This weekend I had the honor to serving as the Keynote Speaker for the Young Women s National Conference in Washington, DC. The focus of the conference was to equip young women (ages 14 17 years) with the necessary tools to become more confident and inspire the courage to embrace their leadership potential. I was charged with sharing my concepts for confidently overcoming challenges.
My mantra has long been that you can be beautiful, smart, talented and still have self esteem issues if you re not confident you can tackle the tough challenges that come your way in life. How does one tackle said challenges? By making the 3 Critical Choices: are you cause or effect? giver or a taker? challenger or conformer?. When explaining the challenger/conformer choice to the girls Saturday I told the story of two friends of mine, Melissa and Jeff, and I asked the girls to think about each person and who they d like to emulate.
Melissa has been in a relationship for four years with Jason and wanted to get married. Jason had other plans. When Melissa came to me for advice I explained that this could be a great opportunity for her to try something she s always wanted to but maybe was too scared or felt like her relationship was holding her back. I asked her if there was anything she could do in life, what would it be? She said she would love to work abroad in a restaurant. What s the six month update? She hasn t left the country and is still in a job and a relationship that makes her unhappy. Melissa is the conformer. It is much easier to conform to what you re used to and remain complacent then challenge yourself to do something great.
Jeff is a server I met on Ocracoke Island this past summer. He is 23 and came to the island from Greensboro, North Carolina the day after graduating from high school. Jeff wanted to live on his own on the island he s never been to but have always been intrigued by. Since he didn t earn enough from his gas station job to rent an apartment, he lived in a tent behind station for a year until he had enough saved. Five years later, he s still on the island in his own apartment and working as a waiter. He makes it home to Greensboro a few times a year to visit his mother and sister. Jeff s a challenger. He challenges himself everyday to take baby steps to achieve his goal. Conformers aren t adverse to goal setting, they just rarely challenge themselves daily to set a plan to reach their dreams.
This story really resonated with the girls. Shortly after my talk and throughout the weekend, I was receiving emails from the girls telling me they were a little like Melissa now but wanted to be Jeff. Others mentioned they had goal plans in place for once they reach college and would I mind keeping in touch. This is why I m so passionate about my business. A short talk and a few lives can be impacted. When reviewing the evaluations, I had no idea that so many young girls were touched by such simple ideals. Every girl that emailed me or chatted with me after my talk already had the tools to soar, I simply reminded them.
Author Resource:
Barbara Merola is an expert on how to respond to challenges by taking control of choices. She provides young adults tools to achieve desired results and successfully reach goals no matter how great the challenge through training sessions and speaking engagements. Visit http://www.barbaramerola.com
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