From Rewild the Tame Part of Yourself you know that I’ve been transitioning my hair and myself to a more natural state so that I can express who I am more fully. I think of this as stripping away the façade and getting to my more authentic self. Recently I was able to redo my own hairstyle because, without the dependence on chemical processing, I didn’t have to go to a hairdresser. By taking care of my own hair I was not only able to save money but to appreciate both the quality of my natural hair and the work involved in creating a style.
What’s important about this moment, and why I wanted to share it with you, is this was the manifestation of a goal that I set more than a year ago. I wanted to limit the impact my hair care had on my budget, and to do that I had to go natural. What it took for me to be able to handle my own natural hairstyle can be applied to what you want to accomplish in your life or career:
- Commit the time it takes to achieve your goal. There is a lot of work that goes into becoming an overnight sensation. For me it took more than a year of letting my hair grow out to get to the point where I knew what the plan was and I felt comfortable in taking it over.
- Research what you need to know to perform the tasks. I spent the last year picking hairstyles and reading how to pull them off. The other side of this is that it’s important to share what you know so that others can find their own way forward.
- Decide how you want to accomplish your goal. For me I had to pick a hairstyle, for you it may be looking at how you want to inhabit a new family role or new career.
- Practice what you need to do in order to be successful. I occasionally had to replace a twist to keep my style looking neat. Finding success in each of those practice twists gave me the confidence to take on my entire hairstyle. From here you cycle through the process as you commit the time it takes to complete the hairstyle or transition into the new role you have chosen.
Think about where you are now and how you got there. Did you go through the same process? Was your process different? Now consider where you want to go and how you’d like to get there. I used to work overnights in a local television station. Even though no one could really see me I would dress to impress (wearing more than sweats and pajamas) because I was dressing for the job that I wanted and not the job that I had. It seems silly, but I know transformation is coming when my clothing changes.
How can you tell that transformation is coming in your life?
