When I turned 50 a good friend said to me, “I’m having trouble with 50, because it means I know I have less time ahead of me than behind me.” While I agreed with that, rather than mourn what little time I had left, I chose to look at it as an opportunity to spur myself into action. It crystalized the fact that if there was something I wanted to do in my life, the time to do it was NOW!

After considering some artistic and traveling goals, I realized that the biggest thing I had yet to accomplish in my life was feeling confident and comfortable in my own skin. I tended to always put myself down, focus on my faults, and minimize my accomplishments and my overall worth. So, I took a deep dive into consciously changing this, and spent a year immersed in both group and individual therapy sessions, reading relevant books and articles, and taking time to practice new ways of thinking and doing things, that were completely out of my comfort zone. It was a very difficult journey, but it ultimately helped me to understand whose discouraging voices were playing on the endless loop in my head (not mine) and why feeling good about myself had never been allowed. I learned why I felt the need to constantly downplay my successes, to strive to please others by “playing small,” and was afraid of living my truth or seeing myself as anything other than a mistake to be fixed.

Throughout the process, the words “I am enough” kept coming up in what I wanted so desperately to believe about myself. As a professional singer/songwriter, I always try to put my heart and soul into all of my music, and writing this song was a natural outcome of plumbing the depths of my past and looking forward to creating a future on my terms.

The chorus came first, both the melody and the lyrics together, then I created a melody for the verses and the lyrics flowed organically after that. The bridge was finished last, and I knew I wanted to have the song build to a triumphant ending, to mirror my own journey of self-discovery and victory.

I have been thrilled at how the song has resonated with so many people. My favorite story is about a woman who cranked it up in her car and was singing the last chorus it at the top of her lungs with the windows down, declaring her “enough-ness” for all to hear. I honestly had no idea how many of us struggle with this issue and how many of us were brainwashed to believe that our looks, our disappointments, and our perceived shortcomings were what defined us. Not anymore! You are enough, I am enough, just as we are today. 

– Rachel Cole