Do What You Can With What You Have

When I was around 10 years old, my mom took me to see the musical 42nd Street. There were scenes with huge chorus lines of tap dancers and it made me want to take tap dancing. It was probably in the middle of a dance class season and even if my mom was going to sign me up for dance class she couldn’t. I was determined to make music with my tap dancing feet just like the performers I had seen on stage. I found some bottle tops and attached them to the bottom of a pair of my shoes and started tapping. I am not sure how we came up with this creative solution to help me test out my tap skills but it got me tapping until I actually enrolled in tap class.

I am creative and determined, if I want to do something I will most likely take a try at it. Failing is when I have learned my best lessons while trying. I am not recommending recklessness but I am recommending trying, even in imperfection, trying serves me in my growth.

The pop bottle tops taught me that I did like tap and showed my mom that I really wanted to take tap lessons and that it wasn’t just something I was interested in for a day.

Trying, no matter the barriers you think you have coming up against you, will probably always teach you something about yourself. Moving forward no matter how slow, will shape you, refine you and brighten your light. You see, if you don’t have all the sparkle of new things, perfect circumstances, the right amount of money, the right connections, all that is left to shine extra bright is you.

I have experienced this first hand in the world of Content Creation and Influencers.

My first blog was kinda ugly and the photos were not the best quality, you can check it out for yourself here. My writing was not the best, still isn’t but if you go back to the very first post I have ever written or watch the first YouTube video I posted and then check out some of my most recent posts, you can see a growth in quality.

Side note, I am beyond grateful for the visual growth of my blog and the stories that are a click away for me to revisit.

There were so many times when I thought, “I cant be a vlogger, I don’t have the right camera.”, “I can’t be a fashion blogger, I do not have the fanciest clothes, I am just someone who loves fashion.” “I cant be a makeup artist, I am not professionally trained.”.

Here is what I have learned, when you dive into your craft, when you make the focus of all your days your craft and working with what you have, you will advance. Trust the process, trust that you will grow, trust that you will make a little bit of money and be able to buy that next piece of equipment that you need. You will grow, you will advance and you will succeed.

When it comes to social media it can also be really discouraging to think about creating content and maybe only one person will read it. Maybe no one will read it or like it. You gotta do a gut check at this point in the creator world and know that you love the process, you love documenting your life and looking back on memories, you need to love the process. When you do, when this if your self expression, that will translate and people will invest time in you. Stay the course, do the do.

One area where I am sowing right now but have yet to reap very much fruit is in the area of affiliate linking. It is a lot of work to set up the different affiliate accounts that I work with. To understand how to place links, review products and use new tools requires a lot of time and the payback right now is minimal. I have faith though that going through this process of learning all of these tools will serve me in the future. I believe that learning these skills and laying this foundation for my business now, will benefit me down the road.

What if I had listened to those lies, what if I didn’t start just because I wasn’t set up perfectly? I definitely would not be where I am today. I am glad that I started, I am glad that I create, I am glad that I show up each day.

Focus on what you can do today, not what you can’t do. One step and one day at a time, you will move forward, who knows where you will end up but one thing is certain, you will be growing, learning and advancing personally.

Do what you can today, it will serve your tomorrow well, I promise.

xoxo

Audrey