I was asked a week ago, "Nicole, what were you put on this planet to do?" As an entrepreneur, this question is on my mind all of the time. It isn't easy mothering a business (or two), and it is even harder when you have a couple of twins running around who are a big distraction! But when I am asked this sort of deep deep question, I have to pause and consider that I've made some pretty significant decisions based on the answer. "Why am I here", of course begins with me wanting to be a devoted lover (and biggest supporter) of my husband, kids, family, and friends. One of the major decisions I made outside of my personal life, though, was a very conscious choice to help all women and girls KNOW that they are valuable and beautiful. And I can speak for Erica when I say that she, too, has a deep passion to start a revolution that supports a tidal wave of positive body image to well up in the women of our world.
What drives our purpose and our decision to keep going is that we know that when women and girls don't have a foundation of love for themselves and their bodies, they can lose a lot of precious time and energy. Negative self-talk can isolate women and girls from having authentic and meaningful relationships and careers, and poor boundaries can cause women and girls to extend themselves beyond human capacity.
It might be easy to brush it off and think, well, it's only really hurting me. But if that is what goes on in your head, then you need to know the truth....
Everyone has at least 5 to 10 things they excel at. If you can sing, calculate odds, track bird migrations, or know which direction is north better than 100 random people or your high school class -- your gift puts you in the top 1% of the population.
When you start calculating the odds as you add in more of your gifts and talents -- your combination of 5 skills means you are one in ten Billion likely to have that combination. That is more people than are alive on the Earth today. And when you add in the other 25 + ingredients of your work potential, you get numbers that are astronomical. (from Manifest Your Potential.com)
Human DNA consists of more than 3 billion building blocks whose sequences form genes, just like letters spell a word. For any two unrelated people, these letters are 99.9 percent the same. But that leaves millions of single-letter differences, called SNPs (pronounced “snips”) that provide genetic variation between people. To make this even more complicated, you are the result of the fusion of one particular egg with one particular sperm. Each sperm and each egg is genetically unique because of the process of meiosis. A fertile woman has 100,000 viable eggs on average. A man will produce about 12 trillion sperm over the course of his reproductive lifetime. Let's say a third of those (4 trillion) are relevant to our calculation, since the sperm created after your mom hits menopause don't count. So the probability of that one sperm with half your name on it hitting that one egg with the other half of your name on it is one in 400 quadrillion. (from huffington post)
The problem is, too many of us walk around talking poorly about ourselves and generally dismissing what a unique and amazing gift we have been given simply by being born. The fact that we get a body for our soul to inhabit is truly a miracle. So rather than beat ourselves up about not being good enough, or worthy of time to devote to your own well-being, or feeling like you are incapable of living up to expectations, why not start a revolution? What you say and what you do with the time and the body you have matters, because in all of time and space, there is only one like you. Let's start speaking to ourselves and our youth from the "I Am A Miracle" Perspective!!
Feeling like you could use some support to raise up your banner and charge ahead? There are 2 ways to get involved:
1) Check out our Redefining Revolution at Inspired Athletic Movement: a 6 month support series dedicated to redefining how we interact with ourselves and our culture to cultivate positive body image.
2) Register to get more information about "Us Girls": A 1-day workshop for women and girls to come together to learn about loving your bodies with fun movement, a confident voice, and a centered sense of sexuality. This workshop highlights Nicole Irlbeck, Catherine M. Houston, and Johanna Walker...3 women's health advocates who are dedicated to creating a world of where bold and authentic tweens and teens can thrive.
At the very least, give yourself a little pinch. You are a living breathing miracle!!! You can be the example for all others to follow in how you act on your behalf to believe it with everything you do.