Today is August 26 and the Navigate the Chaos question to consider is is “How often do believe you belong?”
Navigating the chaos demands that you believe you belong. This is especially true if you are trying to be the first at something.
Swayze Valentine is the first and only female cutwoman - working ringside to wrap fighters' hands and tend to their wounds - for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).
Her journey involved having two sons, a divorce, years of struggling to pay bills, discrimination by fighters who did not want a woman to wrap their hands, and six years of training.
She currently works full-time at a post-office while working as a UFC cutwoman on weekends. As Valentine said "I think to myself, 'I'm not gonna let anyone make me feel like I don't deserve to be here.' Bottom line."
From determined to confident, Valentine slowly started building her career in the amateur ranks, adding gyms and fighters all while balancing two kids as a single mom. "You know, it took a lot of years, a lot of free time. This definitely isn't a job that you do for the money. I worked a lot of years for free. I was thinking, 'Okay, where can I go to really expand?' And I thought, Las Vegas.' It's the fight capital of the world," Swayze said. But getting there from Washington state wasn't cheap. Valentine said she donated blood and plasma to save up money for the move – for a job that holds no promise of a big payday. She can't really explain why she kept going. Her gut was right and all that sacrifice did pay off when got that first call from the UFC.
If you are trying to be the first at something, how often do you remind yourself that you belong?