We think birthdays are a big deal. Monumental. Sacred. Really, what could be bigger in your life than the day you were born?! (Okay, the day you die is a big deal, but it doesn’t usually make for a happy party.) Every birthday is a perfect opportunity to celebrate someone, get mushy, and let them know that you’ve been paying attention to what they love. And when it’s your Day of All Days, it’s a divine window in which to be reflective, think highly of yourself, and party hearty.
I’ve only had a handful of “real jobs” in my adult life—and even those were on the edge of conventionality. Early on I worked for The Body Shop. I started in a store, pumping Peppermint Footcream and eventually helped to run their Department of Social Inventions. The Body Shop’s founder, Anita Roddick, left a very deep impression on me. She was a maverick with a tender, daring heart, pioneering ethically responsible business practices. She helped rescue rain forests and children. She pissed off policy makers and capitalists. She put her money, time, and ego on the line to make change happen. She never, ever relented.
This mantra of hers often rings in my heart and my ambitions: Be daring. Be different.Be first.
Plenty of people have daring, a few are truly different, but fewer still get there first. Being first requires strategy and thought. Being first – whether it’s first in line, first to market, or first in your class, usually requires ample desire, a heaping of risk, and a plan.
- Danielle
Richard Bach, author of the metaphysical classics, Jonathon Livingston Seagull and Bridge Across Forever, noticed that the Idea Fairy came to him when he was gardening, or flying in a plane. That’s when he’d get his storyline ideas and life solutions.
Call it what you want: the zone, the flow, the magical gap, the illuminating silence…there is a place in space and time where we tend to think and feel most clearly. And in that place, ahaa’s, creative genius, strategies, and revelations tend to flow our way.
“I am currently shopping for a new couch,” one Style Statement client explained in her session. With a lovely French accent, she described her mission: “I am very controlling. I want the pillows a certain size, a certain seat depth…and the fabric has to be a particular shade. It has to feel just right. But I probably shouldn’t be such a control freak.”
A single anecdote lights up the whole field of vision.
- James Hillman
Our past is often sprinkled with destiny gems - clues to our greatness. Magically, these gems may have been placed by others, via our naming and or family lineage. And frequently our true essence was apparent from the day we hatched.
5 Ways to Research Yourself
1. Find out the meaning of your first, middle, and last names. You can look these up on-line or in most libraries. We like: www.ancestry.com, and www.behindthename.com is a good source for first names.
2. Ask your parents why they chose your name for you.
