Challenge Accepted

One of my friends posted this facebook and I realized how true it is for me and all my family.



You see, any time someone says something like "you can't do that" or "you wouldn't like that", my first response is pretty much this phrase: Actually, I can and I will.

My brothers-in-law recognized this phenomena of stubborn confidence that seems to run through my family. They blame it on my mom. My dad recognized her stubbornness when they wrote letters back and forth on his mission and he used it to his advantage. He knew that he was going into the family business of mink ranching and he wrote her once, saying:
     
      "I don't know if you can handle life on the mink ranch. It can be smelly, and require odd work hours, pelting season, etc."

My mom told me her instant response was, "Yes, I can handle it."

This mentality is so true for all my sisters and I. It's nearly an insult to call us girly because we will rough it with the best of the boys. We go backpacking, swimming, climbing, shooting, wherever we are. My sisters even swam in the freezing Salt Lake, during Spring Break.

This doesn't stop with just girly stuff and the outdoors. We take it with us in our responsibilities and life challenges too. We tend to overfill our schedules because we think we can handle it all. My brothers-in-law keep catching my sisters taking on more projects and they have to remind them to slow down.

In life challenges, a couple of us have dealt with depression-like struggles. We've had to acknowledge that we can't handle it on our own. But we've learned that with help, we can handle it.

As I've dealt with a type of OCD, my counselor asked me if my career choice, editing, was such a good idea. While it can have its struggles and certainly its roadblocks, my instant response was, " Yes, I can. Challenge accepted."

Living a rich life means not backing down from challenges. This doesn't mean that you should take on everything that comes your way and exhaust yourself, or overreach your limits. It does mean not letting yourself be boxed in by stereotypes or previous expectations. It means recognizing what you want to do, getting help when you need it, and going forward with it. Sometimes being told you can't do something makes you stop and consider yourself, and realize, realistically, that yes, you can do it.

When I acknowledged that I was struggling with anxiety, I went to a counselor about it. He told me that it was a type of OCD and that it was good I was getting help for it. It felt like I had been handed the name of my life struggle and I felt like saying:

Challenge accepted.