Courage

if you click the image above you;ll see a pic of me at about4. Aawww. Connor looks just like me.

this is a card my friend, Roz, sent me and I LOVE it. It's right next to my desk inspiring me :)

I did something very courageous on Friday.

I auditioned to be a TV presenter at a work thing.

When the email was sent out, I read and closed (didn't delete or action as I normally do) it.

I kept it and a few days later I opened, read and closed it again.

Anyway, I was still undecided whether to go or not until two little nudges happened:

1) the girl at reception asked me when I walked in in the morning whether I'd auditioned yet because "you would be good at it"

2) they came to find people to audition and the guy walks into our empty except for the two very hardworking people left on a Friday department (me and one other :)) and says, "so are you coming to audition?"

I don't know who was more surprised when I said, "actually, YES!"

So I put on some lipstick (always - like you, Rebecca) and went.

The best part of doing it was the cameraderie and fun amongst the people waiting. Really, it was fantastic.

There was a "roving reporter" asking people why we'd decided to audition and I said, "because my word of the year is courage and this is stepping out of the box for me".

Well, another guy heard that and we started talking about courage and so on.

After his audition, he came to me and said, "I want you to know that you inspired me so much and I was thinking of you as I did my audition".

That, dear friends, made it all worth it. Knowing that I'd influenced one person just a little bit.

Even before I'd had a mic clipped on.

So I did my thing.

I doubt very much whether I'll even be shortlisted (there were lots of those bubbly and vivacious call centre-type girls - you know the ones) but it was worth getting a little bit scared and showing the courage anyway.

D asked me why I don't think I'll be shortlisted.

I told him all I have going for me is authenticity and a genuine passion for customer service and somehow I think they want the bubblegum type, all smiley-smiley :)

Am I the only one who gets annoyed by those overly chirpy and happy call centre girls?

"how may I provide excellent service to you today, Mrs ___?" and "Please do have a lovely day"...

Just talk to me like a normal person, please.

By the way, I am still very impressed by the turquoise bank. I spoke to a lovely guy today, Jules, who opened an investment account for me as "I don't like my different types of money mixing".

He didn't even laugh at me.

But it's true - I like to have normal savings separate from special savings (for overseas holidays/ furniture/ etc.).

So that's my courage story.

How are you living out your word of the year? Or maybe you want to set a word for the half-year? Hmmm?