Tags
achieving more, getting over embarrassment, making changes, Mary Lee Gannon, starting over, starting over now, Taking risk
365 Ways to Start Over: Day #21 – Drive Your Kids to School In Your Pajamas
Risk. How much of a risk taker are you? How unstructured can you be? Your children’s school is less than a mile from your house. You probably don’t even have to pass through a traffic light to get there. You’re going into work a little late today and haven’t yet showered when you need to drive them to school. Do you bother changing into clothes you’ll take off upon return just to drive them a short distance or do you throw on a coat and some shoes and preserve the time to read the paper before you shower? What’s at risk? You could have car trouble, get pulled over for a blown headlight, or get in a minor fender bender the worst of which is that people will see you in your pajamas. What’s the worst thing that could happen if someone sees you in your pajamas? They tell someone. So what? Embarrassment is self-imposed. No one makes you feel that way. You do that all by yourself. Instead of feeling embarrassed convert that energy to confidence in your new discoveries and achievements.
The point of the exercise is to show you that if you want to change some things in your life, it means doing things you are not used to. It means brushing aside what others will say. It means getting comfortable with things that used to intimidate you. Where might you spend time getting to know new friends who can be a resource for you? What can you attend to gain a new perspective that is not at all something you’d have gone to six months ago? How can you listen to the silence in your life to allow your calling to bubble up to the surface?
Go ahead – drive the kids to school in your PJs and where your slippers too. And call up someone you don’t know. And go to an event alone just to see who you might meet. And stop searching for answers and allow the purpose of your life to tap you on the shoulder. Start now!
Get Mary Lee’s article “Get ‘Unstuck!‘”
Mary Lee Gannon is the president of Gannon Group – an executive coaching and consulting firm that produces higher individual and organizational performance through Executive Leadership Coaching, Fundraising Coaching, Organizational Development, Board Retreats, Visioning, and Planning. Mary Lee’s personal turnaround came as a stay-at-home mother, with four children under seven-years-old, who endured a divorce that took she and the children from the country club life to public assistance from where within a short time she worked up to the level of CEO. Her book “Starting Over – 25 Rules for When You’ve Bottomed Out” is available in bookstores or at Amazon. Get her FREE ebook – “Grow Productivity – A Leader’s Toolbox” on her web site at www.StartingOverNow.com.