You do You. Lately, I find this expression effortlessly roll off my tongue several times a day.  Parenting young children, especially twins, they often lovingly worry about what the other is doing throughout the day. I find myself frequently trying to refocus their attention back on themselves. What do YOU want, need, like, feel, believe? I’ve sat down to write this post about a thousand and one times, coming up on the one year anniversary of starting Doreencorrigan.com seems fitting.

As human’s we seem to be driven by pleasure and pain, and of course it’s human nature to be risk adherent. We naturally want to move away from pain. Pain=fear and uncertainty. Fear from failing, being rejected, or worse failing ourselves. But what’s most interesting is in the painful, messy, most difficult times in our lives, that’s when the really good stuff happens. That is when we grow.

Creating has always been an expression of self for me and brought me an incredible amount of joy. Starting from a young age I’ve tried it all: painting, stained glass, pottery, candle making, photography. This passion for learning was passed down to me by my Mom. She (along with my Dad) worked full-time while raising my sister and I. My Mom truly embodyies the “art of everyday living.” She effortlessly made the most ordinary extraordinary. To this day I don’t think there’s anything she doesn’t do without all her heart.

I actually wanted to start a blog over 5 years.  I met with a respected blogger and entrepreneur in Chicago named Jess Lively. Jess is the real deal, and before the community over competition movement even existed, she was walking the walk. I was ready to take the leap of faith and follow my dreams, then I found out I was pregnant with Twins. At the time, it seemed irresponsible to leave a salary and a company I started for the unknown. We needed to save up for diapers, and lots of them!

Last year I was at a turning point in my life. Facing a period of personal and health struggles I was starting to feel oddly compliant. I yearned to be challenged again. I wanted outside of my comfort zone. I wanted to dip my toe back into entrepreneurship.

I was super hesitant about starting a blog for many, many reasons. Everyone has a blog. There are bloggers who have hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram, look like models (heck are models), have perfect homes, but such is life. There’s always bigger and better but once you lift the veil you learn there’s more to it.  It took me about 6 months but then I got it. There are thousands of doctors, photographers, artists, teachers, entrepreneurs in the world but there is ONLY ONE YOU!

Why should you challenge yourself?

• Challenging yourself in life keeps you resilient and young in spirit. When we tackle obstacles, we find hidden reserves of courage and resilience we didn’t know we had.

 

• We become empowered. I’ve learned more in the past year about graphic and web design, photography, editing, staging, digital media than I did in my combined four years in college and working years (post-college). I feel empowered by what I’ve learned but I’m also humbled in what I don’t know. This excites me and makes me want to learn more.

 

• We avoid complacency. To be fulfilled I need to be challenged. I’ve enjoyed writing again, learning new technologies, thinking differently, not knowing all the answers and expressing my creativity daily. Doing this makes me a better person.

 

• Freedom. Control your own destiny or someone else will. In doing what you love you are truly free to be yourself.

Be honest with yourself is fear holding you back? Are you truly happy with where you are in your career, personal and family life? Are you stuck feeling complacent? Do you find it much easier to criticize others because you are too afraid to address your own insecurities?

Whether it is starting a new business, signing up for a triathlon, or a trying a new art class, you are never too old to challenge yourself and follow your dreams whatever those may be.

I started DoreenCorrigan.com over a year ago from a deep love to create, genuinely inspire and empowering others. I’ve found an immeasurable amount of purpose and joy the past year in doing what I love. The greatest reward is not from making a big paycheck which I once directly associated with my value. It was to challenge myself to figure out, Who Am I?

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for following along with me on this adventure. Whether you were one of my first followers or are just finding me I feel incredibly fortunate to be able to do what I love and you, my friend, are a big part of that! I hope I can inspire you in some little way each day and that this post is a gentle reminder to stay in your lane. You do you, because that’s what you do best!

XO,

Doreen

 

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