Challenge Yourself

How have you challenged yourself? When I initially started peeling back the layers of this week’s Her Growth Collective topic of challenging yourself, I asked myself this question. 

I was immediately drawn to the first definition of challenge, “a call to take part in a contest or competition.” I have never really been motivated by contests or competitions; however, as I leaned into the second definition, “to dispute the truth or validity of something,” I realized that I have become pretty passionate about challenging myself when it comes to my own feelings and beliefs, and I challenge you to do the same.  

Although I have learned to trust my own intuition, I have also learned to challenge my thoughts.  “Why?” has always been one of my favorite questions. I want to understand why others and myself do the things we do and feel the way we feel. When you ask yourself those questions, how often do you answer, “that’s what I was taught” or “that’s the way I was raised”?

My heart breaks when I think about the violence in our world, especially the violence and hate that has seeped through so many generations directed at BIPOC. I grew up thinking racism and white supremacy was a thing of the past, but the last few years have shown me that those things are very much alive. We may call them by different names to make it more palatable, but I will never deny the reality I see and that of someone’s lived experience.  

Are you willing to do the hard work and challenge yourself to deconstruct your own thoughts and beliefs in an effort to better understand yourself and others? I’m grateful for all those that “flush it out” with me to connect and understand each other’s stories. We are better together and hate has no place here. 

This post is written in partnership with #HerGrowthCollective, encouraging women to walk the path of self-development together.