The Purpose Project - Find your Cheerleaders!

When you’re contemplating a change, or a new path, whether it’s personal or about a career move, you may seek out others for support. But beware: You may run into some surprising negative reactions that stop you in your tracks. Reality checks are good—until they’re not.

Early on as I started to feel braver about believing Pajama Program could actually happen, I decided to confide in my friend and fellow career girl, Jessy. I was nervous at first about telling her all this, but then I began hoping she’d be excited for me, maybe she’d want to help! If that happened, I’d let her in on everything about that evening with the little girl so she’d be as fired up as I was! I told her I was loving every minute of it, laughing off the large dent it was making in our household finances.

“I know it might seem sudden,” I said, “but I’m ready to make a change. I honestly feel I’ve found my life purpose.” I held my breath but tried hard to act indifferent and avoided eye contact as I sipped my red wine.

Her reaction? She took all of two seconds to say, “Why on earth would you drop your career for that?”

I was crushed. Deflated. Angry. Embarrassed. Her look was anything but understanding, and I knew this conversation needed to end before I lost my temper or worse, melted into tears. Every negative thought I ever had about changing my path, every single doubt, came crashing down on me. I could hardly breathe and it took weeks to shake her words off.

I share this because I've learned one important lesson regarding the naysayers: too often we allow their words to knock us down. And if we don't call in our reinforcements, we may be knocked out for quite a while. It actually took me days to get up the courage to approach my new husband and my mom and divulge all my ideas and initial plans and then ask them for moral support, to be my cheerleaders. From that day forward, I had my squad and it grew from two to many!

So I say, find your Cheerleaders first! When you're in the early phase of a change or plan, make a list of confidants and soul-seekers, those few individuals you know in your heart "get" you and are likely to follow their hearts like you do. Just a few minutes of support from these friends and family will boost you up and give you the courage and confidence to trust yourself again and move forward. They'll rally for you and they 're the ones you'll need to lean on when a naysayer rocks your boat.

So, go ahead and reach out to your cheerleaders and share your dreams, challenges, and goals. Thank them for their support and consider any ideas - or considerations - they may offer. Do their objections make sense? Did they point out something you might want to fix before your next step? And then move forward as your own North Star, lighting the way for yourself and others. Because what you ultimately do is your decision. You have to trust you.

If you'd like to talk more about naysayers vs cheerleaders, let's connect! You can always email me to talk about your Purpose Project at gen@Genevievepiturro.com