An Open Letter to the One Who Just Doesn't Understand Why I Chose This Work


I won’t lie.  

I have struggled with being a people pleaser at some points in my life.

Some of you will be surprised by that and some of you won’t.  The truth is, I think we all have a desire to be accepted and admired by the people in our circle.

I ran across this quote recently, “If you can’t handle being talked about, then you’re not ready for success.”

It made me stop.  

I mean, I want to be successful…but am I ready to be talked about?

Luckily, I didn’t have to worry about that yet.  I wasn’t “successful” for people to start talking about me.  

I’d cross that bridge when I got to it.

I just didn’t know it, but I WAS already there.

I come from small town USA, and I love it!  I love the friendly gestures and hospitality.  The smiles, waves and friendly conversations in the check out lines, with complete strangers.  I even love the southern drawl that marks the words we speak.

With this small town living also comes small town talk.  This can be good and hard. 

If you get sick or have an unfortunate accident, the whole community will know and be at your aid, saying prayers and bringing you tons of comfort food in no time flat.

If you decide to do something that pushes the boundaries or do something outside of the norm, you better believe the whole community will know that too and will be talking about you in no time flat.

It’s OK.  I get it.  I have certainly had my share of thoughts and perhaps judgments about what other people are doing as well.

I even had to go through the process of making sure I, myself, was OK with what I was deciding to do.

So, if anyone’s interested in talking about the real process of why and how I decided to do something a little out of the norm.  Here are five things I hope you’ll work into your conversations about me and my work.

1- I felt very prompted to do this work and didn’t take it lightly.
3- I talked to my husband, kids, mentors, church leaders and other family members, before I decided to go all in.
4- I’m passionate about strengthening marriages and families and will do my part to help.
5- The more women I work with, the more I realize they need a safe place to talk about private issues they feel like they’ve had to hide—issues that are simultaneously wreaking havoc on their marriages.

These things are important to me.  I'm privy to transformations that are so rewarding.  That’s why I’m all in! 

If it doesn’t make sense to you, that’s OK.  It doesn’t have to be your thing.  I still love you.

Go out and give the world whatever it is that does resonate with you and we’ll both do our thing and contribute in the way we were meant to exist in the world.

xoxo,

Rhonda

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