What Changed the Way You Think?

Sometimes the most profound wisdom hits you when you least expect it.  This has happened to me… and maybe it’s happened to you?

You’re chugging through your life with certain views and certain opinions on life, then someone says something to you and everything changes.

Maybe that person was your third-grade teacher. Maybe it was a stranger in the bookstore. Maybe it  was a stranger in the grocery store check-out line.

I was 11 years old, and my mom dropped me off at the local public swimming pool. I was supposed to meet my cousins there…however, they never showed up.

Those were the days when your parents could drop you off by yourself at the local public pool and not even think twice about your safety…

The old woman looked at me, raised her fist defiantly in the air and with a rebel cry… she said, “So what! Be afraid!  Jump in and do it anyway kid!”

That was so long ago and I have never forgotten it.   It was a revelation — it’s not about being unafraid. It’s about being afraid and doing it anyway

Today, I ask you to think…  What did someone tell you that changed your life? …possibly forever?

This comes back to getting out of our comfort zones.  As a  kid, who’s father was in the military, I experienced having to get out of my comfort zone all the time.

Stuff that was not normal for other people… became normal for me.  In other words, I got comfortable being uncomfortable.  For example,  going to 8 different schools in 12 years and living in Los Angeles, Portland, Oregon, Boulder Colorado, Washington, D.C., Monterrey N.L., Mexico and the list goes on…

I was an Army Brat & Airforce Brat.  This means my dad served in the military and we traveled and relocated to new cities a lot.  Going to a new school so often was nerve-wracking for a girl who was not confident.  Fast forward to now… I have grown into a  high-energy woman with a ‘what-ever-it-takes attitude’  –  maybe being a military brat helped me to turn out this way…

[Tweet theme=”tweet-box-shadow”]Growing up, I had to learn how to have grit, take no crap, and be brave even when I wasn’t[/Tweet]   Thank you, 75-year-old lady in the swimming pool that day for shouting at me with your rebel cry and saying: “So be afraid! And then do it anyway!”

As an entrepreneur who has had several successful start-ups, failures, and created reinventions of myself I’ve learned that influence is all around us. Taking a chance on yourself is really all you have.  In other words, all you really have is YOU.  Yeah, you can have a great supportive family and friends, however, it is up to you to take action for yourself.

[Tweet theme=”tweet-box-shadow”]Nobody is going to knock on your front door and offer to make all your dreams come true.[/Tweet]

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