Girl Power Perspective on Beginning Again

So, I had the day off work today, and yet still had work to do. About a month ago I was headed out to our airport and had to run over a chunk of tire that came flying at my car. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet as the other options are too dangerous. The result of hitting the tire was that it tore up the wheel well guard on the driver's side of my car. We've been using some nice plaid green duck tape my mom gave us for Christmas last year to temporarily jerry rig the situation until I could get it fixed. I don't like going to dealerships for parts so I went to the auto parts store and they said I'd have to, unless I wanted to go to the junkyard. "Yes," I told them, "I do want to try that." They referred me to an amazing junkyard where I could check online to see if they had my car year, make and model to go check for parts. The place is called Pull and Pay. I checked online, found one of their locations that had the car that matched mine and off I went one afternoon. You pay $2.00 to get in, take your tools and go find the car. I walked up thinking wow, I'm out of luck, this thing is stripped to the bone. Lo and behold, one of the few parts left was the one I needed. Naturally I didn't have the right tools to get the part off, yet thankfully the nice guy pulling an engine out of a car near me did and loaned them to me. I was pretty proud of myself, the only girl at the junkyard pulling parts, even if I did have to ask for help in the form of tools.

So, today, I cleaned the garage out so I could pull my car in and get it up on the jack Chip's uncle loaned me. I have the car up, the wheel off, the wheel-well guard half off when I take a break and suddenly realize, I'm on the wrong side of the car! Hilarious. Now, I know a ton of people who would have been really mad about this. I was cracking up and called my best friend laughing hilariously, letting her know I had to begin again. So, put the car back together, re positioned it to access the other side and got back to work. Should have been obvious to me that I was on the wrong side because there was no plaid green duck tape! Classic.

The experience was a beautiful reminder to me of leadership. The importance of pacing. The importance of not getting tunnel vision on the "work" to be done. Taking the time to check in along the way. The importance of making sure you're doing the right work in the first place. And, the beauty in "beginning again." A few years back I did a year-long leadership program through The Coaches Training Institute, which is an amazing-AMAZING program. One of the retreats we were working on a task and we must have failed 73 times being told each time to "Begin Again" before we finally succeeded. Succeeding wasn't what we learned from or about. We learned how to gracefully and strategically begin again, all the while respecting and encouraging each other.

So, today, even though some might say I wasted a good 40 minutes taking the wheel off my car, and having that side halfway disassembled before I got to the work that needed to be done. I see it differently. I reconnected with the meaningfulness of beginning again, having fun conversations and texts with friends along the way. I created connection and insight out of doing something wrong. Wonderful.

And, no matter, I am proud of myself for the skills my brother Evan taught me about how to even work on my car in the first place...thanks again big brother.

Girl Power Perspective on Beginning Again

Optimism Confirmed

Transformation