An oldie but a goodie…
My first-ever Blue Skies Mag column… Crap Is Awesome.
Hehehe Enjoy…
Blue Skies Magazine, March 2010
Life Coaching Column #1
“Crap is Awesome”
by Melanie Curtis
So you’re sitting in your cubicle, skydiving pics on every surface, covertly daydreaming about the upcoming weekend at the DZ. Like sugarplums at Christmas, visions of tracking dives, sweet 4-ways, and high-altitude hop-n-pops dance in your head. Not one thought that goes through your mind in these moments has anything to do with what you currently get paid to do. In fact, despite a solid work ethic instilled in you by your diligent Dad, you still spend as much of your employed day on the various skydiver blogs as you can guilt-free. Thank God the corporate firewall misses them, and nixes facebook. I mean, dang, you want to do some work while you’re at work.
Sound familiar? Sounds familiar to me because it totally was me.
Credit Suisse First Boston, baby. Except for “various skydiver blogs,” insert “dropzone.com” straight up. I don’t think anything else even existed back then. Geez, that makes me sound old, but whatever, you get the picture. For you, maybe it’s not a cubicle… maybe it’s the car you’re driving around selling Aflac… maybe it’s the inventory room of the Borders you manage… maybe it’s the third Cesar-salad lunch this week with the same dry colleagues… maybe it’s the packing mat… maybe it’s your big corner office with the mahogany desk, rolling CNBC, and the coveted view of downtown… maybe it’s the house you are convinced is a cosmic anomaly serving as a black hole for laundry, clutter, and dirty dishes. Whatever it is for you, you know what it is.
It’s those things we do, but don’t love.
Now don’t get me wrong, in no way am I suggesting everyone reading this quit their jobs, enroll in Jay Stokes’ rating courses (which are awesome by the way, duh), and become professional skydivers. No. Do that if you want. Some people love their jobs and the balance they get from jumping on the weekends. Which is fantastic. I simply use work as an easy example—what I’m talking about can be anything… anything that consistently bugs us, puts a dull thorn in our sides, and sucks our energy. That’s what I’m curious about.
You might be thinking, “Sh*t Mel, I thought life coaches were supposed to make me feel better… empowered. Now I just feel like poop that I spend my time on things I don’t actually like.” Yeah, I hear you. We all do some of that in search of our own balance. For instance, I keep saying how I want to work less and see my family more; yet my calendar seems to instantaneously fill up with commitments… what’s that about, right? Totally. Maybe I’ll write to myself for next month’s column and get that sh*t figured out. Sweet.
So yes, it’s my job as your coach to listen closely, hear what’s holding you back, then ask the right questions to help you see it.
What’s holding you back, that’s what I like to call… crap.
And of course, crap is normal. We all have it. If you have crap, you’re just like me, your girlfriend, and the dude in front of you at manifest. Everybody. All of it is ok. All of it is awesome, in fact. I think most people think crap is bad, but really it’s opportunity. Opportunity to be happier. Opportunity to feel that powerful surge of energy that comes from replacing crap with awesomeness. Opportunity to gather proof through action that you actually can be that dream version of yourself. That proof starts to whittle away at the fears, limiting beliefs, responsibilities, or whatever else holds us back. Think of the first time you decided to jump out of a plane… were you scared? Did you think you shouldn’t do it because of X, Y, or Z reasons? Why did you do it anyway? How did you get to the point where you signed the waiver, geared up, and ultimately let go of that aircraft?
When we liberate ourselves from whatever weighs us down, we feel free.
