Always Find A Lesson

I was reminded of something yesterday in those daily "on these day" reminders on Facebook I sometimes check out. Yesterday, 3 years ago something sort of significant in my life happened. Significant then , now.. not so much. But there was a lesson and there was a reason behind it. Our town has all of these groups for Moms. I found them to be draining and horrid. They were suppose to be a place for info and sharing. They seemed to be a place for gossip, gossip, a little info and oh, yeah did I mention gossip? I was a year into my weight loss and in a happy place and seeing this was just not ok with me. I decided I would start my own Facebook town group. A positive place for all the good people and info - lol! This was before I had ever done anything on social media so it was my first step out into "group land". Boy was I naive!! The bigger it got the more I questioned what have I done? One day it became a monster. A monster with my name attached to it. So what was I going to do .. be the people pleaser I was at that point and let it continue? Or shut it down? Making that decision was hard. Why? Because what would people think of me. I decided though that what I thought of me was much more important than any negative person in this town would ever think of me. So my best friend and I stayed up all night one by one removing people from the group. That is how it is done and it took forever!! The next morning there was quite a backlash. Nasty emails. You name it. Why? Over a group.. How nuts is that? Within hours they had started another one and with a lack of creativity just added an extra word to the group name - lol. Guess I'm good at names!! So time for the lessons... I thought how in the world am I going to live in this town with these wacky raging women. How? Looking back WHY was I worried about what others had thought of me? I tried to make something great. Something positive. Something that in my eyes failed. Something that if I continued to let grow and it had my name attached to it would be everything in the world that I DO NOT stand for. So how have I carried on? With my head held high and with pride. Starting this little group opened my heart to helping others and a few months later I did start my BIG group the passion of my heart. Girls Gone Healthy. If I hadn't of started that little group I closed I may have never had the courage to do it. GGH is all I was seeking and didn't know that was what I needed yet. I get to help encourage and motivate others to health and happiness through my story of weight loss and my medical condition. The last lesson and a great one which I will take the words from Coco Channel - “I don't care what you think about me. I don't think about you at all.” It took a reminder 3 years later to even make me remember! I am though thankful because even though I felt I had failed at the time it made me stronger. It was when the people pleaser left the building.