I Am Enough

By Glynis Bell

We can’t escape subtle and subconscious marketing. We can’t escape marketing in general, but especially that which is not direct but affects us much the same.  Everywhere we look, we are being marketed to: television, the internet, social media, billboards, magazines, the sides of busses and the list goes on.  We’re sold products that we’re not supposed to live without, that we didn’t even know we needed or heck, even existed. Products like that fountain of youth in a jar, tube or pill, and I recently saw a post for “The Fashion Sneaker Starter Pack you never knew you needed.” Go figure!

It’s so very easy to get sucked in this endless vacuum and buy into the madness.  What happens when we put a filter on it all, and say enough is enough; I AM ENOUGH.  

It’s difficult to think for oneself sometimes, let alone “get it together.”  I admire women who against all odds, against the marketing chatter, against the comments from their own peanut gallery make a stand for being enough and boldly embracing what they look like, act, drive and dress.  Tuning out society’s voice is easier said than done.  

Let’s take last week’s Olympic Games for example.  Twenty-year-old, 4 foot-11, Gabby Douglass, multi-gold medalist and gymnastics star athlete was one of the stars of the show. She was not immune to society.  She had to hear chatter from the “couch medalists” and social media about how her hair was not “perfect,” that her facial expressions looked like she was depressed, and her hand wasn’t placed over her heart during the medal ceremony national anthem.  All this emphasis on her appearance and NOT her performance.  In an online article about Gabby and her “imperfections,” she said it affected her, “it hurt!”  Imagine being Gabby and accomplishing something that only a very small percentage of the whole world can say they have done, and have a shero Barbie Doll made in her honor and likeness, and still having to endure haters.  

Not only do we have to embrace the I am enough way of life for ourselves, but for our daughters and their daughters as well.  

Take a stand, a bold one and say out loud I AM ENOUGH. This is what Gabby Douglass did.  That’s what we as women, as mothers, as bosses, as business owners, as philanthropists must do, know that we are enough.  We’re good enough. We’re smart enough. We’re bold enough and no matter what the BS society is whispering in our ear, we are enough.  We are enough to raise healthy families, to make the world a better place, to be successful-whatever our definition of successful may be.  We are enough even to be the President of the United States!  

So the next time you feel less than gold medal perfect and your speakers are turned up a little too loud to what society says, take a look in the mirror and boldly declare I am enough!

“Your life is reflecting to you exactly who you are each and every day.  Every choice, action and reaction is who you are until you choose to make a change. I am a work in progress but I am actually making the progress that I need to evolve into the woman I am destined to be.”  Bindu