Blam – is that even a real word? I don’t know, although I could probably Google it, and know for sure. Quite honestly though, it doesn’t really matter to me. It has meaning to me, and if you were at Intuit’s QBConnect event this last week, it probably does for you as well. To me, it is a single syllable which will remind me that every action I take has an opposite and equal reaction. Blam! I love the word. The powerful emotion that is evoked every time I say it. Oprah introduced the word to me, and the group of other 4500+ Accountants, Bookkeepers, Business Owners and Developers, when she presented the Keynote on Wednesday afternoon.
Much of Oprah’s presentation was talking about how important it is to be true to yourself, and determine what your intention is, as that will define the path that you take. I’ve heard it so often “Be True to Yourself”, that in reality, the words had lost their meaning. And it may be the same for you. You may be sitting there reading this and thinking “Oh great, Juliet is going to say the same old thing that everyone else says” – (you probably are saying it with a sarcastic edge that I can’t convey with the written word ☺ ) And I’m warning you, that may be true. You may have heard this somewhere else, by someone else, but perhaps my words will give you a different perspective on the words. And if not, perhaps you will hear them again when it is the right time for you.
Oprah did it for me. Over the last several months I’ve lost my sense of direction. Not literally of course, as I do have GPS in my car, which pretty much can get me wherever I need to be ☺ But I had lost the direction of where I wanted to take my business and my life. We celebrated the 15^th Anniversary of AIS Solutions at the end of October and the reality of how long I’ve been doing this seemed to really hit home. Yes, I know, you are probably saying that it is a huge accomplishment, and although I can acknowledge that it is, I also realized that my business having some longevity isn’t what I want to be known for. I want to be remembered for so much more than that in my professional life. I want to make a difference, touch some lives, and shake some things up.
Oprah reminded me that I’m just coasting along unless I have a definitive path – a definitive intention of what I want to be and represent. She reminded me that if I am just coasting along, someone else will take hold of my sails and steer my ship, and perhaps they will steer me in a direction that I don’t even want to go.
This is my second draft of my Blam! QBConnect blog post. The first one ended up being so wishy-washy that is wasn’t worth the keystrokes. It recapped the week, it provided some cool quotes, but it didn’t mean anything. At least it didn’t mean anything to me. I’m hoping that this one is different. That this post will mean something to you out there reading it. (If you have some spare time to waste and want to read the wishy washy version, you can read it here)
I wish that I could tell you that hearing Oprah gave me a AHA moment and I instantly knew what direction I want to go. Unfortunately, that only happens on TV and the big screen. However, what it did do was remind me that I had to take back the control, that just coasting along wasn’t going to cut it anymore.
So Blam! I hope that this word will evoke some kind of a response from you too, and help you realize that the path you need to take is within you, you just have to shake it up and find it.