Remember how the sight of a fresh box of crayons in September signaled the excitement of a new school year? The glimmer cool of a newly minted notebook? A new backpack stocked with school supplies? Did they represent renewed purpose after a hot summer? Knowing wonder — new classes, new friends, and the thrill of diving into a new school year?
Seeing the yellow bus on the road and the first glimpse of gold colored leaves reminded me of the school year thrill. The promise of widening horizons, learning
new concepts and tackling absorbing projects (yes I was a nerdy kid) — all part of the autumn experience.
Yet, it didn’t end with graduation. We’ve been learning all along. What’s the next thing you want to explore?
That yellow bus inspired me to design a “Back to School”program. Why should kids have all the fun?!! I love offering freebies — so I came up with a 14 day program that is the equivalent of your own backpack full of new school supplies.
This program will help you:
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Start a new project or determine a new direction.
When you sign up you’ll get:
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Fun and insightful exercises
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Weekly inspirational e-mails
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Two telephone coaching sessions
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With the bonus of my “Speed Bumps: What’s Slowing You Down” assessment
All this only if you sign up by October 1. There are only 10 spots available, so don’t wait to get started! Sign up here
Burnell was our school bus driver. I loved school, but it was so hard to get out to the bus on time. We lived in the country on a farm. With seven of us getting ready in the morning, from senior on down to a first grader, mornings were a race. Mom helped us find shoes, pestered us to sit down to eat a hot breakfast (she insisted that we had to eat something hot for breakfast), signed permission slips and yelled up the stairs that it was time. to. GO. Still, we didn’t all make it out there on time. So we had this agreement. W
ho ever was ready first would begin walking out as the bus approached. Then the next would walk out there. Then the next. So it was a long parade of McNeilly kids. Burnell would stretch the bus door open, wait patiently, laugh at us and always make some wisecrack.
I loved school.
The story isn’t limited to students. Research done on every level of successful professional comes up with the same number. 70% of all high achieving people describe feeling unqualified, like a fraud, in spite of many significant achievements. This behavior has many names — fraud factor, impostor phenomenon. First described by psychologists Suzanne Imes, PhD, and Pauline Rose Clance, PhD, in the 1970s. Defined as “a collection of feelings of inadequacy that persist even in face of information that indicates that the opposite is true. It is experienced internally as chronic self-doubt, and feelings of intellectual fraudulence.” Feel familiar?
Born out of an ancient Celtic holiday (Samhain), Halloween has continued a centuries old evolution, built upon layers of cultural meaning. The elements of darkness, mystery, traversing the roads in search of sweet treats and disguises designed to try on a different personae have been there from the beginning. A celebration of the abundance and plenty of autumn against the back drop of the empty gardens of winter, the slipping of the day into the night, Halloween appears as we enter the dark part of the year. Like Persephone being pulled into the Underworld, themes of darkness and light, mystery and transformation are tied together.
