! I could walk there in like three minutes. It was awesome. I found out that they had a program that would have changed my life had we had it where I lived in Pennsylvania. It was called MOPS. Maybe some of you have been involved in MOPS, and if you’re in leadership in that program, seriously bless you! You are doing such good work!

Anyway, this program is a place for mothers of preschool children… students? I don’t know, but it’s a place where moms who have itty bitty babies can go and drop off their little nuggets to be loved on and cared for. While you have some social time and some coffee and just a place to relax with other moms who are going through the same thing that you are. You can ask questions, you can avoid any judgy answers. You don’t have to go on the internet and deal with like “Mommy Wars.” These are just nice people there just to be together and have community.

I found out about this program and obviously my kids are much older at the time they were both already in elementary school. I learned that they were actually looking for people who would come and volunteer on the weekdays to spend a couple of hours with those precious little babies, to take care of the little nuggs while their moms went and felt like women, like grown legitimate women. 

I thought, “Okay, I don’t have anything to do during the weekdays. I could do that.” So I did. I wound up being the person who hung out with one year old babies for almost like three hours every other Wednesday morning. And it was tough. Sometimes I had like 12 babies in that room and it would maybe be like me and a teenager. I’ll tell you what, it was rough. It was a rough assignment. And sometimes I would leave there and I would say to Matt, “Man oh man! Do I love our girls and am I glad that they are no longer one.”

But the truth is I loved it. I got to snuggle babies. We watched little Einstein. It was just wonderful. And occasionally when the moms would come out and pick up their kids, you would just see them glowing. They were just so refreshed. And so even though it was tough, it was only a couple hours a week and I really felt like I was doing something good.

Then on the final day of MOPS, one mom whose son could be one of our difficult kiddos, I’m not going to lie, he was one of our more likely-to-cry-Children, came to me as I passed her son over the gate. She said to me with tears in her eyes, “Thank God for you.” And I was like completely blown away. Like completely. And I stood there like a stone for a second and I just kind of looked back at her. She said, “We’re a military family and we move a lot. And I never had this opportunity with our older son. I just never felt safe anywhere. And every time that I came here and I handed him to you specifically, I knew he was going to be okay, so thank you for giving me this time.” Oh you could have picked me right up off the floor because that was the point! That was the whole reason I wanted to do it. And yeah, I had given it a little bit of a side-eye sometimes when the room got overwhelming, but that was what it was all about and I loved it. I felt so good about it

Then shortly thereafter, I actually saw the church advertising a position, a part time position in early childhood. Which I’m going to be honest, I definitely thought meant all the way through elementary when I applied, but it turned out it really meant from birth until the kid of start kindergarten, as an assistant to the director of the program. And I’ll tell you what, I was nervous to apply because I thought “Me? There’s no way that anyone’s going to think I’m like Christian enough, right? There’s no way that anybody would think that I’m good enough to be in a position where they would trust me with their kids. I don’t know. On Sunday it’s so, it seems so important, right?”

I don’t know enough of like what Jen Hatmaker would call like the Christianese. The, I’m just going to say weird, way that sometimes Christians talk to each other. Like some weird language. I don’t even, I don’t do it. I don’t do it because I learned about Jesus much later in my life. Also, I’m, I’m me. I’m definitely like a super far liberal firecracker of a woman. What a church, what they really want me to be on the staff? I don’t know. 

So, I was super nervous about it. But I applied anyway, and I went in for the interview, and somehow those lovely ladies who interviewed me decided to take a chance and they offered me a position. In that year and a half, I grew so much.

I recently left that position. I felt my heart being tugged in other directions. I knew I needed more time with our family. I really felt like I wanted to do this, but I’ll tell you what, in that period of time where I was so afraid that I would show up and be judged and be less than be not good enough, man, I gained so much just from showing up.

Again, huge gains in a community. I have these women that just mean everything to me that have me up to the point where I could overcome my fear and start something like this. They showed me that I do belong. That I’m enough. That my language doesn’t have to be the same as everybody else in the community. It was awesome.

Back to this morning

So I’m writing some of these things down and really taking a second to think about, “What are other times that I’ve overcome this feeling that I’m feeling right now?” Everyone is posting that they’re going to listen to this podcast and I want to run as far as I possibly can. 

I realized that every single time, the growing and the stretching of who I am and what I can tolerate, the kind of grace I could pour out, was absolutely worth it. Every single time my circle grew. Every single time my heart grew, just like the Grinch would say it grew three sizes. It was important. Every time that you’ve faced that fear and you do it anyway, it’s got value. My friends, it’s got huge, huge value.

And you know what else I realized? That eventually, the scary things become the normal thing, and the normal thing becomes minimized. And we never appreciate that. We did it.

Like for example, the first time I wrote a mom’s panel answer, I literally couldn’t hit submit for like 15 minutes. I was going over and over and over and over it. And I thought if I hit submit, what happens? Like the walls come crumbling down? Um, will the leadership call me and be like, “Oh, you know what? We made a mistake. It turns out you’re actually an idiot and we don’t want you to be part of it.” I mean, these are the kinds of things that you think when you’re a lunatic with imposter syndrome. And that’s what was happening to me. But by the end of the year, was I still nervous when I hit submit? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. You can bet I was. But I still hit submit and I knew the walls weren’t going to come crashing down and I knew they weren’t going to call me and say they made a mistake. It was like I could look at that weird fear and say, “Hmm, you are not in control here anymore.”

