NormsMilfordBlog

Sometimes the simplest little things can have big impact on our lives. In this series of posts I examine very short sentences (each just three words long) that can make a difference in your life. If you have a three word sentence that changed your life somehow, share it with me and I will share it with the world.

Today’s three little words are about self-confidence and self-esteem.  You have to like yourself and be confident to challenge life to say, Bring it on.

Saying bring it on doesn’t mean that you have no fears or concerns about whatever the challenge is that you are facing; but, it does mean that you are confident enough in your ability to deal with whatever life throws you way to be able to look it in the eye and say, Bring it on.

You don’t get to the stage in life where you can confidently face any challenge without having been through quite a few challenges already – it’s called experience. Experiences in life allow us to build a knowledge base of what worked and what didn’t work. It also allows us to understand that most of the time the fears that we had going into situations seldom turned out to be anything more than our own imagination. We are better equipped to sort through the real and the imagined dangers in life to control our anxieties and say, Bring it on.

While this little saying seems on the surface to be a testosterone laden response to life’s trials, it is really more about inner strength and inner peace and women tend to actually be better at it than men. The old saying goes that men toil from sun to sun, but a woman’s work is never done. Women may not be able to lift as heavy a single load as men, but they do seem to be able to bear their loads much longer than men and with much less drama. When life’s burden’s overwhelm them and men give up, saying they can’t take this anymore, it’s often the women in their lives who pick them up, offering support and comfort and saying, Bring it on.

An interesting side benefit from taking this positive, unafraid approach to life is that it actually strengthens and empowers you. Tentativeness and timidity cause you shrink and be less than you are capable of being. Standing up to be counted in the face of hardships or difficulties in life makes you feel alive and good about yourself. You stick out your chest, face into the winds of challenge and say, Bring it on.

So, as you start your day each morning, you have the choice of sitting there wallowing in fear, uncertainty and doubt; hoping that whatever bad things you have imagined might happen today won’t; or you can choose to suck it up, look at yourself in the mirror and with confidence say, Bring it on.

If you need just a little reinforcement each morning try this little prayer, “Lord give me the strength today to do what is right, the courage to resist doing want is wrong and the wisdom to be able to tell the difference between the two.” Then, open the door and start your new day by saying, BRING IT ON!