Why did you do it?
This is number one question I get when people see me for the first time since I shaved my head.
There are many layers to this answer.
One is practical. Sitting in a chair for two hours is just TOO MUCH for me.
Plus it’s expensive, and probably toxic. And the color only lasts six to eight weeks.
But mostly I wanted to see what it would be like with a shaved head.
I was reading about change the other day.
Even when the change is positive, a promotion, winning the lottery, getting pregnant after years of infertility, there is still the discomfort of the unknown. There is grief over what will never be the same again. There is fear because we can never know exactly how things will go…
Change, good, bad or in between, thrusts us into “square one,” where we don’t know what the hell is going on, quoting Martha Beck.
Many of us avoid any kind of change opting instead to stay with what is predictable, even if what is predictable is a boring ass job or a verbally abusive spouse.
I understand why we do it…
Change is inconvenient.
There are choices required.
It is impossible to know how things will turn out.
You will have to create new habits, figure new things out, deal with unexpected problems.
While the mind offers round the clock reminders of all the things that could go wrong.
The other day one of my clients told me that her first thought when she saw that I shaved my head was “she must be crazy.”
I get it.
It seems crazy to willingly seek a change that makes me look older and less attractive.
But here’s the thing about change…
Change is hard, scary and inconvenient precisely because it challenges us to think differently, to solve problems and figure out how to cope with obstacles, some of them foreseeable but most of them entirely unpredictable.
Inconvenient? Hell. Yes.
BUT change, if you embrace it, makes you STRONGER.
You have to became a new and improved version of you to deal with change effectively.
So what if…
Instead of actively trying to avoid change…procrastinating, hiding behind perfectionism, making excuses, you actually choose to do something different?
What if you welcomed the discomfort of the change?
What if you saw it as an opportunity to rise to a new level?
What can you do to change up business as usual? Where can you impose obstacles on yourself to get stronger, smarter and more creative?
Maybe you finally leave a dead-end job.
Maybe you hire an assistant.
Maybe you move.
Maybe you invest a coach.
Maybe you set a long overdue boundary.
Maybe you set a long overdue deadline.
Maybe you announce something publicly to keep yourself accountable.
Maybe you shave your damn head.
Whatever it is, I guarantee, you will rise, like the goddess you are.
xo
-a
P.S. I’m doing another FB Live today at 1pm PT with my friend Desha Peacock. We’re going to talk list building strategies. The pros and the cons. I’ll be sharing the specifics from my speaker series. Hope to see you there! I’ll be going live from inside my biz page!
