“If it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you.”

I think this saying goes well beyond the physical stuff like running or body building. It goes well beyond an academic struggle. Like learning the Pythagorean’s Theorem or studying to become a doctor. All which are AWESOME accomplishments, so don’t think I’m downplaying those things at all as you continue to read this post. But I think that this specific saying travels into the hard stuff. Super far into it. Like losing a leg or developing cancer. And I kind of think it’s what helped me thrive after I survived.

I obviously had to change my mentality after my body & practically my whole world changed. I had to realize that the Josie I was, was gone. And there wasn’t much that I could do to get her back. Of course there were pieces that I retained. Like my heart & my hope & my weird sense of humor. But I had to shift in a way that was suited to this new life. I had to learn to push myself far enough to challenge myself but not so far that I broke my spirit. I had to realize that Rome wasn’t built in a day & that things that I wanted to be able to do again, even the simplest of things, was going to take a lot of time, effort & patience. Things like taking a shower was now a challenge. Making dinner. Driving a car. And because I rose to these challenges, I began to change in way that helped me succeed in the long haul. That helped me learn that happiness isn’t a specific mold or a specific path. And I even realized somewhere along my path, that happiness can be a challenge itself sometimes. But if you aspire to be happy yourself, your life can change. A change that can 100% make your life better. And that’s where this specific quote comes full circle in my life. I was challenged to find happiness again. And when I changed the way I did things & saw things, the happiness did come.

Challenges come with life. It’s part of the territory. And you only have 2 ways to deal with them. You can rise or you can fall. You can shift or you can drift. Drift further & further away from the happiness you so desperately desire & the person you want to be. Obviously you want to succeed but that’s not always what happens. You get tired or you get angry or you get led awry. But that doesn’t mean you can’t live to rise another day to the challenge you fell against today. Because that’s the perk of life. It’s ever changing. Our situations change. Our outlook changes. And our will changes. And with those changes comes new hope & new ways of going into a challenge to come out a changed winner. So today I CHALLENGE you to inhale the change & exhale whatever has been holding you back. To accept what you can not change but change your way of thinking to make your life happy anyway you know how to. Rise above my friends. And know that challenges are Gods way of showing you how incredibly strong you really are.

#TheOneLeggedMommy #SaturdayVibes #ChallengesCreateChanges #Amputee #Amputation #Happiness #KnowYourWorth #HipDisarticulation #NecrotizingFasciitis