Ditch the commencement baggage

Common: Being weighed down on the launch pad due to too much baggage.

Uncommon: While waiting in the check-in line, I spotted an airport cliché that never fails: The luggage miser.

There she stood: One purse, a bulging computer bag, a roller carry-on bag, two over-sized suitcases, a sweater bearing lap dog clenched in her arms… and a facial expression that flashed ‘max mental capacity.’

Each little shift in the line caused her enormous hassle. She wanted to move, but she couldn’t. It required a gargantuan effort with multiple attempts.

Instead of being excited about each opportunity to move closer to her goal (the check-in desk), she felt increasingly overwhelmed.

And such is the way many people live their lives. They have a goal or destination in mind, lug a surplus of baggage along with them, and wonder why they don’t get far from the launch pad, if anywhere at all.

This ‘baggage’ is a collection of past failures, past hurts, irrelevant assumptions, non-constructive beliefs, unsupportive peers, and… need I say more?  These items give us every reason to stop before we start and burn through our emotional fuel. Even the greatest goal or resolve is rarely a match for burdensome baggage. The idea of starting, moving, and persevering becomes too daunting to handle.

New year, new slate?

All too often we assume our slate is automatically erased upon the resetting of the calendar year, only to discover our motivation is haunted by doubt from the prior year’s baggage… a debut real-life rerun of ‘I know what you did last summer.’

Please, on so many levels, make it stop.

‘Rollover’ baggage is a silent New Year’s killer. It slowly strangles our enthusiasm and fosters seemingly logical reasons (excuses) to lower our expectations rather than raise our standards.

Today is your opportunity to be the heroine, or hero, of your life’s narrative.

Before you commence your journey to an uncommon life in 2012, assess your inventory. Stop, think, and drop. Literally. Identify the items of baggage you’re currently carrying from 2011 and scrutinize every last piece.

• What is helping?
• What is hindering?
• What can (and should) you leave behind?
• How can you repack your lessons learned to encourage action?

And forget about reaching for your wallet. In this instance, you can’t afford the additional baggage check-on fees.

Look beyond the alluring and convenient quick fixes: It’s time to start traveling leaner.

You’ll not only move further and faster, you just may have more fun.

Here’s to a year of uncommon adventure. I’m looking forward to taking this journey with you.

Stay uncommon,

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