Flight 1810 to DFW: Listening to Miss Angelou

I ran across a quote the other day from Miss Angelou, “Ask for what you want and be prepared to get it!” [Just in case you’re wondering, there will be three quotes in this blog post]

An example of an awesome vision board. I can post my personal one when I land in the city where it is posted.

At the beginning of this year, I asked for what I wanted via a detailed bulleted list and vision board. I was specific but still able to capture my ideas beyond words or images. And then, I started to get what I wanted beyond what I could have ever imagined. I am still in the beginning stages. In short, my goals were/are around

-          Increased exposure (travelling to places I have never been)

-          Building relationships (boo-related, friendships, and professional)

-          Entrepreneurship (run small projects outside of work)

-          Family Support (facilitating relationships with my parents and siblings)

In ten months, I have had one experience in the direction of each of my goals (i.e. traveling to two new continents, spending time with my parents and all of my siblings one on one in various cities, organizing amazing events and re branding a portion of my current company). There have been obstacles (i.e. totaling my car, spending 6 months preparing for grad school to not apply, gaining unwanted pounds, exhaustion and tears), but it’s been balanced by amazing experiences.

Now that I have an idea of what I want, where do I go from here? What do I do next when I get what you ask for? Amid the chaos of wanting so much, I sometimes find myself with little sense of direction. I want my days to be filled with tasks and people that I love, and I want to be able to focus enough to prioritize my life now to get to that point. I guess this is balance needed when the world is my oyster.

My oyster

“Stepping onto a brand-new path is difficult, but not more difficult than remaining in a situation, which is not nurturing to the whole woman.”  - Maya Angelou

I am at a point where I want to take calculated risks towards achieving goals that are sustainable over my lifetime. So I’m listening to Maya.

“I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life's a bitch. You've got to go out and kick ass.”

As an adopted southern belle, what is my respectable answer to Maya’s request to kick ass? Yes ma’am. I've always been a sucker for a well worn suit. 

Spring Fundraisers - thoughts on gratitude

As I draft invite templates for an upcoming event, I am reflecting on what it means to give. I am planning a fundraiser in honor of a couple who has given back to their community for over 20 years. As I grow and transition from being a recipient of so many opportunities to a position of giving back to my community, I often reflect on the best ways “to lift as I climb.”

As I think about fonts and wording, I am drawing a blank on theme and imagery. What does honoring others and showing appreciation look like? Is it a soft  color with script font or is it Bright and bold?    I decided to draw inspiration from the words of others. Here are some of my findings on appreciation and gratitude. I’ll keep you updated on my style decisions.

“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.” – John F. Kennedy

“You cannot do a kindness too soon because you never know how soon it will be too late.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Feeling grateful or appreciative of someone or something in your life actually attracts more of the things that you appreciate and value into your life.” – Northrup Christiane

“What you truly acknowledge truly is yours. Invite your heart to be grateful and your thank yous will be heard even when you don’t use words.” – Pavithra Mehta

Flight 0200 to JNB: The heart of Mandela- My Picture Journey To South Africa

 

The woman beside it all

Flight 1910 to ATL: Diverging from the Critical Path

Written on September 26, 2013

It is fly day, and I am on my way back to Atlanta from my weekly round of consulting superstardom. Instead of using my time at cruising altitude figuring out how to solve my client’s latest problems or working on my business school essay, I decided to write about my dreams. Theoretically, I should be full speed ahead on my business school applications. Instead, I pressed the emergency STOP button and ceased all activity.

I am no longer following critical path [see below].

Critical Path

So why now with the emergency STOP button? It’s about the balance that I want and don’t have. Ish is out of whack these days. I am living in 2 cities during any given week, editing high school scholarship app essays daily, attempting to plan a spring fundraiser, writing random thoughts on post it notes so I don’t lost my IP, and hesitating to launch Atkins Coordination. Instead of doing the things I am supposed to do (See Critical Path), I am doing the things I love to do.

It all started right after I attended a GSB information session. In the session, the woman was asking the standard Stanford MBA app questions.

·         Who are you and why?

·         What do you want to do really?

I had an Aha moment about my secret goals. I have these things that I want to do, that I won’t give a chance because they diverge from my “critical path”.

Thoughts on who I am

A techie geek who believes in embracing my emotional self and the power of love.

My wealth is my network. A healthy, authentic relationship with self and others is more valuable than any currency.

Everything that I do takes me back to helping others.

I am much better suited in bright colors with natural hair.

Is it immoral to be a physicist turned business woman turned entrepreneur and aspirational writer?

Thoughts on what I want to do

Public Relations/Event planning/ Small Business Branding/ Network Skill Building – I truly get a kick out of planning and logistics. From a logical perspective, I sometimes doubt I can build a business with a people based mission.  I mean it is not a tech startup, I am not streamlining processes, or realizing values creating a bottom line impact. I want to bring real people together for like-minded interactions and interests. The whole concept is very anti-2013.

Then there is this education thing. When reading news, or talking about pressing issue, it is always my hot spot. I often find myself referring back to my time in the kindergarden classroom when I channel patience for consulting firedrills. Or my volunteer hours at a local high school trying  to convince black boys from the west side that Lil Wayne relates to math.

Then there is my life. Baseball games with my coworkers, dance class with my girlfriends, spades with the homies, facetime with my siblings, recipes with grandmommy.

Why not business school

My story and my juice that I’ve spent months working on has very little to do with the above. I am pretty sure if I stay in corporate America without giving my ideas a chance or go to business school with no clear sense of direction, I’d be miserable. Moreover, I would be putting my authenticiry at risk.  So, yeah, I still want to go to business school, but I really want to figure out why. Maybe I need to live my life, go for my dreams, and figure out how I can contribute to this world to make a difference.

I am thinking that before I move forward with the graduate school process, I need to give my secret [and very real] dreams a chance. Maybe if I applied all of my energy towards the things I love, I could make something happen.  When I figure out, I’ll be in touch.

Sincerely,

1/216 strands