The days leading up to March 24, 2017 have been great learning opportunities. I’m not just talking about the first 55 years of my life with all of the growing pains, life lessons and career opportunities.
For many years I thought the things that rated high on the importance scale were raising my kids the best I could (check), work hard and make a name for myself (check) and of course, keeping customers happy by providing high quality work so they will keep returning and refer you to others (check, check).
For the most part, my mom and I had a very good relationship, a closeness that was pretty steady throughout my life. Sure there were moments where I was a little less than thoughtful and considerate, you know those self-aborbed teenage years and early twenties. Mom would get ticked off at me now and then, but we always came back to that common ground. We knew we loved each other, no matter what we faced.
November 19th, 2016 was the day I began a new journey. The real beginning of knowing my mom wasn’t so tough, that she wasn’t that “Energizer Bunny” we so lovingly called her. Mom’s health was failing and for the next four months she would ride the roller coaster of her life. This was a time when I chose to back away from my passion of helping single moms and my business, I got to take care of mom and be there like she’d always been there for me. Although we had had many conversations, we also had time to explore her photo albums with my granddaughter on our Friday visits. Questioning who was in those albums, what her life was like before I was born and even some of those adventures I didn’t know about while we were kids.
I learned that my mom, a strong independent woman who became a single mom when I was 12, had more to her than I ever realized. She often said she didn’t like change, but you’d never have know that. For she met life’s challenges and opportunities with courage. When she was frightened about the unknown, she plowed through and made the best choices she could–for her and quite often for us children. There is just too much to share, that would make this post even longer that it has become. But let me share this with you. My mom lived her life like the book… “Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway”. I gave her a copy of this book when she requested it for a friend of hers. During one of our memorable chats, I told her that as much as she keeps saying she hates change, she did exactly this. She would FEEL THE FEAR AND DO IT ANYWAY. She laughed at me, but I believe she knew that I was right.
So the next time you start getting heart palpitations, sweaty palms or that voice in your head telling you that there is no way in h*ll you can do it (and I’m talking about your business too), remember my mom and Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway,
Please share your fearless story, I’d love to read it.