Day 3: Save the Jills!

As Jill started her car to drive home from work, she reflected on her day & planned her evening.

The kids were an emotional wreck this morning. But that’s nothing new. It took them for-ev-er to get out of bed and dressed and out the door. Also, nothing new. Neither of them wanted to go to school today. Yep, not new.

So, Jill was late….for the job she hates.

And she got “the talk”…again… from the boss she doesn’t respect.

And she obediently sat at her desk….again…making every effort to look busy, dying a little inside while she watched the clock tick finally, painfully, s-l-o-w-l-y around to 5pm.

Now it’s time to pick up the kids who will be hungry and will no doubt complain incessantly about having to do homework when all they want to do is play outside in the glorious sun that they haven’t seen much of for the last few months.

Jill squeezes the steering wheel of the still-idling car and exhales so deeply she shrinks two inches.

She thinks…for a fleeting, careless moment…how great it would be if she could just stop.

Stop going to the job she hates.

Stop dragging her kids to the school they hate.

Stop living this miserable life.

There has to be something. Something…more meaningful. Something….different than…this.

And the audience nods vigorously. Yes, yes, there is! JILL!!! WAKE UP!!!! Look around! You can do this!

But Jill can’t hear you.

She turns up the Meredith Brooks song that just came on the radio, brushes away a tear, takes in a long, defensive breath and puts her shoulders back where they were.

She tells herself to stop being ungrateful.

She accepts that life is hard, but she’s strong and she can do this.

And the crowd weeps for her and the life she could have if she only believed, for even that fleeting moment, that it was possible. That she was able. That she was worthy.

Sadly, Jill’s right. She can do this. What she doesn’t realize is… she doesn’t have to.

***

This is my nightmare.

Poor Jill haunts my dreams.

There are Jills walking past us…blindly scrolling past our links…every. single. day.

Our people…the people we’re here to love & support…so hopelessly locked into a life they hate that they can’t even see the chains.

They think they’re weak. Or stupid. Or talentless. Or scatterbrained. Or broken.

They numb themselves with wine or food or pills or bad reality TV. But none of that will ever remove the chains.

They’re not weak at all. They’re strong, brilliant, talented, giving souls.

And they’re completely blind to it.

And that is tragic.

***

I love Jill and I know you do too.

We all want the best life for her & her kids.

We want her to open her eyes and see the limitlessness that surrounds her.

We want her to know that she has something wonderful inside of her to share with this world.

And we want to help her discover what that is.

If we’re going to help her, we can’t let her disappear into our peripheral vision.

Jill isn’t going to seek out our blogs. She doesn’t even have the keywords inside her.

But we can still love her – by being less secretive about our own gifts.

If Jill’s hair was on fire in the seat next to you, would you hide your bottle of water for fear of trying to look like the hero?

No, of course you wouldn’t.

Jill’s not on fire, but she’s in pain just the same. We know how to help her. Yet too often, we slink away without saying a word.

But you love Jill….so here’s what you’re going to do:

Stop keeping your gift a secret, dammit!

Share it with everyone. Seriously….everyone you know.

Ask them to share it with the people they know.

One of them probably knows Jill!

***

I think it’s safe to assume that someone like Jill is coming to our sites everyday.

How could you welcome her that could open her eyes, nurture her self-worth & build her self-confidence?

How would you put some new self-talk in her head? (Like, “I deserve more!” and “I can totally do this!” and “I really am great at this!”)

If you can teach a person how to love their life… isn’t that just the most authentic kind of #CustomerLove?