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.