Professional Day at School

This  morning I was helping my First Grade daughter get ready for school.  Today was a "spirit day" and the students have the option of dressing up as someone who they want to be when they grow up. 

My first thought was wow how cool is it that you get to express your heart's desire and have it be totally OK with everyone, your friends, family and society.  As adults we rarely if ever get that chance to have total acceptance of who we really are.

My other daughter, a Second Grader, decided she wanted to go to school as a Karate teacher and wore her karate uniform.  She's taking karate and has been at it for a few years and is totally into it.  My second thought was how cool is it that girls are not restricted to homemaker, teacher, store clerk (NOT That there is anything wrong with those professions.  At one time in my life I was a homemaker and at a store clerk.). My First Grader is very artistic and is a free spirit. She decided to go as a clothing designer and she dressed up in her cool funky finest and went to school with a drawing pad and colored pencils to complete "the look".

It's fun having two girls who are on opposite ends of the world, it keeps me open to all possibilities.

Then the BOMB dropped, my First Grader asked me what would I dress up as.  It completely took me by surprise, I don't know why it did…  I thought and thought and nothing jumped out at me.  For a moment I had total clarity and realized that I'm perfectly happy with who I am and what I do.  Yeah I need to tinker with things and refine things in my life, that's apart of growing. If you're not moving forward…you're moving backwards, but my foundation is rock solid.

So I gave her my answer. I told her that I'd dress up as a very successful Mompreneur and wear my finest sweat suit and new tennis shoes to take her school, then I'd go workout and then I'd go home and work on my very successful business.  She looked at me completely confused, said "well that's what you always do" and then shook it off as one of those "weird" things that mommy says sometimes and it's better left alone : )

What’s Your Passion?

I'm currently reading a great book called "The Passion Test" by
Janet Bray Attwood and Chris Attwood. I heard good things about this
book and thought why not, it looked interesting.  Who would have
thought that a simple questions such as "What is your passion?" would
elicit a such a complex journey to get to such a seemingly simple
answer!

Usually I blow through these kind of books in search of the great
"Ah-ha" moment, but this time I'm doing it right and not skipping any
of the steps along the way.  I took the test, made my vision board, and
now am in the middle of writing my letter about my life from the
perspective of my 100 year old self.  It's taking longer than I
thought…things that seem so important right now don't seem so
important in the big picture.

The thing is, after taking the test, the things that I thought were
my passions weren't really mine. They were my family's passions or they
were passions that were acceptable to my family when I was growing up. 
I grew up in a very bi-polar house.  My mom was Corporate America,
follow the rules and my dad was a business owner who was all about work
and making money…but doing it his way.

So this book has taken me on an unexpected journey and at the tender
age of 40 leaves me asking myself…who am I? Which part of me is my
authentic self?  I'm not complaining…it's turning out to be a
wonderful and strange journey. The comforting part is that at age 40
I'm not set in my ways and the path before is not set in stone.  I can
still create my path and go my way. The book in fact encourages you to
take the test every 6 months or so as you gain clarity.  It's something
that I hope my daughter picks up on and realizes at  much younger age
than I did, that there is no "rule book" to life and that all she has
to do is listen to her heart and spirit.

So what are my passions according to the test?  We'll you end up with 10 passions and my top 5 are:

1. To Live Out Loud..by no longer burying my voice or spirit.

2. Travel…I have a passion to see the world, experience the
cultures and people who inhabit this planet with me and to take my
family along for the ride.

3. Have a blast…when the ride is over I want to feel like I just rode the most amazing roller coaster ever!

4. Creating with my hands..I love to create things that bring beauty
and comfort into peoples lives. Whether it's hosting a dinner party
with friends or making a present for someone that comes from my heart
and it's something that they will enjoy.

5. To bring a more creative element into my business..I'm not sure
what this means yet. It could mean that I start a second business with
a creative bent to it or maybe it means bringing clients into my
current business that are creative types.

What are your passions?

First Step

Every journey starts with a first step and welcome to the first step of
my new creation. I don't know where this journey is going to lead me or
what will happen along the way, but it's time for me to dream big, create
and thrive!  Join me on my journey and post your insights and musings, it's always more fun when friends join in!