"Tell Us Your Most Glorious Moment..."

"You're an Idiot...", "You'll never figure it out...", "You're a failure..." "You're a Fraud..."

The words pierced the air as the participants shouted their innermost insecurities.

It hit me as the words spilled out of my mouth.

Is this really how I talk to myself on a regular basis?

And yet here I am, hearing not only my voice say these things, but those around me.

And then I realized that we're ALL in a daily battle to defeat the doubter in our mind.

"Now share the Most Glorious Moment in your life"

I stood up tentatively as the previous participant sat back down on their seat.

"I'm going to try to make it through this without crying..." I said as I walked on stage.

...that was as far as I got before being overwhelmed with tears.

Then slowly I spoke...tears still streaming from my eyes.

"My most glorious moment happened a little over a year ago..."

I had just got laid off for the second time in 14 months and I had promised my wife she didn't have to go back to teaching in the fall so she could stay home with the kids.

But here I was 14 months later still no closer to my dreams and promises.

And to make matters worse I had no idea how I was going to make it work.

I was hardly making any money.

Not enough to pay the bills by any means.

But I did have the determination to make it work despite the odds...

And I had developed a skill set that was in high demand.

So I did the one thing I knew how to do.

I put in the work. Hustled, grinded and all but bled out of my eyes to make it work...

And when Fall came around...

Nicole didn't have to go back to work.

And it was GLORIOUS.

And guess what?

I am good enough. I am not a fraud. I did figure it out. And I'm not a failure (although I've failed more times than I can count).

See we all deal with the inner demons.

The drunk monkey telling us we aren't good enough.

But when you choose to do anything and everything to achieve your goals, there's nothing that can stand in your way.

Go out and achieve your GLORIOUS goals.

Don't let life stop you. Don't let obstacles stop you. Don't let your inner voice stop you.

Take ONE step forward EVERY.SINGLE.DAY.

Love you all,

Luke Shankula