Telling Self Doubt to Get Out

Happy Wednesday, friends! I'm taking the week off from Wedding Wednesday mostly because I opted to drink wine and proceeded to take 3 hours to cook dinner last night, which left no time for me to choose which photos from our reception I wanted to share. It works out because I have a bit of exciting news and not a whole lot of time to write about it.

I got a bit of a promotion at my new job! I started working here at the end of February and since then I've been in more of a support/administrative role than I was expecting. I was approached a few weeks ago about another opportunity with the company as they were thinking about hiring from outside and instead, wanted to see if I would be interested. As of this week, I'm officially our Business Development Coordinator and I'm pretty psyched. It's a lot more responsibility and much better fit for my experience so things couldn't have worked out better. 

I guess you could say yesterday was my first official day in my new role and I went home feeling less than thrilled ...and for no particular reason. I'll admit that while I'm really excited about this opportunity, I'm a little intimidated and a lot overwhelmed. Instead of letting the intimidation empower me to dive in and do my thing, I let self doubt rush over me and take control. 

The thing is, when I calm down and really think about it, I know I can totally do this. I can totally handle the pressure and responsibility that come with this role. What I don't know, I will learn and I have a network of people that will help me figure it out. 

I got this. 

So why is my first instinct to start doubting myself? Because change is always a little bit scary? Because I don't want to fail? Because I am too hard on myself at times? Probably all of the above. But I want to be the confident woman who takes on challenges without thinking twice, who has faith in herself and who doesn't let her thoughts get the best of her. 

It's amazing what a difference a day makes. Here I am on day #2 of my new role and today, I have a new perspective. I feel like I am rocking it. I'm energized and motivated. I'm still a little intimidated and a lot overwhelmed, but I am in control of how I deal with that. With the amount of work I have, I'm just diving in and figuring it out as I go. I'm not allowing myself to take the time for self doubt because I am too busy just doing what I have to do. 

I need to make this my default from here on out because asking myself, "Can I do this?" is just taking time away from when I could just be saying, "I got this."

Recap: Random Acts of Kindness for my 28th Birthday

Happy Monday! I can't say I'm thrilled to see the weekend come to an end, but alas, here we are so we should just go ahead and make the best of it.

As promised, I want to recap my birthday week challenge of performing 28 Random Acts of Kindness today. I'm a little disappointed to say that while I'm really happy with what I did do, I didn't even make it close to reaching my goal. I'm going to focus on the positive though, and share with you the few things I did throughout the week:

1. Used a gift card to buy a coffee at Starbucks and gave it to the person behind me in line

2. Donated my old glasses at Lenscrafters when I picked up my new pair

3. Made an extra effort to compliment coworkers

4. Donated $1 to the American Cancer Society at Walgreens

5. Spent time commenting on blog posts I normally wouldn't take the time to comment on. Everyone loves blog comments!

6. After doing some shopping, I taped a $10 gift card to a cart at Target to help with someone's shopping

7. Baked a batch of Snickerdoodle cookies and delivered them to the local police station with a note thanking the officers for what they do

While I didn't make it anywhere near my goal of 28 RAKs this week, I'm still feeling pretty satisfied! These few simple acts felt really good and it reminded me how much more satisfied I am when I am making a conscious effort to bring joy to others. I may not have made it to 28 in a week, but I'm feeling more motivated than ever to seek out opportunities for RAKs on a daily basis.

I know it would take a lot more than a few simple things like this to change the world, but knowing I can spread joy through a simple act of kindness makes me feel better about what I'm putting out into the world. I may not have reached my goal for the week, but I'm certainly going to make an effort to keep this up!

A Few Things on Friday

Hello and happy Friday! It's been quite a week! My birthday dinner on Monday evening was so much fun! For a sort of last minute decision, I was thrilled so many of our friends and family were able to join us. I've been feeling more grateful than ever for the network of caring and supportive people we've been blessed with! This week has been busy and a little overwhelming...in all the best ways, of course. A few things on this Friday...

A Few Thoughts from This Week

• To be honest, doing 28 Random Acts of Kindness to celebrate my 28th birthday this week has proved a little easier said than done. I've done a few here and there, but I have a long way to go this weekend if I want to reach my goal. Again, if any of you have suggestions, I'd love to hear your ideas!
• Work has been challenging and exciting lately. It's taken me a few months to get settled in and it's still a work in progress, but I'm feeling more comfortable lately and I'm pretty happy about that. There is an exciting work-related development in the works, too and I can't wait to fill you in that when it's official!
• I've reached a point in my adult life where I genuinely look forward to a free Saturday so I can give our house a good cleaning. Life seems to get so hectic during the week and we always seem to have fun stuff planned for the weekend. Unfortunately, this means our little home gets neglected and I start to feel like it's out of control. This Saturday morning is all about regaining some control over our lives. #adulthood
• I've had this on my mind after reading a post yesterday on the topic of religion and while it was well written and I completely respect her opinion, it's been on my mind ever since. The writer was commenting on how she doesn't believe God has anyone's life planned out for them, that anything happens because of him or that their destiny is out of their control. I respect her opinion and her choice to were about it and the whole post was actually interesting to read despite the fact that I don't share her views, but this specific comment stuck with me all day. See, I think there is a disconnect here. She kinda paints a picture and brings up an image I think a lot of nonbelievers have of a lazy individual sitting back thinking God is going to give them what they want whether they put in the effort or not. I can't speak for all Christians, obviously, but I'm certainly not sitting back making zero effort in my life saying that God will give me this or give me that or not working my ass off trying to accomplish things because God will make sure I reach my goals. When I pray to God, I'm not praying for him to take care of it all, although I do have faith that on his time, he will provide the answers in some form. When I say that I have faith and trust in God's timing and his grace, I'm not leaving it all up to him to provide for me. On the contrary, when I pray to God, I'm praying for his guidance to help me find my way through, I'm praying to him for his love to bring me strength, patience or peace through whatever I'm facing or to give others guidance, strength, patience or peace through their trials. I do this all knowing that his timing is always right and that he will provide in his way. Having faith in God doesn't mean we are standing by waiting for him to put the pieces into place for us, it just means we are relying on his wisdom to guide us through and that it's his will and his timing we can trust in.

I didn't mean to go on a rant, but hey, this is what's on my mind at the moment. I hope you can understand where I'm coming from. What are your thoughts on this?

A Few Snapshots of Our Weekend in St. Augustine

Our Bed & Breakfast! I can't say enough about how wonderful this was. If you're ever planning a visit to St. Augustine, I highly recommend this place. The service was phenomenal and the rooms were super cozy!

Our first night in we went out for a few drinks and were craving a late night snack. This place was just about to close down and they invited us in and made us each an individual slice of pizza (not even something they offer on the menu). I can't get over how kind these people were to us for absolutely no reason other than "we looked like a really nice couple." 

A Few Plans for This Weekend

• Get my butt to the bank and change my last name on our bank accounts and whatnot
• Clean our house for goodness sake
• Knock out a bunch of wedding thank you cards
• Get myself a pedicure while my hubby works on Saturday (this was his sweet suggestion and after some convincing, I just can't say no)

What's on your mind this week? What are you up to this weekend?