The Art Of Resiliency

I’ve been putting myself out there lately. Like, really putting myself out there. I’ve been reaching out to local businesses, introducing myself, talking about Wildflower, offering photography, content creation, products, and basically saying, “Hey, this is what I can do. Give me a chance.” And let me tell you…trying to grow your name is a hard business to be in.

Out of the dozens of people I reached out to, I heard back from two. TWO 😂 Not even a little “Thanks, but we’re not interested” from most of them. Just me and my message hanging out together in cyberspace. Isn’t that kinda sad? Maybe. But weirdly enough, it didn’t discourage me nearly as much as I thought it would. If anything, it made me want it more.

And one of those responses was actually interested! I’m excited to meet with them and see where it could go. That alone reminded me that you really don’t need everybody to say yes. You just need to keep going long enough to find the right yes.

Resiliency has become such a recurring theme in my life. I’ve had plans completely fall apart. I’ve had doors close that I was absolutely positive were supposed to open. I’ve been misunderstood, disappointed, embarrassed, and forced to start over more times than I care to count. There have been plenty of times when it would’ve been easier to decide something just wasn’t meant for me and walk away.

But somewhere along the way, I think I learned to love a challenge 😂 Tell me it’s hard. Tell me the market is crowded. Let twenty people ignore my message. I’ll probably feel a little embarrassed for five minutes, question every decision I’ve ever made, and then come up with another idea before bedtime.

That’s the thing about failure. It doesn’t always have to be the thing that tells you to stop. Sometimes failure is information. Sometimes rejection is redirection. And sometimes silence just means you need to knock on more doors.

Growing something from nothing requires an almost ridiculous amount of belief in yourself. You have to be willing to look silly. You have to be willing to hear no. You have to be willing to hear absolutely nothing at all. Then you wake up the next morning and try again anyway.

So I’m up for it. I’m going to keep introducing myself. Keep creating. Keep learning. Keep building Wildflower and keep showing people what I can do. I may have to take the long way around, but life has taught me that I’m pretty dang resilient.

Failure can either embarrass me into hiding or fuel me into becoming better.

I think I’ll let it fuel me.

And eventually? I have a funny little habit of finding my way 🌿