"You must conquer yourself before you can conquer anything else. You must know yourself before you can properly know anyone else. You must love yourself before you love anyone else".
-BuddhaBlog

I am a women with ambition and drive, I am always doing something that is going to make me better and successful. I've been this way for a few years now and I've realized recently that I need to take time to appreciate myself. Yes, I said myself. Some would call that selfish, but if you know me at all and if you've read previous posts you would know that i'm a selfless person. My main focus is on everyone else and the world around me because seeing happiness from others is so beautiful to me.

Mother Theresa once said "spread love everywhere you go, let no one ever come to you without leaving happier". I live by this.. I live by this quote because my heart feels for each and everyone one of you. I would give the shirt off my back for someone who needed it more.

But lately I've realized that at least some points of my life should be about me.. In order for me to conquer the production world I must conquer myself and who I truly want to be. In order for me to get to know anyone I need to know myself, I need to know who Danielle is. And in order for me to love properly I need to love myself.

Confidence is key, yet so rare within myself. I'm to busy focusing on making others happy that I've realized that I haven't been happy... So I've decided to work on myself. It's honestly different and weird and difficult and it hurts a little, but in order for me to better the world I need to better myself.

I'll always be selfless, but if it takes a lot in me just to be selfish for once.. then I guess I must be doing something right. I've made a few big changes and I'm scared, I'll admit that. But there's something in me that's keeping me strong and I hope you all can stay strong throughout any hardship in your life because you are all strong; even if you don't know it yet. 

Trust me, this is hard. But in the end it'll all be okay and worth it. Have faith in yourself

You wanna know what hurts the most? Not knowing..

Not knowing if someone is okay
Not knowing if the one you love, loves you back
Not knowing what you got on a test
Not knowing where you stand in someones life
Not knowing what to do..

I used to have life figured out, every single aspect of it. I'm a planner, I love to plan things out and invite people everywhere and detail everything so the day/night all goes well. This is also a flaw of mine because when the plan doesn't go right; which it never does, I panic. I have a tendency to put EVERYONE first and i'll always be that way, that's something I won't ever change, but I need to learn how to add myself in there sometimes so I don't always end up hurt.

And honestly right now I'm hurting.
And I don't know what to do.

I have answers to everything, and when I don't have the answers I find them because I don't ever give up. Right now I may be having a weak moment, but I'll be strong and get through it. But with what's going on in my life right now, I don't just want to get through it, I want to overcome it.

Some people say once the spark goes out there's no getting it back.. I say once the spark goes out you light another match. Life works in mysterious ways and sometimes not knowing is painful, but it can also be thrilling. I just want to live in the now, I want to wake up one day and not plan a damn thing so I can actually enjoy a day without something going wrong. But even if something goes wrong I keep the smile on my face...

Some call that being fake, they say that if you just smile and brush things off that's fake, they say smiling even in front of people you may not like is fake; I say it's life. I'm going to enjoy myself and smile and be nice to others because I want to, not because I have to. This life is so limited and I say that all the time because it's true. Smiling even when you're having a bad day isn't fake, it's you knowing that no one can alter who you truly are..

Make sure you don't start seeing yourself through the eyes of those who don't value you. Know your worth even if they don't. No one can alter your views, opinions and life but yourself. You choose to be who you want to be. The only influence you should grasp is from within you.

I may be hurting, but I'll never stop smiling and neither should you.

If I could just pick up and move anywhere right now I would do it in a second and never look back. A change of scenery would be nice. A good breath of fresh air and a drink with an umbrella straw and I'm set.