Category: 2018 Master Key Experience

Take the negative roadblocks of guilt, anger, hurt feelings, fear and unworthiness, and use them as tools for good. Sounds crazy right? As I went through the exercises of taking something negative and turning it into a tool to use for my benefit, a couple of things came up.

First of all, lack mindset…it’s a way of thinking that I have been exposed for most of my life and I see my children (two adults, one preteen) erring in that way of thinking often. I have been using it lately as a conversation starter and we have had great discussions about other ways to look at things when they say something that has a lack bent to it. I grew up in poverty, but my mom had a great way of making sure that we had lots of opportunities to learn and experience things that would be considered to be out of the realm of possibility for most people in poverty. I had dance lessons when I was young (even performed in a ballet with “real” ballerinas), learned to play the piano and flute, had art lessons, was involved in every sport possible in our community and school, and participated in 4H and Girl Scouts. And because Mom was an English major in college and a newspaper editor, I had opportunities to help sell newspaper ads (cold call phone skills as well as face-to-face sales), proofread articles and text, and learn how to develop photos in a dark room. In high school I was on the yearbook staff, and as a teacher I have been the chair of the yearbook committee for the past 4 years. (This is actually something I was going to give up after this school year because it doesn’t fit in my DMP, but I realized recently, as I was struggling with getting cooperation from others to submit work and running up against deadlines, that I have to do it for one more year. My son has one more year in elementary school and I want to finish out his elementary experience with one more year of being in charge of the yearbook…of course my administrators laughed when I told them I was going to quit and then realized that I “had” to do it one more year. I’m sure they’re thrilled because since I’ve taken over the committee, we have had some amazing results with the outcome of our yearbook.)

The second big take away was fear and unworthiness. This is something that I have allowed to rule my life too much. I have a tendency to procrastinate because of these two things. Because of the lessons I’ve learned in this course, I am in a much better place when it comes to these. I don’t always “do it now” but I do more often. I am nature’s greatest miracle! I have nothing to fear and I am worthy of everything that is good!

I can be what I will to be.

Don’t die with the music of your soul unplayed…

There’s this thing where you know you were meant to do more than what you’re doing now. Even if what you’re already doing is amazing and worthy of your time, you still feel that pull to tweak things. But then life happens and time goes by and you get comfortable. Things are familiar, not perfect and not amazing, but you know the basics of how and where things are heading. You’ve found yourself stuck in the comfort zone!

Getting out of the comfort zone is scary and unknown, but we were meant for so much more than this!

“Fumbling his confidence
And wondering why the world has passed him by
Hoping that he’s bent for more than arguments
And failed attempts to fly
We were meant for so much more than this
Have we lost ourselves?
Somewhere we live inside.”
–Switchfoot “Meant to Live”

Find your path and follow your compass. It will lead you out of your comfort zone and into the great unknown of the future you!

Several weeks into this process I met another Tribe member for coffee. After a discussion about all kinds other things she asked me “why” I was taking this course and I had no idea why honestly, I can’t even remember what I answered. I’ve spent time since then contemplating that question and still didn’t come up a great answer. I didn’t take it to build my business or for any of the reasons probably most people take it. I was already on the email list somehow, and then my business partner was also sending the invites to join the course. I figured, why not? It’s free to try it out and what do I have to lose? I’ve been on a journey of changing my mindset for several years, but nothing had really “stuck” and I didn’t realize that this was going to lead me in that direction. I had no “reason” specifically to take it…it ended up being much more than I bargained for in so many ways…lots of time and energy that I wasn’t prepared to invest, infringing upon my comfortable mediocrity, challenging the funk that I found myself in after two very stressful years of dealing with overcoming some major life curveballs. Even after going through the process, and yes missing some reads and sits here and there, and seeing and feeling the great changes that are possible (with still so much more to learn and growth to do), I sometimes have felt like an imposter…trying to “belong” in this course, struggling to make changes, answering the call of the “hero’s journey” and I’ve felt so inadequate.

Don’t get me wrong, I am immensely grateful for this course and all of the growth and experiences that have happened. I absolutely know that this process is changing me and helping me become the person I am supposed to become. So when I was watching the Week 19 video with the Ted Talk with Amy Cuddy, I teared up when she was talking about her student. So many times I’ve felt so out of place and unworthy of who I want to become, who I know I can become. That cement is thick and sticks and it’s such a challenge to get off!

