Faith Aweko is a multi-award-winning Ugandan social entrepreneur. She is the founder of Reform Africa; an Entebbe based social enterprise that recycles plastic polythene waste bags into sustainable bags and accessories.
As an entrepreneur, self-love, how you perceive yourself and your worth is directly proportionate to how you perceive your business. Undervaluing yourself as an entrepreneur, for example, can result in undervaluing and underpricing your products, which can in turn have a detrimental effect on the business.
Faith talks to GLIM about her quest for self-love while juggling the often gruelling but highly rewarding world of entrepreneurship.
GLIM: When did you start your self-love journey and what inspired it?
AWEKO: My self-love journey started when I started my growth journey. I wanted to get to know more about myself and childhood traumas that have greatly affected both my personal and professional life. I wanted to see how these experiences have affected me and heal from them so that I can be available for myself, the people around me and I can have meaningful and long-lasting relationships with people, family and work.
GLIM: Since embarking on this journey, what would you say are the 3 things that have changed the quality of your life and made you love yourself more?
AWEKO: Holding myself accountable. At the end of the day, I ask myself, how my day has been, have I shown myself enough love and been kind to others and myself. I am also holding myself accountable for the things that I am doing to others or myself because most times we blame our misfortunes on others and our surroundings, but we have to zero it down to accountability for ourselves.
Knowing that I am enough the way I am. I am working to better my life every day. Knowing what I am capable of doing and what I am not capable of doing so when I receive, for example, negative comments on the internet, I need to realize that shouldn’t ruin my day, and also getting to realize that what people say has nothing to do with me it is their insecurities and they have to work on themselves so not allowing that kind of bad energy to come to me, protecting my peace and energy.
Being intentional. I am practising being intentional, every day in everything that I do. This has helped me to not comment or participate in things that don’t add value to me. Each time I am going to do something, I ask myself what is the intention of the comment that I am going to make or what is the intention of what I am doing today.
GLIM: As an entrepreneur, you get a lot of NO’s that can sometimes hurt your self-esteem. How do you handle this?
AWEKO: I just take it like, in life, there’s always a winner and a loser, so it’s not like all the time I am going to win and also being happy someone else won. When I get a rejection email, I take time to process it, and then move on and keep on applying for more. Also, at such times, I draw inspiration from people who had rejections but have succeeded in life. These small rejections also teach me to overcome the bigger ones in the future, so I am more prepared mentally on how to process them. But knowing that I am doing a great job and many people appreciate what I do, is what I stick by.
GLIM: How do you ensure you maintain a healthy self-esteem and show your best self at all times?
AWEKO: I read a lot of self-help books and also follow positive people on Instagram. I also worked on my confidence, consistency and discipline through the gym and this has helped me to believe in myself. So once I believe in myself and I know that I am capable of anything I set my mind to do, I don’t settle for less. I don’t want to sit and blame myself for not doing my best in anything so I try my best. If I have gone for a trip, even with the fears and anxiety I have, I put it all aside and tell myself I have come to enjoy my life and I am going to enjoy it to the fullest. So I will do all the activities without fear. So that’s also the kind of energy I bring to the business, if I am making posts on social media about my business or given an opportunity to talk about it, I make sure that I am giving it my best, so being able to hype myself up and my business because I know it way better than anyone else what I am doing and no one can advertise for me better.
GLIM: What are your go-to feel-good activities?
AWEKO: My routine involves waking up, reading the bible, or a devotional book for like an hour then journaling where I get to write my feelings and thoughts. I make sure I move my body, which means taking a walk and going to the gym. Also, cooking has helped me spend time with myself and try out new recipes. Besides cooking and cleaning the house, arranging my bed, puts me in a good mood and lastly, I am a plant lover so watering the plants, taking care of something and seeing it thrive and grow gives me positivity and it sets a pace for my day as well.
GLIM: What is your best self-love mantra?
AWEKO: “I am choosing to show up.”
