By Michelle Young

Get. Over. Yourself. Sure, maybe it wasn’t in the parenting books I read, but I stand by it. My husband and I raised five plucky children and I suspect as the grandchildren start to arrive that I will hear my own children repeat the wisdom that is, “Get over yourself.”.

Getting over ourselves is recognizing that no one cares what we’re wearing, they care what they’re wearing. Getting over ourselves means understanding that we will feel so much better about ourselves once we lift the burdens of others.

Getoveryourself means being willing to publicly fail in an effort to someday fly.

What the overly cautious, the overly proud never discover is that to fail is simply coming to understand this may not be the way to fly, but we are one step closer than we were before.

I have painted some ugly paintings, I have posted some poor posts on my blog. I’ve had fashion fails and I’ve served meals to my family about which we still laugh. But at least we’re laughing…

The truth, my friends is that life is short. Shorter for some than for others. And if we’re ever going to achieve great things, great art, great lives, we are most certainly going to have to get over ourselves.

And if getoveryourself has a methodology, it’s audacity.

Luck favors the bold. I have never been sorry when I asked for the moon. Not once. I truly believe I became an artist because I told people, all kinds of people, but especially myself, that I was an artist, even when the evidence was to the contrary.

I’m inviting you to get over yourself. Be audacious. Crash and burn spectacularly, and return with the honor and glory of having been on an adventure. Which is all it really is. It’s when we keep our adventures safe, worry what the neighbors or the parents might say, we risk having all our adventures involve sentences that start out, “So I’m sitting at home, alone on the couch when….” . The couch rarely provides us with the epic adventure we long for…

I’m not sorry I boldly admonished my children to get over themselves. It might not be in any parenting books yet, but it should be. And audacity should be a lifelong mantra. As should daydreaming and breaking silly rules and laughing at ourselves.

It is only when we get over ourselves that we will truly find ourselves. And when we do, I bet we’ll be laughing.

If you’d like to join Michelle in her upcoming retreat, you can sign up Here!