Have you ever thought about the one thing all your problems have in common? Well, when I thought about it, and the answer is Me. The one thing is me! And the more I thought about it the more I realize I might be able to do something about my future. 

Here were my biggest challenges.

Running Late

I was that person that was going to be really late for my funeral. In school, I ran everyday for the bus and for some reason she would wait, even through the run from my front door was more than 100 yards to the bus door. Honestly, I never understood why she waited and held up traffic.

Every day I was late for my last paying job before I was a hairdresser. I was a mechanic for the state police and was supposed to be there at 7 a.m. but I frequently showed up at 7:15 running in; again, I wasn’t fired

I was never late though coming home to my house when my parents set a curfew, why? Because I would have had to wait until I moved out to go out again, and that was before cell phones, so running late was not going to be good, even if traffic was bad. 

When I became a hairdresser I had a teacher who made me realize, running late was my problem and I am in control. She also made me realize it was disrespectful to other’s, because my time and challenges are no worse than anyone else’s.

Time Management

At one point in my life, I was running from one place to the next. Not only was I not taking time to smell the roses, after the development of medical things along the way, including things like pneumonia, I wasn’t even taking enough time to use a bathroom as I ran from stage to stage at shows. 

I realized, I said "yes" to all of this, if I am this busy it is my fault for saying, I can do that! 

If I am over booked, my fault, no time off, my fault, no time to sleep, OK I don’t sleep much - again my fault. I have heard studies that once you go over 60 hours of work a week the productivity diminishes as time increases. The French like 35 hours for their workers and I have heard from some salon management systems that around 32 hours is a great time frame to schedule for fully booked stylists because they can go hard for 32-35 hours every week, not burn out and create other opportunities in the salon for newer members,

Today I don’t travel, teach, fly back and go into the salon the next day. It’s too much stress and when something goes wrong, like a delayed or cancelled flight, it’s not worth it. If I need to leave early to go to something with our girls, I book off earlier and I come in earlier to make up the time. My favorite word now is “no” and I don’t use it often. My past was making sure I never said, “no” and the problem with that is there is still only 86,400 seconds in a day and just because I said "yes", didn't mean I really wanted to be doing it.

Worrying It Wasn’t Good Enough

What was it that I worried I wasn’t good enough at? Anything I did! Hair, a class, a show, model for a shoot, a guest at my salon, heck everything you have ever seen, if you have seen me do something. Now I always knew I was doing the best job I could and I even generally felt like I should be doing what I was doing for guests and for other salon professions. I was confident, I just didn't know if anyone else would like it, and I cared.

I have so many people who tell me they don’t want to do things because they are worried what people will think.  What I’ve learned is it’s better to have people think something about what I do, than to go through life not noticed. 

It’s my job to always make sure I do my best, no matter what I do.

-p