Doesn’t it flow through your veins like ice pouring into a glass

Disappointment the venom

The amount of times I’ve felt it

The amount of doors that will close in your face on your way!

The followers that leave you
The industry approval you once sought – considered friends even! – turning their backs on you at the time you needed them the most
Distancing themselves from you

Suddenly they’re talking about you
About your downfall maybe but probably more like the way you speak out
Or speak up

And they don’t like it when you start speaking the truth
Start seeing things for how they REALLY are and not just glossing over everything like they wanted and expected you to

AND THEY WILL CLOSE THE DOOR IN YOUR FACE.

And so what then?

You’re going to lie down and let that be that, let that be THE END of you!?

And I know you might feel like this message isn’t for you, like this message is only for people who ‘speak out online’ or who bare their souls

(well really if you’re not and you’re JUST posting pictures of your kids and food and holidays well then what’s the point, really? Social media can be SUCH a powerful platform not just for business growth aka INCOME growth but also you know, sharing a world-changing message! even if that’s just the way you live your life differently)

But it’s not, actually just for those people – I WROTE THIS FOR YOU. 

Unless you feel like every part of your business / life is going to be easy and plain sailing!?

In which case I’d argue that actually your business –  and probably you too-  isn’t growing at all because at EVERY level there will be some challenge to break through and, actually, it’s only at a very particular level of success you actually face the now-commonplace hater and people turning their backs scenario!

Most of the time the challenges are actually much more mundane –

They’re the ones you’ll know by
the no,
the rejection,
the clients who opt for someone else/ cheaper,
and most of all actually the simple struggle to stay focused and on track for your goals
AT THE SAME TIME as living life as you desire!

(Probably the biggest challenge at every level, actually)

But back to you

Well and me actually, and the things I’ve never spoken about

Like the blogger who was one of my closest friends at the time, who I’d even founded a business with, who basically cut our friendship dead as soon as my hater group emerged because she didn’t want it ‘tarnishing her brand’  WELL you soon find out who your true friends are! 

Like the other blogger who at the very least, was some kind of friend, or I’d thought so anyway – and certainly someone who wasn’t rejecting my advertising money when THEY first started out, and then kicked me out of their group and demanded I take down their ‘badge’ from my site when they didn’t like I posted the TRUTH about how anyone actually, can change their lives in their group!

The thing is

DOORS WILL KEEP CLOSING! AND IF THEY’RE NOT THEN YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG. 

Because when you shine so insanely brightly

People see it
People hate it

And the thing is
funnily enough

They love it at the same time
Can’t help but watch a sunrise, can we? Or looking at the stars

And the other thing is

THEY’RE STILL WATCHING YOU! They’re watching you very, very closely to see what you’re going to do next.

SO

Have to keep going
Have to make it YOUR way

Or what’s the alternative?

Curl away like somebody sucked the life out of you
Hidden in relative obscurity

When really the world is waiting
For you to show up and in shine in the only way YOU can

Screw the doors closing, screw the nos, even the people who turn away and give you the no,

The sale you never closed the person you never quite won over the publication you never quite got the qualification that was never meant to be –

All of them
Screw them all.

Pour that disappointment, the pain, the agony and everything you’re going through into fuel that burns like you do for all the things you told me you wanted

We’re waiting

Because the thing is

Didn’t you KNOW, didn’t you believe
Right from when you were a kid
You were always meant to be the one standing out
Didn’t you know you were put here to shake things up a bit?

Does this sound all a bit too exhausting to you?
Do you need to have a cup of tea and a lie down?
Newspapers reporting this weekend millennials and next gen turning their backs on tea
Outdated yet,
Your comfort blanket you can huddle under and hide the dreams you know are literally RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU waiting for you to just reach out, just take that one more step

Or carry on drinking your tea
In your pretty cups

While the rest of us caffeineate the world

Carry on being like everyone else
Good girl approval,
Needing all the things you THINK you need in order to get to some mythical status you probably would never get to anyway because THEIR approval well you’ve NEVER had it really

And you’re certainly not going to get it with some piece of paper or income level or healing the world or whatever you’re chasing for their approval

the ONLY way to get it
To get both their approval NOT that it ever matters but you know, if you want it
To make the difference and the changes you said you burned for

To NOT live essentially, a life that is WORTHLESS!

and yes you can hate me for this, ask how dare I say anybody’s life is worthless and you’re right, life is NEVER worthless, but for you

For all of YOU
Wouldn’t life be a tragic nonsensical waste

If they were never to see you
To know you
To walk with you

Not because of the greatness of you but simply because
This is what you came for? 

And of course the only way you’re going to do that
Pick yourself up
Dust yourself off

So what
Just another sign you’re actually DOING THE RIGHT THING
Another test for you, like you haven’t faced so many before

And I know you’re tired now
Want the tests to stop
Haven’t you done enough?

And No
Because this, these things you want and desire

They’re not

something you fancied doing one day, 
something you thought was a good idea
a business you thought would be easy to do
something you squeeze into the minutes of your otherwise-idle day

It’s literally running through you like a river

these things, this purpose, your vision, your goals
It’s your LIFE!

Better stand up and start living it –

no matter how many times you have to get back up again, no matter how many doors close, no matter what they think or say about you, no matter what THEY have to say about it.