Linda J Lord

A New Year and a Fresh Perspective

Posted on 04. Jan, 2010 by Linda Lord in Articles, Blog

I spent most of 2009 experimenting with who I wanted to be when I grew up and many of you have been along for the ride. If I was about thirty years younger it wouldn’t have been quite as alarming, but I have been watching the clock tick on and realized I probably don’t have too many more opportunities to reinvent myself. I can grow and develop, but the time to start living according to my gifts and talents is upon me.

It’s scary, quite frankly. After I released my book, The Pitch, I was asked to speak at a local Rotary meeting. I spoke on knowing your place. It was a shorter version of a talk I had given a few weeks before at my church. I realized, after listening to myself twice, that I wasn’t following my own advice. I admitted to the Rotary group that to really take my place would involve a radical overall of my self-perception. That I would be risking ridicule and potential failure. I didn’t really know how to become who I was meant to be.

That’s the beauty of faith. I don’t have to know the how. I just have to learn to trust that the resources will be there.

I have been in conversation with many wonderful people over the last several weeks who have given me direction and challenged my thinking. I have wrestled with the concept of what I bring to the market place and what people can count on when they pay to see me, or hear me, or read my work. After much contemplation, I bring H.O.P.E. For those of you who have been around a while, you know how much I love acronyms. So, here goes: “When Linda is in the house, you will get Honesty, Options, Perspective, and Experience. You can have it in a book, on the stage, or across the table. However, you encounter Linda she will be there to assist you in making a living and having a life.” This allows me the creative latitude to do what I love and the variety to keep me sharp. And most importantly, to utilize the gifts and talents I have been blessed with having.

I’m not sure what it will take to improve my writing and performance skills, but I know I will do what I need to. I have already signed up for an acting workshop. My husband bought me some mp3 recordings of a storyteller’s workshop. I am anxious; I will not lie, but very excited, too.

I have a few ideas percolating, so stay tuned.