A few months ago, I was challenged by my younger cousin to go on a Contiki holiday. I am so grateful! We seized opportunities and did new things! It was also the first overseas holiday I paid for myself and it felt great being able to do that!

My cousin had totally pushed me out of my comfort zone and challenged me to join her in doing activities such as “Real Rock Climbing” on the beach; quad biking; even singing at the top of our lungs in the streets of Thailand! I mean, who on earth would’ve thought I could or would have ever done these things?!

#NoRegrets is what Contiki is all about and I really have no regrets about that holiday. I am so grateful that I did all those things and I feel so good about myself. I feel like: if I can do all that, I can do just about anything. By learning about myself through experiences like these, I am starting to gauge myself, and know what I want and can do. I know my worth. I also know what I deserve, and I am not prepared to settle for anything less!

I truly do believe that “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”: by choosing to turn negative experiences into positive and by taking some of my more challenging past experiences, and treating them as lessons learnt; not as mistakes which could bring me down. The adversities which I have had to overcome through the past year and a bit, with a great amount of support from my amazing & supportive family, friends and even colleagues, have also led me to learn more about what I want out of life. I feel so much more confident in my abilities, and in the potential I have that I can grow from.

There is a quote on Facebook which I came across just the other day, and it caught my attention, and I feel it to be so true! The quote is by a lady by the name of Elizabeth Gilbert, and it says “The women whom I love and admire for their strength and grace did not get that way because shit worked out. They got that way because shit went wrong, and they handled it. They handled it in a thousand different ways on a thousand different days, but they handled it. Those women are my superheroes.”

If life was just smooth sailing, we would have nothing to learn from. It is through good and challenging experiences that we become stronger, and our self-esteem begins to grow, thus resulting in us being more confident in ourselves and in our inner potential to take ourselves to greater heights.

Experiences from the past, make us more authentic. We learn so much about ourselves through others and even through past mishaps. We also learn to believe in ourselves, and when we do this we are able to establish even more self-confidence. We need to take care of ourselves, love ourselves, then we will be able to take care of others, and also become more confident individuals by doing this.

Keep getting better at being better.