THE world is full of labels but really when it comes to defining yourself, your opinion is the only one that matters.

I was thinking of this last week, when my lovely blogger friend Jo from Dexterous Diva got in touch to ask if I would like to receive my very own personalised affirmation poster from her to which my reply was: “Hell yeah, that would be fabulous!”

To create my affirmation poster, Jo asked me to provide her with up to 10 words of my choice, starting with: “Kate is…”

And this is where it all got a little tricky, because let me tell you, at first, it was much harder than I thought.

I wanted to come up with a list of words that represented who I am and what I consider myself to be. But these words also had inspire me to be at my very best so they needed to help me flourish.

They needed to represent who I am as a person, right now, but also be motivating enough to give me a kick up the backside on those grim days when I needed to find some much-needed oomph.

So I started thinking about how people described me and toyed with a few ideas and then folks…I had a realisation. A moment of utter clarity. And it was this:

It wasn’t what other people thought about me that mattered. It was how I thought about myself.

These were my affirmations. My chosen words. So they needed to speak to, represent and inspire ME. No one else but little ol’ me.

And so I scrapped the list I’d already come up with and started all over again.

And here’s the thing… when I realised that it was only my opinion of myself that mattered, it suddenly became a hell of a lot easier.

Motto of the day?

Don’t let others define who you are and who you want to be because that job belongs to no-one else but you my friend.

As Coco Chanel once brilliantly said:

“A girl should be two things: who and what she wants.”

Here are my chosen words, beautifully displayed by Jo in my bespoke affirmation poster. Thank you Jo! I truly love it and will be putting this everywhere, for my eyes to feast on often.

If my print has inspired you to come up with your own personal affirmations or declarations, please do make sure you check out Jo’s wonderful designs at her new Etsy shop here.

Till the next time, become the person you want to be.

Katie