Aaron Vidas called me early this year and said “Let’s do another SHIFTED in May.” I agreed and then most likely got off the phone, took a nap and promptly forgot about it. The first trimester was a haze of napping and wishing I was napping.
I knew from the beginning that I was going to have to be really clear about what I was committed to on the project or face breakdowns in my integrity with Aaron. I let him know that I was pregnant (woohoo!) and that work was busy (building a retail training strategy takes brain power), so I was going to step back. He was leading the charge.
Now it sounds easy and clean and like I handled it with maturity, grace and leadership, but inside my head, this is what was happening:
Ugh, you are so lazy Chloe. SHIFTED was your baby, your creation, one of the things you were most proud of. Get off your pregnant ass and get involved. Not being a part of the planning of the event means you’ve lost SHIFTED forever. It’s not yours any more. What are you? A one hit wonder?
I am often secretly very mean to myself.
Instead of being clear in my commitments to Aaron, I just simply ignored him and talked to everyone else about how I needed to be clear. Aaron would call; I would ignore. He would text; I wouldn’t reply. I knew that when my husband emailed me saying “GET IN TOUCH WITH VIDAS” that it was time to get in communication, not only with Aaron, but more importantly with myself.
SO…I took a look at the beliefs I was secretly harbouring and made some changes. I gave up feeling badly about not being involved. I gave up feeling like not being involved in this SHIFTED would mean I would lose it forever. I got proud of my choice to stand for balance in a new way and health in my pregnancy. I shifted to seeing that through letting GO of SHIFTED, Aaron would be freed up to make it even better than the first one.
And we talked and decided on weekly calls when he needed my consult. We got to celebrate and get clear and I got to move from judgement and guilt to integrity and excitement.
So my friends, if you live in Vancouver, I’ve got an event to tell you about…
SHIFTED takes place Thursday, May 5th at District 319. All $39 of the ticket price will go DIRECTLY to building the Abi Adi school in Ethiopia.
You will invest in yourself through listening to our incredible, successful speakers talk about the challenges they’ve faced on the way to their dreams AND you will invest in the lives of young Ethiopians.
I will be there, proud and inspired.
Check out our line up.
Buy your tickets.
Spend 18 minutes getting a taste of SHIFTED by watching David Bentall from last September’s event:
XO Chlo
