Make Your Mess Your Message
By Jane Dovidio-Gagliardo
WOW… what a great thought! But I can’t take credit for it. I heard Robin Roberts on a podcast and “Make Your Mess Your Message” was the advice her mom gave her when she was diagnosed with cancer. What powerful advice. As you may or may not know, Robin went on to beat her cancer and has become an advocate for cancer patients around the world. So how many of us have had to deal with real messes in our lives that have brought us to our knees, made us have sleepless nights, not eat or binge eat, and/or stay in bed under the covers? I think you get the picture. But to make our mess our message takes courage and could make us vulnerable in so many ways.
First, we would have to face and find a way to deal with and overcome our mess, then take full ownership of it before we can deliver a message that teaches others how to effectively deal with whatever messes they find themselves facing. But then there are people we know who leave us with their messes. Now those are the challenging messes because not only are you left with someone else’s mess, you will begin to resent that person for leaving it for you to use your time, energy, and resources to clean up. Oftentimes you will discover that getting involved with other people’s messes only adds to the mess you will have to deal with. And let’s face it, we all have to deal with our own mess and accept the fact that fixing other people’s mess is not our job to do… and, if the truth be told, we can’t fix other people’s messes any better than they can. Leaving them with their mess to use their own brainpower to figure out how to fix or clean up is one of the wisest things we can do for both them and us. More lessons for them to learn, more blessings for them to earn and less stress for us.
Now, what about good messes? For example, a good mess is something that could lead you to your best job, your life partner or help you to see a strength in yourself you thought you never had. I love those kind of messes. But remember that messes can teach us something, challenge us and make us a better version of ourselves. The message in our own messes is a life lesson and journey that will go on until we take our last breath. The message will become your Mantra or your convection. The message can be your own truth and your own personal message. But the best part of making “Your Mess Your Message” is… you get to choose. You choose how to process it and how to use it for your life or not. The choice is yours. Never ever forget that. We all have messes. And we all have messages to share. The inescapable fact is that we will always have messes in our lives; and we can always transform our messes into messages that help others to learn, grow and become better people as we strive to become our best selves.
So, dig in folks and resolve to “Make Your Mess Your Message.” I leave you with this quote: “Today’s accomplishments are yesterday’s impossibilities.” (Robert Schuller) Stay Safe. Stay Strong. Stay Fearless
