[su_heading]Present Your Best Image [/su_heading]
Every year we take a plane to Boston, a train to Hyannis and then a boat to Nantucket Island, but on this particular summer, we were going to miss the boat and so I hired a cab company to speed things up. This is how I met Redda, a wonderful North African cab driver with a very positive attitude who reminded me and the boys to always be present and to present our best image of ourselves.
[su_box title=”Living in the Moment”]Early one Sunday morning in Sayulita, Mexico I walked out my door in search of a local yoga class. As I left the tourist part of town and walked through the narrow streets of the back neighborhood, I absorbed the sounds of roosters crowing, dishes clanking and beautiful music, foreign to my ears, pouring out of the open windows where colorful pieces of cloth flowed in the warm, tropical breeze. I inhaled the breakfast smells of bacon and eggs frying, knowing that the food came from their backyard and that the pig was most likely butchered amongst the Bougainvillea and jasmine. I restrained myself from knocking on any door to ask, in my broken Spanish, if I could perhaps just sit quietly and watch the family enjoy their day of peace and holiness. I never did knock and I missed the class but isn’t travel all about the journey and not the destination? [/su_box]
That is what traveling is for most of us. The exposure to other people and cultures and the excitement and adventure of digging deep, reaching the heart of the town, meeting the locals, finding new lands or streets or food or crafts.
So why didn’t I dig deep while in New York City at the BlogHer conference? Why did I fly all the way there to meet other bloggers and make connections and then forget my mission as soon as the music began? Why did I escape to the Wii dance stage every chance I got to bust a move to their Just Dance 2 program? Why did I spend so much time alone? Why? Why?
What is wrong with me? How can I be so motivated one minute and sabotage my efforts the next. And now I am making up for it by reading every post on BlogHer and connecting with these people from my desk, online instead of offline, and I am finding incredible people that I know I would have loved immediately. I just didn’t find them when I was there, but clearly they found each other and the small few that I did connect with, why didn’t I open up to them and say, hey, I’m all alone, could I join you? It brings back horrible memories of my clamming up in college and never finding my niche, for four years. I guess I really am a one-on-one type of girl.
Present Your Best Image
So whatever you do and wherever you go, don’t let the shyness take over and always remember Reda’s words, “Be friendly. Present yourself in your best image of yourself all the time. Be positive and be the best you can be. Do your best and hopefully everybody will be thinking the same way.”
Jillian's Real Life 
My Dear Jillian, what a treat to read you again. I got busy for a wile with stuff I am not sure what, but it is like fresh air hearing you again.
Thank you. Big smile on my face and I will do my best today to present my self positive, the best way i can.
Love to see you soon.
Hugs,
Katalin
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Jilly, Read Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art. He clearly articulates why we sabotage ourselves. It’s a great book. (Looks like you had fun though.)
.-= Darrelyn Saloom´s last blog ..4 Ways to Improve Narrative Drive in Your Story =-.
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Oh My Sweet Jillian! Sometimes we are hard learners – once we give ourselves enough hard kicks in the wherever, we usually rise to the ocassion —- eventually! Be glad the Universe showed you (once again!) that you short change yourself by not fully engaging in the moment! So it’s ALL good, my dear! You will be really ready for it next time – and there is always some other next time, maybe a BIGGIE, who knows? And you will BE THERE! YAY!
hugs
suZen
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You know Jillian. I just love how you work through this stuff. Just writing about it does two things immediately. one, frees you from it, no longer you are trapped. Two, helps me not to feel so alone and encourages me.
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Broken spanish!? I remember being in France with you, in a pharmacy, and in broken french you were trying to ask for bandaides for my terrible blisters and they handed you a pregnancy test! (well, there is a little more to the story but that is for another time!)
You always meet the best people on your adventures. Infact you have met some of your best friends from adventure.
I love you
xo
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I think you are too hard on yourself. And I know that because I am too hard on myself.
I found it impossible to connect with most people my first year at blog her. It is WAYYYY too much, and the first year you just have to experience it–stand in it or from afar.
Like watching a Samuel Beckett play. If you try to figure out what the hell is going on and what you’re supposed to be taking from it, you will only get more confused.
For the record, I would love to sit down and have coffee on a normal day with you.
.-= Ann’s Rants´s last blog ..My Super Silly 15 Minutes =-.
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You spoke to me at the conference Jillian! Remember we talked about living abroad and traveling in front of the Grayson piano concert? It was very difficult to be there alone (I was too) so I wouldn’t be so hard on yourself!
.-= Lisa-Marie Cabrelli´s last blog ..Back To School Giveaway – Tickler Tags =-.
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You VIDEO taped a cabby in Boston?? How freakin’ awesome is THAT!
I’m reading a book: Cutting For Stone and I’M loving reading about a different world of cultures spanning across the ocean and back again… you rock, (literally and figuratively) as one who got to witness your dancing self up close I KNOW!
Give yourself more credit.. connections are still connections! 🙂
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