9 Ways to Make Your Mess Your Message

Robin Roberts, anchor of Good Morning America, is one of my personal heroes. She underwent a bone marrow transplant last Fall and has stayed incredibly emotionally strong through it all! My favorite saying she has is "make your mess your message." As I've been going through this year of learning how to come to grips with fibromyalgia and not being able to use my teaching degree, I've been trying to think of ways to make my mess my message. I'm driven and I want to help even if I'm not able to teach, so I've given it a lot of thought. Here are 9 ways to make your mess your message that stretch across a few areas, so hopefully everyone can find at least a couple points that help them.

1. Educate people about your "mess." One of the biggest problems I've come across with fibromyalgia is that it's still very misunderstood. Robin ran across the same problem; she had to educate people about MDS and bone marrow transplants. Helping people learn about whatever you're going through is very important.

2. Start a blog. Even if writing isn't your "thing," blogging is a great way to talk about what you're through and help other get answers. It's also incredibly cathartic--sometimes you just need a place to get something off your chest.

3. Hop on social media. Sure, it takes a while to get a lot of "followers," but once you get going, you've got a lot of people who will potentially see your message about your mess and be able to relate to it.

4. Make sure you're okay. Making your mess your message is great, but if you're not in the right emotional place to talk about it all the time and help other people with their problems, it won't go very well for anyone. Do whatever you need to do to make sure that you can stay strong. Robin not only had her family and friends to help her get through her transplant, but she had all the GMA viewers rooting for her. Now, we don't all have millions of people thinking about us every day, but if we pull together we can at least have a couple hundred strangers rooting for us. :-)

5. Volunteer. I love helping other people! If you are going through something, go find other people who are struggling with the same thing and help them out. It helps them and makes you feel better, too!

6. Create a clothing line. If you're a designer, don't you do your best work when you're inspired and emotionally connected to your ideas? So how great would it be to make a clothing line that had everything to do with your "mess" and then donate some of the proceeds to a charity that has something to do with your situation?!

7. Write a book. Will it get published? Possibly. But even if it doesn't, make it an eBook and just give it to people to help them. And you'll get your message out.

8. Start a charity. Maybe there isn't a charity in your area for your cause. So start one!

9. Be fearless. Here's another Robin quote that I've had as my computer background since February: "You can be fearful or fearless...I chose the latter." Anyone who has a mess that's worth making their message can easily become afraid of all the "what ifs." But being fearful takes a lot of energy and it doesn't let you think big or think forward. So leave the fear behind and choose to be fearless. There will be days that are hard, but if you're fearless, hard days are just little bumps in the road instead of huge hurdles.

I hope this post helps some people choose to make their mess their message. Stay strong and be fearless!

"Be the change you wish to see in the world." --Gandhi