Haters

Whatever your passion is, there will be haters. My two passions are art and fitness, and you better believe I have haters of both. Haters are jealous of your conviction, your happiness and your victories and so their only joy comes from trying to bring you down. Haters will trash-talk whatever you love to try and convince you to hate it too. Misery loves company.

But you don't have to listen to the haters. You don't have to let them make you feel foolish for loving what you love. If they hurt you or make you angry, use that to fuel your passion and work at it harder than you would have otherwise. Lift a heavier weight, do more reps, or run one more mile. If they tell you that you can't, prove them wrong by taking on a challenging art project and nailing it! You can choose to wallow, or choose to soar. No one has the power to offend you; you have the power to choose to be offended.

On a lighter note, you will also have a ton of supporters! Your supporters will outnumber your haters by 100 to 1. These are your true friends who truly love you and wish you success in all your efforts, no matter what you're doing. Even if they don't share your passion, they will cheer you on. So I'd like to take this opportunity to say that I apprieciate so much all your support and love and it really makes me want to push harder when I'm at the gym so I don't let you or me down! And when I'm having a hard day, when all I want to do is eat mint chocolate ice cream and stay home in bed and pout about how much my body aches, your support gets me off my butt and moving and I cannot say thank you enough.

Love,
Mandee

P.S. Here's a picture that really doesn't have a lot to do with this post, but it makes me happy.