It started the morning my friend Ashley and I met someone who was kind of famous.
We were sitting at her kitchen table, listening to stories of her life. She was a published author, her artwork was displayed at the Smithsonian, and she is widowed after ten years of marriage to the love of her life.
I’m not sure how I expected her home to look. When I stepped on her welcome mat, I was filled with the anticipation of a magical space that would transcend a “normal” person’s home, because I had admired her for so long. She was “famous” in my eyes.
As you might have guessed, her home was very much of a “normal space.” I noticed she even had a garland hung up from the local dollar store and the tea she made for us was generic.
She taught us about being comfortable in one’s skin. She taught us to pay attention to things we hadn’t thought of as being special before. She would stop in the middle of speaking to close her eyes and comment on the warmth of the sun rays that were touching her skin. She paused to smell the aroma of her tea before taking a sip.
She taught us that it’s the small, everyday wins that matter the most.
There’s nothing special about Wednesday’s, right?
On Wednesday mornings, we can feel a little blah.
There’s nothing new, everything seems to be so-so, and there are still two more days before we’ll get to welcome Saturday with open arms.
That’s when we decided to start writing #WinWednesday emails.
If you’re on our mailing list, you’ve already seen these emails in your inbox.
We have committed to showing up together every Wednesday morning to count our wins:
Have we made it out the door without spilling our coffee?
Did we smile at our loved one when they woke up or did they smile at us?
Did we spy a little bird outside?
We ask ourselves: What is the smallest win that we’ve overlooked this morning?
And then we count that win. We celebrate that win. We tell ourselves, Good job girl, you didn’t even fall on your butt as you were going down the stairs this morning!
The #WinWednesday Community
We have committed to send out a #WinWednesday email out every Wednesday morning. It has nothing to do with a sales pitch or a website update.
This email is just about two women who’ve come together to say that they want to claim an overlooked day in the middle of the week as their #WinWednesday.
Each week we share something that encourages us or a lesson that we’ve learned.
The response has been amazing. One of our readers went live on Facebook to share with her community that our #WinWednesday emails have inspired her to start her very own Win Wednesday group with her friends.
We want to Win Wednesday with you.
Counting our wins combats the doubts that rise when we step out to pursue our dreams.
Who are YOU?
YOU have something to say that other people might want to hear?
YOU have gone through something that others can learn from?
YOU want to sell something you’ve made?
YOU want to write a blog and share real moments from your life?
Who do you think YOU are, anyway?
Do you frame your dreams with doubt? Have you heard any of these doubts coming from someone else? Have you directed these hesitant questions at yourself? I know we have. We wondered what we would have to say to you each week on a Wednesday morning that could be worth having YOU spend your time reading it.
We have had our moments of doubt about everything we’ve done here.
Here’s what we realized we didn’t want to do anymore. We are not going to waste another minute of the precious time that we have today on doubting ourselves.
Babies don’t waste time. Think about it.
You were a baby at one time.
When babies are born, they immediately get down to the business of growing. They don’t wonder if they are doing everything the right way, even though their mothers wonder if they are doing everything right.
Babies eat, sleep, and do whatever their intuition is telling them. Before we know it, they’ve doubled and tripled in size. Soon they’ve learned how to speak a language and go places on their own. They didn’t ask if they had the right to grow. They didn’t ask if they had the right to explore their world. They just did it.
By the time we all reach adulthood, we’ve all learned that we’re either too loud or too quiet. The most well-meaning people have told us that we “can’t” or that we “shouldn’t.” Somewhere along the way, we stopped feeling like we are worthy of belonging here. We began living our lives in the shadow, doubting whether we have anything that’s worth contributing.
We sacrificed our individuality so that we could blend in.
Individuality + Redefined Community
Being part of a community doesn’t mean that you must lose your unique individuality.
We are better together without being the same.
Instead, you should feel as though your community empowers you to be your unique self. Your community should be one that celebrates your smallest wins with you.
We love our friend Mary June’s definition of community. “Community is about empowering people to be who THEY were created and assigned to be. Community means that we’re in ‘this’ together. Rubbing shoulders, lifting up, celebrating, grieving — whatever the moment is asking of us.”
She went on to say, “I think of my parent’s generation and what community looked like or felt like in their time — maybe it was a church group, small town America, their group of friends, etc. For us, the term community has changed — it’s all of that, BUT so much more! We get to be a part of a community online through social media. We’re ‘rubbing shoulders’ with people we may never meet in real life but who might feel as close as our neighbors who live down the street. I see that as a huge positive and a way of growing myself and my worldview!”
It is important for us to count our wins together.
Are you ready to win with us?
We’re ready to own our pain. We’re ready to take our individual steps. We won’t all walk the same way (and that’s a good thing) while we all cheer each other onward.
Each one of us has a life to live, and it starts with our smallest wins. It starts with clearing out all the noise and doing the next right thing.
The sole purpose of this email is that it will be a highlight in your Wednesday, an encouraging space for you to count YOUR wins.
If you’d like to join this particular email list (which will be used solely for #WinWednesday emails, no promotions involved) and claim #WinWednesday with us, sign up right here:
Comment below with a small win you’ve had today. Let’s win together.
The post Dare to Turn Your Hump Day into a Powerful Win Wednesday appeared first on Urban Southern.