Saying Yes instead of Maybe
Last week’s challenge started out as making sure I said yes, instead of maybe or no. I have a tendency to jump in with a no and then think about it. With that in mind, Saturday morning I agreed to drive my daughter to Tsawwassen, so she could catch a seven o’clock ferry. Okay, I admit, it’s not an exciting trip (it takes 90 minutes each way) but it got me out of bed, showered, dressed, and through the door by five-fifteen a.m., while someone I won't name stayed in bed snoring.
So why is this a challenge. Well, you see it’s a challenge because I had to get up again the next morning and drive to the airport. My other daughter was catching a nine o’clock fight to Montreal. That meant two trips to the Richmond/Tsawwassen area in 24 hours.
Still not impressed? How’s this? Not only did I drive my daughter to the ferry, but I made the return trip to pick her up as well. There you have it, three round trips to Tsawwassen/Richmond in 24 hours.
Alright, I admit it, if it weren’t for my 52 Over 50 blogs, I would have told her to take her car to the island, or walk on. Or, I might have conned my husband into driving her and stayed in bed. The airport trip would have happened but a return trip to the ferry wouldn’t have taken place.
It’s funny how things change. When the girls were in school, playing softball, working and doing all the other things kids do, it was normal procedure to get up and go. Why is it different now? Do I need a motivational guru to give me a kick to get moving? Lucky for me, I am surrounded by people who say yes, instead of maybe, or no. They motivate me to take my spark of an idea and run with it.
That makes me think about personality types. Not the ones used in detailed personality type testing that spit out words like:
Introvert
Extrovert
Social
Artistic
And on and on and on
I’m thinking of a simpler framework that lists three types:
The idea person—what if people
The implementer—that sounds good but how do we make this a reality people
The marketer—that looks amazing, let’s get the product out there people
I’m an idea person. I’ve loads of ideas. I know which personality type each member of my family is, and I have a pretty good idea what most of my friends are. I think that there’s more to it than that though. Instead of button-holing people into slots, I’m going to go out on a limb and say, we’re made up of all three. We just need the right motivation to use the parts that don’t come to us as naturally as our primary character.
Right now, I’m co-writing a romantic chick lit novel. That means learning to write with someone else, using one document, and tracking changes, so we can follow what’s going on. It’s a colourful piece of text with lots of black, red, and blue edits. So far, so good though. I’ll keep you posted on how that’s going. Maybe I'll include some teasers. At the end of the project both of us will have to juggle all three hats. Right now, it’s easy, ideas are flowing and the words are growing.
My friend Yvonne Dale writes a blog called 52 Over 50—A Year of Painting and Prose. She’s committed to capturing her thoughts on canvas weekly for 52 weeks. She’s another idea person who has to bring her concepts to life, and get them out there. Check out the Kariton Gallery at Mill Lake in Abbotsford. Some of her art will be in, the Poetry of Art Exhibit planned to run from March 17th to April 17th. As an avid kayak-er, biker, and hiker, Yvonne has some great ideas for getting up and getting going. Stay tuned on that.
So, my question for this week is how do you get up and go when you want to snuggle into the couch and forget about ice storms and flu season. I have plenty to do:
housework
three books on the go
blog
work and home life
I need a game plan, or a really good Day-Timer. The bottom line is I’m going to have to give up Candy Crush and get moving. Maybe I’ll take up hot yoga. I’m sure I’ll figure it out. After all, I’m an idea person.