SHOULD to COULD…or Lemons to Lemonade

I spoke to a really cool group of folks last week and could feel that the talk was really SHOULD-heavy.  Sounds par for my course, right?  I mean, I am The SHOULD Lady and this is what I do!  I thought so, too, until I recognized I was halfway through my talk and I couldn't ignore how negative the overtone felt.  

There I was, in my adorable, summery, lemon🍋-print dress, cheerful yellow wedge shoes and bubbly, Jilly energy...struggling to match my enthusiasm for the cool glass of refreshing, possibility-packed lemonade that comes after squeezing the SHOULDy lemons.  I was too focused on how sour the SHOULDs are, how a rogue drop of lemon juice practically blinds you when it sprays your eyeball, how the juice finds every tiny paper cut on your finger and makes you cuss while it stings.  It's an important picture to paint, but the lemonade is the real reason we're there.  The prize for all of the toil of taking on the pyramid of SHOULDy lemons.

It was a juxtaposition that, for some reason that day, didn't reconcile itself as well as I'd hoped.  One might say it was the biggest lemon🍋 I'd delivered as a speaker.  #facepalm 

Here's the thing.  SHOULDs ARE SOUR AF.   So many of us are walking around with that sour pucker face we can't help but make after we suck on a lemon wedge. 

That's why I care so much about bringing those nasty bastards into the light, squeezing them dry and making something great from them. Because when we do, they turn into courageous COULDs. And courageous COULDs turn into confident CHOICEs. And confident CHOICEs turn you into the truest, you-est version of yourself. The lemonade with a splash of sparkling water and a hint of lavender and rosemary. And that's the YOU the world needs.

I'll never know why that idea didn't hit me until afterward, but I have a feeling I needed to have the sour, lemon-like experience to 'get it'. It made my eyes water and I learned I like my wedges on my feet instead of in my mouth.

On social media, I started posting a Daily SHOULD paired with its Daily COULD-y counterpart. Below are some blank ones you can copy and fill in for yourself when the SHOULD bastard shows up. 

Here's mine as an example and evidence that I am and always will be on this adventure with you.  I'd love for you to share your SHOULD to COULD moments with me.  

Let's make some sparkling lemonade, shall we? 🍋💚💛