Take The Meeting

How often do you decide to do something, or agree to go somewhere, and then as the event gets closer you think, “nah, I’m not really feeling like it today”? I think at some point it happens to all of us – for some it happens more often than others. For some people it may be due to an internal struggle, perhaps a lack of self-confidence. For others, perhaps they’re just flaky people. It’s easy enough to say no – to yourself or to your friends – thinking that there will be another opportunity later on, or justifying your decision to yourself as you make up a ton of excuses to make you feel better about it. Whatever the rhyme or reason is behind it, as I said, we can all be guilty of this.

So now think about the times when you really didn’t feel like doing or attending something, but you did. Was it worth it? Were you glad you got showered, dressed, did your hair, put on your make-up (or not, depending on your preference), and actually left the house? I’d be willing to guess more often than not, the answer to that question would be yes.

These events or decisions can be any situation. I’m talking about anything from going to see a movie with friends, to going to that party where you don’t know most of the guests, to taking that holiday to a new destination, and even to packing your life up and moving to a whole new country.

There have definitely been times in my life when I’ve had second thoughts. For example, you might be surprised to know that a few weeks before I moved to England back in 2014 I questioned whether this was the best thing to do, and I was concerned that I would hate it. (How wrong was I?). Before I went on my holiday to Greece I was a little hesitant because people had me worried about their financial crisis. (Again, how wrong was I – this would be one of the best holidays I ever had, with a group of people that became like a dysfunctional family in just eleven days). Last time I left home in March it would have been so easy for me to have stayed, but I had no idea of the incredible ten weeks that was waiting for me in Ireland.

On a smaller (but no less important scale) there have been occasions where saying no would have been the wrong decision. I remember this one night when some friends and I had tickets to a Florence and the Machine concert, but we were having such a good time at home we considered skipping the gig altogether. Had we done that we definitely would have had a few less stories to tell (whether I fare well in them or not…). And just last night I could have easily justified not going out to celebrate a friend’s birthday. I was tired and a night out was definitely stretching my budget, as it was still a week until payday. But it was one of my closest friend’s birthdays, so of course I got dressed, had a few glasses of wine and went out in a town neither of us had been to before. We made some new friends, new memories and had the most incredible night.

There was a point in my life, when I was younger, that I would have easily said no to the above situations, and happily justified why. Things are more disconcerting when you can’t predict what will happen – when it’s largely out of your control. But then where’s the fun in that? If you knew each week whether you were or weren’t going to win Lotto, you would definitely buy a lot less tickets wouldn’t you? But over the last few years I’ve learned that often the best memories come from where you least expect them. I think often it’s because you have low expectations, and when they’re exceeded you’re pleasantly surprised. So you can either choose to embrace the unknown, or you can choose not to. You always have a choice. But I know for sure which one leads to the better memories and the more interesting stories to tell.

So with that I’ve set a bit of a challenge to myself. It’s much less exciting than winning Lotto or moving to a new country, and it may not lead to great stories to tell, but I’m hoping it will have a positive outcome. I hate to let other people down or disappoint them. I also get worried about missing out on making memories or turning down a great opportunity. But I seem to have no issue with cancelling on myself. You all know I love a good quote, and on a number of occasions I’ve seen this one: “Your workouts are important meetings you’ve scheduled with yourself. Bosses don’t cancel.” A few blogs back I wrote about my fitness journey while I was in the States, and although I haven’t totally abandoned this journey, let’s just say I’ve taken a few more breaks along the way and cancelled a few more meetings with myself than I intended.

So the challenge I am determined to rise to, is that I will get up an hour earlier before work each morning and do my exercise then. It’s been to easy to get home from work and make excuses to myself as to why I don’t need to work out, but there are far less distractions before the sun comes up, and therefore far less excuses. Whether it makes for interesting reading or not, this blog is a way of holding myself accountable, so feel free to check in with me and make sure I’m sticking to my word.

The idea of me writing this particular post is that I hope both you and I can get something out of it. I write because I enjoy it, but I would love to think that there is more to it than just me rambling on about whatever is on my mind for a few hundred words. (Or in this case, just over a thousand, as my word count tells me).

I think the following quote really sums up what I’ve tried to say in this blog:

“I have a motto…take the meeting. He asked you out? Take the meeting. They want you to do this job? Take the meeting.” – Emilia Clarke

(Ha, I left it to the end, so you had to read all the way down to here to have my thoughts summarised in 23 words. If you’ve made it this far – thank you!).

So tomorrow morning I’m going to show up to my own meeting. Will you take the next one offered to you?

That’s all for now,

Jordyn x