What do you do when you realize the project you set out to complete requires more than one lifetime?
I’ve been thinking a ton over the last weeks about this article, the first of 2019. Last year I spoke about the “word” exercise the fabulous Maria Sipka introduced me to. I came up with tons of similarly inspiring things to write about, but none spurred me to put pen to paper. Then today, life (two funny conversations, to be exact) handed me the idea on a plate.
My first conversation was with a dear friend. She called me to say,
“I REALIZED THIS WEEK THAT I’D WASTED THE LAST 30 YEARS WORKING ON A PROBLEM THAT WILL NEVER BE SOLVED.”
She was understandably mad and frustrated about this.
I think my friend’s statement was both right and wrong. Right, because I agree with her that the particular problem she’s been working on will take beyond her lifetime to fix. But also wrong, because her time was far from wasted. Our friendship (and many of her other awesome friendships) is a direct result of her focus on the problem. And I’m a pretty awesome friend. 🙂
After that, I had a conversation with a young woman who might be coming to work with the team at Ladybadass HQ. In the get-to-know-you phase, I’m very clear with potential candidates about who we are and what we’re all about both as a company and as a team. So I shared my vision in numbers.
“I WANT TO COMPLETE A MILLION INTRODUCTION MAKEOVERS. YES, I WILL REST WHEN A MILLION PEOPLE UNDERSTAND HOW TO ARTICULATE WHY THEY ARE UNIQUELY AWESOME.”
The young lady lit up with excitement (excellent response btw) and exclaimed that this was totally doable.
I did the math at this point and made a stunning discovery.
At the current rate (30-minutes per person) doing sessions all day every day (which I can—I had 11 sessions in one day recently—it was awesome) I will be 267 when I finish.
Yup. Even with all this mind-bending life-extending technology becoming more available by the day, the timeline for my goal—just like my friend’s—extends beyond any reasonable life expectancy. I can’t possibly complete one million makeovers.
THE THING IS, THE WORD “CAN’T” HAS NEVER STOPPED ME. AND I DON’T WANT IT TO STOP YOU, EITHER.
So my friends, my goal for 2019 is not “can” I do 1,000,000 makeovers but to figure out “how.” Team Ladybadass now has a tough problem to solve. Will we bend the law of physics and succeed in this endeavor? I want to. But even if we don’t quite reach 7-figures, I’m also confident that marvelous things will manifest along the way, things that wouldn’t come to life unless we committed to the impossible goal.
I’m pretty excited.
If this inspired you to set your sights on something impossible (and to manifest marvelous things for yourself just because you dared to try), we’d love to hear from you! Please share your goals with us by clicking on the button below.
However you choose to pursue your goals and dreams, I wish you all the ladybadassery you need in 2019.