How I finally reached my potential

I have always felt like I had untapped potential and recently I began to think I am fulfilling that potential at last.

Many things have helped, but in the last year, I did something key. Above all other goals, I put my relationship to myself as my top priority. (Here’s an article about setting that non-tangible goal.)

After a year, this goal of providing myself more support and being my own best friend has really paid off.

I continue to prioritize it over any achievement and still the achievements are rolling in. This weekend I raised $400 for charity.

My fellow donors and I sent a women’s and human rights activist in Sierra Leone to university. I found all of the pledges in about 12 hours.

(It took a little longer to hit my bank but by then we could tell her she was taken care of.)

I can see now as if seeing myself from the outside, how remarkable an accomplishment it is. The simple fact that I tried to do this at all is a big deal.

Trying to do the impossible

When I found out about this emergency, my first thought was that finding the money was impossible…we only had a few days to get her $500.

Since I did not personally have $500 to give, I would need help. Before this request, I had felt like I had no money to spend, but in the end, I decided that I could spare $100. So we needed $400 more.

I have done several fundraisers, and not all of them have been successful…and I’ve never had to do this in such a short amount of time.

The idea of the young woman in question not going to university haunted me. It wasn’t something I could just say, “Sorry, I can’t help,” and sleep on. She is a beautiful person who truly wants to solve the violence against women in her country of Sierra Leone.

Sierra Leone is a country that never shows up on the news, and they need help if they will ever change the cycle of gender-based violence there. Over the past four years, I’ve been supporting Her Future Foundation, a nonprofit working in the eastern, rural parts of the country. In that region over 90% of women have already gone through FGM and only 10% can read a sentence.

It seemed very uncertain, but I decided to try to do something about this, anyway. After momentary discouragement at the state of my wallet, I chose to believe that maybe I could make something happen by spreading the word.

I was running on five hours of sleep, and it wasn’t even eight a.m. when I began to contact people and try. I told them that this mattered. Luckily, I was able to do this in a way they could understand and feel, and by the end of the day, about a dozen of us had pooled our money together.

It was a team effort 100% but if I had not believed in myself and instead gave up, where would we be? It would not have happened without me and this brilliant, world-changing girl would not have had this opportunity for higher education.

These days, I have so much more pride in myself and much more space. This is in place of my previous, never-ending focus on tackling the next thing, and a lingering feeling of never being enough.

I wanted to share this story in case it helps or speaks to you. Being your own best friend as the number one priority could change your life, too.

If you want some new tools to help on this journey,

Join us in the Be Your Own Best Friend workshop