So that’s the key. It doesn’t go away. We just learn that we can absolutely overcome it. 

What about the first time I ran my big race and I was terrified? What if I don’t make it? What if I, what if I get hit with hypnoatremia? I mean, all these weird things that just go through your brain. And you realize, “No, I’m going to be afraid of it at that starting line. It’s going to be nerve wracking and scary. I’m going to put one foot in front of the other. I’m going to cross that finish line and it’s going to be great. And then I’m going to do it again.

Every single day that I got up and I went to a church and said, “Hi, I’m here to help teach our kids about important stories about Jesus.” And at first I thought that one of these days somebody is going to come up to me and say, “Um, yeah, uh, we realized who you are and we don’t really want to here anymore because you’re a mess. And that’s that about that.”

And you know what? Of course it never happened. Of course it never happened.

I’m no longer on the staff. I just volunteer there now and uh, it’s still never going to happen because it’s not true. It’s a lie I tell myself. So you get over it, we get over it.

Lessons from author Jess Connolly

I was recently reading a book by Jess Connolly and it’s called You Are the Girl for the Job. I want to tell you that if you have time for a short, easy read, this is it my friends, because it is like truth bomb after truth bomb after truth bomb. And I just wanted to read you a little part of it because she’s talking about um, if you were to envision your ideal self, you know, and how wonderful she would be. And she’ll, she goes on about who her ideal self is and man! She sound fantastic.

As I’m reading it, of course I’m starting to think about who would be my ideal self, what does that look like? And of course she’s organized and creative and she always puts her family first and she doesn’t need any quiet time of her own and all of these things. And I’m thinking, okay, this is something I’ve never really thought about too much. My ideal self. Okay, I’m going to picture her and then I’m going to strive to be more like that. And then she, and then she hits you with this:

Ideal you. She’s not nearly as strong as actual you. See, she doesn’t make mistakes so she doesn’t have to rise up after falling down. She doesn’t have self-imposed or world inflicted limits so she doesn’t have to push past them. Fear isn’t on her radar, so faith doesn’t have to be either. 

Don’t throw her in the trash or leave her behind because she’s part of you. She’s beautiful. spirit-filled part that listens to the Lord about what could be ahead, but she’s not nearly as impactful or interesting or impressive. Mostly because she’s not actually here.

You, the broken you, the messy you, the you filled with past regrets and mistakes. You’re the girl for the job. You’re the one who sins and experiences grace, the one who feels fear and chooses faith, the one who hurts and can be hurt. You are the girl for the job. You the interruptible. You the unexplainable. You the complete picture version of a woman created by the God, who formed the universe with intention, talent, creativity, glory and perfect power. You are the girl for the job you placed right where you’re at in this season around these people. With all the tools you need to love them and continually pointing them to Jesus. You’re the girl for the job.

Your ideal self? She’s got nothing on you.

-Jess Connolly, You Are the Girl for the Job

Friends, that is the truth. That’s just it. The real us that shows up every day and does these small scary things or heck, even the big scary ones, the you that is terrified and hits register, the you that doesn’t know how you’re going to wake up in the morning and face your kids and does it anyway, that you that makes mistakes and learns from them and grows, the you who says embarrassing things sometimes and sometimes has to apologize and move on. You. You actual you. Listening right now. You with all of your fears and your failures with all of your mistakes, with all of your potential. You are exactly where you’re supposed to be right now, today. You’re perfectly positioned for tomorrow.

What is next?

What are you going to do with it? 

To what are you going to say, “You know what? This is what I think I’m supposed to do and fear is not standing in my way anymore.” How are you going to show up better? How are you going to show up more? How are you gonna be present? How are you going to cut out those things that aren’t supposed to be there? How are you going to show up less if that’s what you’re supposed to do? What is on your heart? What do you need to do? What bravery do you need to find?

That’s what we’re going to explore together in these next episodes or for however long this journey lasts. I don’t know. I don’t know.

Today, I flipped to the daily spot in my little calendar that someone gave me as a gift. Every day, it has like a little motivational thing for the day. I could not believe it. Today, it says, “November 19th. What you have to give, what you have to share with the world is far too important to be missed. We need you to be you. Not tomorrow, not next week, not next year, but where you are this very second.”

Hey friends. Um, can we please just talk about how that is probably exactly what I needed to hear when I wanted to climb into a hole this morning? So that’s it.

What I need to do is show up. So I’m going to be here. You can count on me to be here sharing stories of brave, incredible women with you. Maybe someday you hear a little bit of yourself in one of their stories. Maybe you believe in yourself a little bit more and maybe you go on to do the next big thing and maybe you change the world.

I promise you that I will not be perfect. I can promise you that because I know me. So it’s a promise, but I can also commit to you that I’m going to face all this self-doubt with everything that I have as I challenge you to do the same thing.

Let’s tame this beast together.

Find us!

If you’re being impacted by the show or if you have a story you’d like to share with me, I would love to hear it. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. The best way is by email. At sally@findingfinishlines.com. You can hear more from me on the blog FindingFinishLines.com or on Facebook at, of course, Finding Finish Lines or Instagram or Twitter or Pinterest or all the places, you know where they are.

Until next time, carry on. Women of Valor