Sunday Inspiration: What Keeps You Motivated?

      A few days ago, I got a couple of questions from one of my Instagram followers who aspires to make it in the fashion world also. One of the questions was, "What Keeps You Motivated"?
     My response was, "I'm a very optimistic person so there's a lot of things that keep me motivated. Like I mentioned on Instagram, my friends, family and people that I don't know and have never met motivate me. My friends and family motivate me because they are always giving me that push when things get hard sometimes. Support! That's one thing that you must have when you want to start your own business or make any other major life decisions because there will be times when you doubt yourself & that will only hold you back from everything that you are capable of doing. Keep yourself surrounded by positive people & cut off any negativity. People that I've never met who encourage me to keep going and respect what I do also motivate me because it lets me know that I've made progress from where I started from. Also if people that don't even know me tell me that they like my videos & blog posts, that lets me know that they really mean it because they don't own me anything to tell me that. & Lastly, Haters can also be your motivators believe it or not! lol. I don't think I have many haters but I can say that I've had my share of doubters. Anyone that doubts you can motivate you because they give you that fire & push to want to prove them wrong. For example, when I was in middle school (Sherwood Middle Academic Magnet School), I had a teacher named Ms. Hale that told me I wouldn't make it to Baton Rouge Magnet High School. She doubted my abilities because I didn't apply myself in class as much as I could've. I didn't let that discourage me, all I did was use that negativity & turned it into fire to prove her wrong. Not only did I go to Baton Rouge Magnet High School, but I had the opportunity of rubbing it in her face when I ran into her & she asked me what school I was going to. You should've seen the look on her face when I told her Baton Rouge High!"
     The satisfaction of proving your doubters wrong is enough to motivate, along with the support from people that really want you to succeed. Never let someone discourage you because of their doubts. 9 times out of 10, they probably doubt themselves and don't want you to succeed either. It's like a crabs in a barrel type thing. If they're not going anywhere, they will try to hold you back with them. So the moral of the story is to keep dreaming & work hard to turn those dreams into reality! A wise man once told me, "If they don't laugh at your dreams, you're not dreaming BIG enough!"