Actually I did cross paths with Arnold. Well, if I’d had a path, he would have crossed it. I was standing stock still behind 3L Publishing’s book table—just close enough to see a blue-suit river of testosterone going by with Arnold’s head bobbing in the midst like a beaming buoy. Close, but no Irish Crème cigarillo.
I admire people not because they’re famous, but because they use their status to make a positive impact on the world. People like Maria Shiver, whose path I would enjoy literally crossing one day and perhaps even stopping for a chat.
But the most important path I crossed this week wasn’t someone famous. It was my own. Two days after the grueling trade show workout (I’m sure I burned calories just from lifting my smile so much), I traveled to the Radisson Hotel in Dublin to speak to a lively and lovely group of women led by Sahar Kordahi. It’s called “The Bright Side of Life,” and there I intersected with my own shadowy self. She’s the part of me that has spent a lifetime (albeit intermittently) of speaking in public and successfully making an ordeal out of it each and every time. Here’s the synopsis: neurosis, nerves and notes followed by relief and critical rumination. Last year, I decided that I would either stop speaking in public or find a way to do it with terrorizing myself and those I love.
I’ve had some modest successes this year, but Dublin was the test: a new 45-minute talk on a topic that is as close to my heart as a topic can get without causing arrhythmia. “Beyond Change: Radical Trust in Your Own Transformation.” Obviously, I was my own poster child. In the name of peace, I prepared for the talk differently (mostly lying in bed then making notes on a huge tableau on the wall); letting go of memorizing or using notes; adopting a new pace of speaking; and staying in my body and breathing whenever anticipation turned to fear. And the Universe, in a show of support, sent me a new method of remembering the flow of a talk.
It worked! I did something I’ve done all my life differently. I think that’s just what transformation is. And I also think we’ve all bought the bit that transformation is just for houses, hairstyles and bodies. But no. It’s for us. It’s our life-size experience of radical change!
What are you ready to do differently? What are you ready to transform?
Keeping it Grand,
Maridel