motivational speaker, mel robbins visits the young agents

note: this is long and it's friggin HOT out. so grab some lemonade before you start to read.

i planned to write this over the weekend...but when i sat down at the computer on saturday morning, i uploaded and resized pictures and wrote a post about painters instead. that’s how my mind works sometimes. sit down to do one thing and end up doing something else entirely. actually, i clean the house like this too. sometimes i can't believe i graduated from college with the disjointed approach to life i take sometimes.

anyway- last week i went to this networking event put on by my place of business. i try to go to such events but i have missed the last few. this time i wanted to go because we were having Mel Robbins as a guest speaker. usually we have an insurance company executive say a few words about becoming a business partner, blah blah blah, boring insurance jibber-jabber but a co-worker of mine convinced Mel to come out and talk to the young agent group.

you probably don't know who Mel Robbins is...i didn't until about a month ago. you can catch up on her website but essentially she is a life coach and radio personality from MA who is very much a regular real person. she swore and she held a beer while she talked to our group in these way too cute denim sailor pants and she made an immediate impression. this is unlike other "motivational speakers" i have heard in the past. (specifically that comedian guy in FL) she very casually told us her story- about how she got to where she was. i love hearing stories like that. i am engrossed immediately. thats probably why i love reading blogs. i like the details.

right, so the point of this...she had some very unconventional thoughts on some conventional wisdom. one of her major points was about how people don't take chances because they think too much and aim too high. yes, she said that people aim too high. when's the last time you heard that and found it inspirational? to paraphrase, she described the way people think they need to change the world with one big idea but seem only to succeed in talking themselves out of doing anything at all. doing just one small thing at a time would be infinitely more effective for most of us.

of course this theme piggy-backs on so much of what i have read lately about change being more effective when you make small advancements and baby steps and one reasonable goal at a time. lately i've begun to think that most people would benefit from a 12 step program because that is what they are all about- one step at a time....

right, so she went on to talk about how many times she has followed up on one email or made one chance call or had one conversation and before she knew it her circle included radio producers, journalists, and best of all... opportunities. i liked what she said on this point. she advocated less for leaping into something, and instead she advocated that people lean into a new experience. she also talked about the importance of saying “ok- why not?” and figuring out the rest out later.

how many times have i talked myself out of doing something because i couldn't brave the potential for a consequence...any consequence? how many times have i thought, "this one call won't make a difference" or how many times have i insisted that my ideas weren't good enough without ever even sharing them with anyone? probably more times that i can count. probably time to start making those small changes, eh?