Don’t Be No Fool!

Who set up these rules? And what are they doing to us?

Based on my picture, you can see that I proudly sport natural locks. But back in 1993 when I first made this choice, I caught hell from my mother. In her day, where she was from, locks had a bad reputation. If you wore locks, you were an outcast to most and demonized by some.

So when it was time for me to get my first job, she thought it was impossible for me to get one with my newly budding locks. We argued for days. I was determined that I would not cut my hair. And she was insistent that I cut them off or cover them up. I surrendered. I bought a wig.

I wore that wig for one day, for one interview and felt like a fool!

“Never again,” I declared. I reasoned, “I do not plan on wearing this wig once I get a job, so whatever job I get, they need to hire me with my hair just like this!”

The next day as I headed out to my interview at a bank with my budding locks, my mother demanded that I where the wig. I protested. Her caring well wishes as I left the house concluded with, “No one’s going to hire you with that hair.”

Later that day I returned home and she immediately asked, “What happened?”

I answered, “I got the job.”

She asked, “And they want you to cut your hair?”

After turning my head to the side and staring at her for a few seconds, I bluntly replied, “If they want to get sued.”

I laugh at that episode now, and my mother conveniently has amnesia about it, but here’s my point: as long as I was trying to be someone else, I did not experience success. It was only when I allowed myself to be who I truly was, did I experience success. This truth has been confirmed over and over and over again since 1993.

I would confidently bet money that if you reflect on your life, you would see the same to be true.

If you want to have success with joy in whatever situation you come to, forget the rules, forget the norm and shut out the voices–even when it’s a loved one.😉

My recommendation to you: whenever you’re in a situation where you are feeling out of sorts, or not the you that you know you are, take a deep breath, reconnect to your true self, and show that person that you are to the world with confidence saying, “I AM allowing myself to be authentic.”

If you have been inspired, then please share your love below.

P.S. Just to clear it up, I recognize there are many women who wear wigs as fashion and they are fully themselves because that’s how they choose to express who they are. In my case I was being inauthentic.