As those who follow my daily blogs know, I have done something really different this week in my blogs. I’ve been sharing excerpts each day this week out of my book I wrote, “What Awesome Looks Like: How To Excel In Business & Life”. Given this is the last blog for this week I thought I would end with an excerpt found in the last Chapter of my book which starts with:

If Our Future Selves Could Talk To Us

“It will all be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end.” —Unknown

I lived in Virginia for part of my teenage years. During a recent visit to the White House in Washington, DC, I was able to drive past the house I’d lived in nearly thirty years before. Driving up, a million memories flooded my mind as if they’d happened just yesterday. As I looked up at the second story window to what used to be my bedroom, I could picture myself hanging out in my room listening to my eighties music cassette tapes while cutting out pictures from fashion magazines to hang on my walls.

I couldn’t help but think, “If only that teenage girl knew all the things she would face in her life … all the struggles she would go through … the heartaches she would experience … the fears she would face … the years of loneliness and struggles she’d have as a single mom … the businesses she would build … the ups and the downs she would have to get through … the burdens she would shoulder … the lessons she would learn … the two beautiful children she would be blessed with who would grow up to become the most amazing adults … the perfect little grandson who would come into her life and become the sun, moon, and stars … the losses she would suffer … the success she would have … the tears she would shed … the amazing friendships she’d form … the incredible people she would get to interact with … the happiness she would feel … the countless blessings that would be bestowed upon her …”

I’m certain if that teenage girl had been told what lay in store for her in the next thirty years of her life she would never have been able to believe it. She would never have thought she could be strong enough to get through all the hard times ahead. She would never have believed she was capable of standing strong through such heavy trials. She would never have thought she was smart enough to achieve all the successes in business.

We are all so much stronger, more capable, and smarter than we have even begun to realize. Whatever age we are today, I believe that if our future selves could talk to us right now, they would say, “Know that there are challenges ahead that won’t be easy, but know that getting through them will be worth it … and you are going to get through them … all of them … and you are going to be better for it.”

(end of excerpt)

I hope you’ve had fun reading just a few excerpts out of my book this week. I’ll go back to writing my normal daily posts again next week. But for those of you who would like to access a copy of the entire book it is available on Amazon (click link to order).

Have a great weekend everyone!

~Amy Rees Anderson (author of the book “What Awesome Looks Like: How To Excel in Business & Life” )