"Keep Grinding"

Updated -  The was originally posted in 2017. 

It is now 2023, and in addition to just turning 40 !!!!!!!, I've accomplished so much in the last six years, including:

• Graduating from law school in the middle of a pandemic (S/O Zoom School of Law) - JD attained!!!
• Obtaining my Master in Public Administration
• Getting a promotion. I now oversee the compliance, training, and diversity, equity, and inclusion activities of the organization
• Starting my own business - copywriting and content creation. 
• Traveling out of the country
• Raising two of my children to adulthood - one more to go. 

Through it all, I kept grinding, and every day I am in awe of how far I've come and excited for what the future brings!

I'M STILL ROOTING FOR YOU, BOO!

ORIGINAL POST

The last two weeks have been CRAZY! I was accepted into Law School (and the joint MPA program!), increased responsibility at work (I asked for it!), and I've been in a Duke's of Hazzard type situation with my local post office (like, come on guys, you have one JOB - deliver the mail!). Through all this, I'm happy to keep going, to keep doing the damn thing, to keep grinding. Like my grandpops used to say, "When you stop moving, stop striving, You die!"

Image source: WeHeartIt

Life is about progression. To live is to be in a constant state of movement, of change. The things that drive you, your passions, your goals, and your dreams need you to keep pushing and striving for them. That's the grind! Dictionary.com defines "grinding" as "working or studying laboriously." It's SO much more than that.

It's getting up every day, whether you're working two jobs while going to school, so you can get your foot in that door; or taking on more responsibility at work due to staff shortage, with little experience but a heart full of faith; or taking that leap of faith and taking your hobby of photography full time and quitting that sure thing of job that you hate. It doing what YOU need to do to get to WHERE you want to be.

Now the journey won't be easy, baby. There will be bumps, detours, and straight catastrophic events, but you'll get through them - that's the grind! Resilience, determination, and perseverance are what will get you through it, and help you while on the grind. You have to keep going, achieve those dreams, simply SUCCEED! I'm rooting for you, Luv!

Whatever your hopes, dreams, or passions are, NEVER stop striving toward them. Wake up every day with a purpose to get just one step closer to that goal. Pound the pavement, knock on those doors, stay home to study, and miss the 3rd "party of the year." Trust me, when you're sitting on that throne, that stage, that seat at the head of the table, the journey, "the GRIND," would be well worth it!

LB