Awhile back my hubby made a meme of me as Wonder Woman…

It was the Mother’s Day that we spent focused on and taking care of his mother, bringing her home from rehab after a broken leg, and spending that whole weekend building a ramp to her house so she could come home. When I fell from a ladder twenty months ago, he bought me a Wonder Woman shirt and a POP! toy figure. A good friend sent me a Wonder Woman action figure as a get well gift. I know that there are people in my life who view me as a Wonder Woman…I want to become the Wonder Woman that I know I am meant to be!

I love the “Wonder Woman” stance for a power pose! I can do that! And when I do? I feel so marvelous! So, I will “fake it until I become it” and become the person that I am supposed to be! If you’re feeling the same way, just try it. It’s quite incredible!

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Sidenote: Not only I am going to start doing this exercise for myself on a daily basis, I’m also going to teach my 2nd graders to feel more empowered and powerful with daily 2-minute “Superhero” poses! Stay tuned, I’ll let you know how it goes!

“The greatest sale in the world is to sell yourself to you.”

Last week I wasn’t able to listen to the course webinar until later in the week and then every time I would try to listen to it, I would get interrupted and unable finish. After today’s webinar, I took the time to focus on catching up so that I wouldn’t start the new week from behind and wow, the end of the “hero’s journey” webinar was amazing!

Because I kept getting interrupted, I also didn’t catch the assignment to send an email to answer the question about the “Greatest Salesman” so I didn’t have the opportunity to ponder the answer before finding out what it was. But it was still quite profound! Circling back to last week’s webinar is an important piece of the puzzle for me to move on into Week 18 properly. What I had been convinced of about myself was not who I am but what I had endured. Yes, knowing where we come from and what we have been through is important to an extent, but that doesn’t need to define everything about us as we move forward in life if we are to be happy and successful. So when the question of the week came up “What am I pretending not to know?” there were a lot of possible answers that arose (and I didn’t like most of them). I’m so glad that we can move on to “What would the person I intend to become do next?” Now we can take what we were pretending not to know and change the script as we think about how the person we intend to be would respond in every situation.

There’s a much better future awaiting when we change the questions and our perceptions!

Aimee Mullins’ Ted Talk was phenomenal! As a teacher, I am all too familiar with the conundrum of letting kids explore and be curious but also being stuck in a place where we also worry about working within “the system” that tries to teach kids what “society expects”. I love that she allowed the children to come in and explore her legs with no adults allowed and the amazing conversations and learning that took place in that experience for the children (and for her too)! Allowing them to ask questions and use their imagination to learn and grow…which is intrinsic to all children.

There are so many times, just this year, I’ve joked with my teacher team about how we want to put “Do Not Cross” police tape on our doors and keep the “adults” out…because in a public, Title 1, low performing school we have extra “support”…which many times feels less supportive and more as if it takes away from all of the fun that learning can be, because of the added “to do” list of “all the things”. The best lessons that get the most engagement from my students are the lessons that allow them to ask questions and explore new ideas. We are currently working on a grade-wide STEM Fair project with popcorn as the focus. My students have come up with some of the best questions and ideas about what makes popcorn pop and so much enthusiasm about this project, it was refreshing to see the joy that curiosity brings. They were all so excited to talk about popcorn, it was amazing!

So how do we, as adults, get back to that childlike curious adventurer? I love that Aimee had the following insights which can be applied to so many areas of life: The conversation is no longer about overcoming deficiencies, it’s a conversation about potential…no longer a conversation about loss, but a conversation about the power to create whatever they want to create, design from a place of empowerment. Understanding our collective humanity, we can discover the full potential in our humanity, we need to celebrate those heartbreaking strengths and glorious disabilities that we all have. “It is our humanity and all of the potential in it that makes us beautiful.”

Mark’s words also really stuck with me:
*Pure potentiality.
*You are here for a purpose and that purpose is to grow.
*That curious adventurer is not self-conscious at all.
*There are no common people. There is greatness in all of us. The world has a need for your gift!

*Get off the “circumstances” that are holding you back from the life that you desire! The real heroes journey is finding your authentic self!

I just love that this course focuses on our true selves. We take the color test at the beginning of the course to identify who we truly are according to how we innately were as children. This was such a mind-blowing concept for me and I am amazed at how much I am growing back into the person that I was as a child…the person who wants to grow and find out who I really am and what I am meant to do.

There’s a song that I loved as a child, which I haven’t thought of for years. But it came to mind over and over this week after listening to the webinar and it is true for all of us…

“I am a promise. I am a possibility. I am a promise with a capital “P”. I am a great big bundle of potentiality.”

I am on a journey to become the curious adventurer that I was meant to be and I love it!