Tuesday, May 31, 2011

The Fearless, Fearful, and Fearsome

My young table mates at the Youth in Motion event


I recently had the pleasure of being invited to serve as a career role model for Youth In Motion, an organization that provides mentors, job skills training, and capacity building programs for youth in and around the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).  I was invited to participate with other community leaders, high ranking business professionals, and accomplished women from Politics and Government.  My participation required that I facilitate table talk around the topic of my career to a group of Grade 8 girls and to also field their questions about my career trajectory or rather in my case meandering.  

It’s amazing what perspective you can gain of your own life when viewed through the lens of 13 year old girl.  Everything seems to loom large and impressive and takes on a more vivid depiction when rewinding and pressing the ‘replay’ button.  To my surprise my own career journey sounded pretty impressive even to me … yes meeting President Bill Clinton in Ethiopia, visiting rural projects in Ghana and field assessments in other ‘exotic’ places, sitting on the Board of Directors of a worldwide HIV/AIDS charity and chamber orchestra, and helping to disburse $20 Million dollars of  grants back into the local community sounded all too impressive but I knew better.  Those milestones all required a lot of hard work, blood, sweat, unyielding focus, long hours, tears, more tears and most importantly facing down my fears.  It all required a lot of  ‘moxy’ and heavy doses of fearlessness and doing the very things that I feared.

Speaking of fearless, I had the pleasure of meeting for the second time the 90 year old Mayor of Mississauga Hazel McCallion.  This woman is the epitome of fearless.  She speaks her mind, holds to her opinions without apology, deals briskly with adversity, applies common sense, has an admirable work ethic, and rolls up her sleeves and just gets the job done.  There’s quite a bit of wisdom to be learned at the feet of this juggernaut of a woman who has been the Mayor of the town of Mississauga for more than 30 years now.  

Many of these Grade 8 girls shared with me their overwhelming sense of fear and trepidation as they thought about their pending transition to high school.  Upon personal reflection I don’t ever remember feeling fear upon entering high school.  Actually, I remember feeling very excited and like a brand new adventure was about to begin but all these young women  could think about was leaving the familiar to venture into uncharted territory and having their friendships scattered everywhere.  I soberly shared with them that ‘change’ was a constant and provides golden opportunities of testing and growth and seeing what they’re made of.  I told them that 'change' would be a life-long process and a recurring theme so they had better prepare themselves to embrace it wholeheartedly.  Maybe their reason for feeling fearful is understandable as the times have certainly changed and the issues are far more complex since I was in high school but ‘change’ is the only thing that won’t change.

“Fearsome confidence” seems to me to be the secret elixir that can remedy any malady of fear but it has to be cultivated on a daily basis by applying 'little acts of courage'.   Incrementally these ‘little acts of courage’ can add up to something grand and can even help to carve out a career worthy of emulation like Hazel's or put a blazing and fiery passion behind a great cause. Today I challenge you to embrace all of your fears and charge right through them the way Buffalos charge right through a storm because you never know what may be on the other side.

Me and Mayor Hazel McCallion

Cheers and Blessings on your day!

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