1.Dream Big: Most successful people have one thing in common; they always Dream Big. Dreaming big when others are settling for mediocracy is a trait that shows you are made for greatness.
2.Believe that you can achieve your dreams: Believing that you can achieve your dreams is a major step to take because without believing, you are not encouraged to work towards it.
3.Positive Affirmation: You have to talk the talk to, work the work. So you need to talk to yourself, confessing positively and adding faith, knowing that you also can become great if you put in the work.
4.Hard work: you have to be willing to put in the work and never settle for mediocracy and seek to do the best you can anytime you can work.
5.Failure is met with more work: you should never accept failure as an option. Instead, you answer failure with more work.
Domestic violence for me started at the age of 13. I was in middle school & there was a guy I liked, and I thought he liked me as well, so we begin to date. One particular day after school, he convinced me to go to his house & with some reluctance because I wanted him to like me. On that day, my life changed. I was raped at the age of 13 & later on down the line, and I became pregnant. As a result, the baby was aborted.
When I was first married, I was 21 & the gentleman I married; I dated for 3 years. I was 18 & he was in his early 20’s. He was older & had pretty much control over me. So I was okay with that & in the beginning, he would start with little verbal abuse ‘you do what I say’ ‘Tell me where you are going’ ‘I will give you this pager when I page you, you better go to a phone booth & call me back’ I was basically allowed to hang out with only my mom & my sister. I had to cut off my friends.
As time went on, the verbal abuse started to become physical abuse if I didn’t do what he says. One day, I sat in bed & I begged him to kill me because I would rather be dead than to live this way. Along with me being a victim, my only sister Linda was a victim as well. As close as we were, the odd thing is she & I never discussed our abusive relationships.
My sister’s husband later shot her in the head 3 times, crushed her skull & stabbed her 27 times. She died.
My daughter was in the 5th grade & she had started to be bullied by a little boy at school & one day, he physically assaulted her in the classroom.
I no longer saw a little boy & I no longer saw my daughter. When I looked at my daughter, she was my sister, and when I looked at the little boy, he was every abuser that had ever beaten me, and he was the person who murdered my sister. I almost killed the 11-year-old boy that day.
From that day forward, I decided that I needed healing & the only way that I would heal is through helping others & that’s how I began to share my story. My healing comes through people saying, “You have helped me out, Thank you so much, I never thought I could get out” – Lisa Council, domestic violence survivor.
