Not Your Typical Thanksgiving Message

In the midst of all the turkey and thankfulness and family and cooking, there is one thing important about Thanksgiving.

The Radio City Music Hall Rockettes!

I’m dead serious.
 
Every year they perform in the Macy’s Parade and every year since I was a kid, I shush everyone in the house and weep while the Rockettes kick their legs in the air with amazing precision.

I can’t explain it. My family teases me (lovingly). And yet, those few moments of watching the Rockettes marks an important milestone in my year.
 
I know, it’s weird.
 
If we’re honest, we all have our weird rituals, our annual milestones, those things about ourselves that we can’t explain.
 
So, this Thanksgiving, do this:
 
Let your tender little heart love what it loves. Let yourself enjoy whatever weird little ritual you enjoy with no need to explain it. Then hit reply to this email and tell me all about it. I’d like to know I’m not alone.
 
Oh, and be grateful and enjoy your family and friends.
 
Happy Thanksgiving!
 
Christina

What To Do When What You Want Seems Crazy

My son came home from gym class the other day and announced he wants to play hockey. For the first time. In Minnesota. At the age of ten.
 
Minnesota is state where winter is long and dads are fitting their kids with helmets and pulling them on tiny skates before they can walk.
 
My son doesn’t skate.
 
Here is what I was thinking. “There is no way you can start hockey at the age of ten in Minnesota. You’ll be killed, and the leagues will tell you that you are washed up before you get on the ice.”
 
Here’s what I said, “Let me see what I can find out, honey.”
 
To make a short story of how our family’s life went down the hockey rabbit hole, my son is on a hockey team in a great league that is going to teach him to skate. Every morning this week, before his eyes were barely open he’d say, “3 days till my first hockey practice!” He was planning how he will learn to skate, trying on his equipment, and hitting a ball around the backyard with his new stick.
 
Here’s the point: My son believes he can learn to play hockey. So he will.
 
OK, all you cynics out there who are thinking, “Yeah great, that’s a story about a young kid doing something fun. This can’t apply to adults or to work.”
 
Keep reading. 
 
This story (told with permission) shows how belief does have to do with adults and work.
 
One of my friends, who is a rebel if ever there was one, sent me this response to a recent newsletter. Wait until you see what she does for a living!
 
“When I tell people that I take people all over the world to do flower arranging, they say,  'what?' 'sputter?' 'how?'  'Um, I had an idea. I wanted to go to a castle in France and pick flowers and show people how to arrange flowers and guess what?  People wanted to come.' Or that I teach Encaustic painting at art centers up and down the east coast (I needed to look that one up and you can, too, right here).  'How did you get that job?' they ask. 'I called them and asked if they wanted an Encaustic instructor.' It is a great, great world we live in. Truly." (Check out Ginnie Peterson’s business, Crocus Hill Studio).
 
Like my son, Ginnie didn’t spend time analyzing all the reasons her idea couldn’t work. She just believed it could and took action.
 
Life is not perfect. Failure is always part of the journey. And, your beliefs are a huge driver in the results you get.
 
This wouldn’t be the rebelicious newsletter if I didn’t have tips for you. Here you go, strategies for putting belief into action through the metaphor of hockey.
 
1. Find the right league. Have humility to know what you don’t know. And don’t let what you don’t know stop you for one second. Find the right coaches, mentors, and fit for what you want. 
 
2. Get on the ice. You won't learn a darn thing if you don't skate (and fall on your butt a million times).
 
3. Don’t listen to the people around you who say you can’t or you shouldn’t or you’re crazy – even if that person is YOU!
 
4. Set realistic goals and give yourself credit for every bit of progress. Maybe all you will do this practice is stand without falling. Next time, you'll skate to the other side of the arena without falling down. 

I have to go deliver the forgotten water bottle to my son on the ice so I’ll sign off here. Hit reply and tell me a story about how belief combined with action led to your success.
 
Get on that ice!

Christina
 

If you haven't found your passion, you are NOT a failure.

A refrain I hear often is “I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up.” Usually that statement is followed by judgment like, “I’m (fill in age), I should know by now what I want to do.” (Insert exasperated sigh.)
 
First let me acknowledge that there are people, rare and special people, who figure out THE THING and follow a straight career path of increasing passion, responsibility and expertise. My husband is one of those people. He had an epiphany while visiting an exhibit about the Japanese American internment during World War 2, found his passion and never looked back. God bless that man.
 
Then there are the rest of us (dare I say most of us) who look more like this: Had a paper route at 12. Graduated to fast food. Moved to office work, volunteered, travelled, got a graduate degree. Became a community mediator. Worked for a big company and stayed forever. Or quit and started own business as a coach. Does this sound like you? (Or me?)
 
You are on what I proudly call the Curvy Road.
 
When my children and I want to follow the garage sale signs or (don’t tell them this), I’m lost, I announce that we’re on the Curvy Road. We’ll get there, just not in the way we expect.
 
The “find your passion” movement has left many of you feeling like a failure because you can’t identify your THING. I’ve played in that useless sandbox, too.
 
I’m going to say something at the risk of the coaching gods coming down and ripping my credentials out of my tight little fists: Some of us don’t have A THING.  (Waiting for the lightning bolt.)
 
You are not a failure if you haven’t found your passion. You are a Curvy Roadster!
 
Here are three ways to think about your life and career on the Curvy Road.
 
1. Know that each step of the way you made the best decision for who you were and what you wanted at the time. You change. What you want changes. And you have been brave to recognize when it is time to mix it up.
 
2. On the curvy road, there frequently is a common thread that runs through everything you’ve done since you were 12. Look back over your career choices from a ten thousand foot view. What do your choices have in common? Perhaps your thread is the environment. Or service to others. Or involvement in deeply creative endeavors. Mine is relationships and community.

3. Enjoy what you're doing now. And then enjoy the next now and the next. If you do not have a singular, all-consuming passion, you can still love what you do, 10 times and counting. It's a huge relief to stop beating yourself up for not having a passion and just sink your teeth into being the best whatever you are now.

 And when I’ve shared with my husband how envious I am of his career path, he says that sometimes he wished he had stepped off to explore, to see what else was out there. And when he's lucky, he joins us on the curvy road.

Oh yeah!

Christina

Own It Like It's YOUR Birthday!

Today is my birthday!

And I am going to model for you what owning it looks like because it is time for you to own it, too! *

For many years, I've been like, "Meh, birthday. Whatevs."

Today, I woke up and was like, "Yeah, it's my f%##^ birthday!" I'm excited, pumped, and thrilled. I'm happy to be on this earth (thank you, Mom and Dad, for giving me the pleasure of my life).

I am proud of what I've accomplished and the person I have worked to become these past 48 years. I am honored to do the work I do and to be surrounded by amazing people doing amazing things (y'all know who you are).

I am grateful and humbled and totally owning that today is my BIRTHDAY!

Now it's your turn.

Watch for that that little voice creeps in and says, "You can't own it. It's cocky. Or self centered. Or egotistical." To that voice I say, "Shut up. A rising tide raises all ships.Your joy and pride does not diminish others. It invites them to their own joy and pride."

What is something you want to own today?

Declare it!

Declare it to me (hit reply to this email), to your Facebook friends, to your family, shout it to the universe, for the quieter among us - share it with your best friend or own it in your heart and strut around your office like a badass.

Life is to short to play small. Play big! It's bubbling in you like my birthday bubbled over in me this morning. Let it out. Own it.

Hell Yes!

Christina

*a part of me is mortified and would rather hit delete than send this newslettert! Just so you know, I'm as normal and vulnerable as you are.