Words of Wisdom

"Duty makes us do things well, but love makes us do them beautifully." ~ Phillips Brooks

Many years ago, my friend Buttercup (Jennifer) and I worked together and became very close friends. In those many years, she and I both had a profound moment of wisdom with each other.

Mine was when I was doing a great job with my body and had become the thinnest I've ever been. She asked me why I was working so hard to have a better body and I told her "Honey, we only have so much time on the Earth to look HOT and then it's over ~ no more 'hot'!" Hot doesn't matter after that window closes. Now for me, "hot" means my little tropical vacations that I take at random times during the day in my own skin! SO, not nearly the same thing anymore! See what I mean! Now, "hot" has different meanings.

Some time later, she went into sales and loved it. She loves money - making it, spending it, whatever. Sometime during that period she had an epiphany. While, yes, she was paid well for what she did, she realized that "she made the companies she worked for very successful". She is a very hard worker (no wonder I loved working with her so much!) and it soon dawned on her that how good she is at work is a huge benefit to whoever she works for and that really she should run her own business so she could reap her own benefits!

That really is something to think about. And I have been. I am so good at these "things" that I do and I wonder regularly what it would take for me to put those talents to good for the benefit of me. And of course, I remember the blog (http://misssallysunshine.blogspot.com/2010/02/if-i-were-brave.html) I wrote about my fear. And the stories I create about it are so big and scary -- they could make a horror film out of it. Oh wait, no they couldn't. The reality is that it is not scary. Or real. And maybe it is, or maybe some of it is, but I act like I don't know that this or that could happen. It's so funny. It's kind of like death. We're "all" so scared of dying and yet we all know how the story ends - we die and the truth is we don't even know (ourselves) that we are gone, but we fear it anyway.

Yes I get that isn't the same thing and yes it was dramatic but my point remains. Whatever fear I have of starting my own cookie bakery or caramel corn making (Ma'an! You should taste this stuff -- seriously!!) or Home Care business to help people organize, revamp, remodel, build, etc. their homes so that they (as Oprah says) "Rise up to meet them" is not unknown. It will fail or it will succeed. Neither is necessarily a judgement, just simply what is. But let's (and by let's, I mean me) create all this drama about why it just won't work. Let's not speak to the fact that those things make me indulgently happy and higher than a kite because I get to be so creative (which, as a first born, is SO freeing anyway)!

Buttercup's right. If you are good, really, really good, you should reap the benefits of that mastery for yourself and your family/loved ones. My Auntie Lisa called me an "over-achiever" this past weekend. In fact she said, "Honey, this is caramel corn is so good, YOU SHOULD SELL IT...and of course you made up the recipe...you have ALWAYS been an over-achiever!".

And I would say that she is right. I have been. I've never been happy with good enough. I'm only happy when the best is what I/you produce. And that's not to say that all I do I am good at. Have you seen me walk and chew gum? Not good, so not pretty. Or sing?! :o) OK, I won't...But I truly strive to be better and better. And I have this innate sense of being able to constantly see what needs to be improved on (much to the chagrin of my daughters, I'm sure)! :o)

So why is picking up a paycheck on Fridays with someone Else's signature on it more important? I'm really not sure why that is STILL better for me or defining. It's even more funny that I am this way since money does little to nothing to motivate me. (Don't tell my dad though, that might break his heart) :o)

I do know this, what I have to offer really does make a difference when I am at work - I do things very well. What I don't know is why I don't make a difference with my very own customers?! What kind of beautiful would that create?