Brave Enough To Be Bliss

yourself, not needing another person to take you out of your comfort zone. The more I read and spoke to you personally, the better I was feeling about getting out of my comfort zone, as well. I took that leap of faith and agreed to go on a girl’s trip, bu t first I had to take some test flights to get myself acclimated to flying again.

I needed all the tricks and words of comfort Ginger talks about being BRAVE in her writings to get myself on that flight. Guess what, I did it and I was comfortable doing it. There have been a lot of other firsts for me since reading your writings that I can say “I did it” because of YOU being BRAVE enough to do it & then sharing with your community of family and friends.

This book is going to help a lot of people out, because it is so relatable to how life has been for a lot of us.

Friends forever, Norvel

I love these photos so much. First as a record of the accomplishment, but also because it looks like these words may have crossed her mind in the first photo, even if only briefly: “ Why did I ever think that crazy lady was inspiring? What have I gotten myself into?” Norvel definitely downplayed the “bad flight” experience because when you hear her tell it in detail, it was an emergency landing that would have made anyone fearful of ever stepping onto a plane again. Years ago, I would have stopped her from telling me that story simply because it would have made me too scared to fly again. Fortunately, by the time she told me, I had conquered my flying fears already.

In the second photo above after the initial flight I see relief, pride, and joy. She lived through it, relief. And she did something very hard which brought pride and joy. When I received those photos after her first flight in 27 years, I was overjoyed for her. And then this photo in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, was the best of all. Despite some turbulence, delays, etc. she remained calm and was able to have a relaxed and very fun trip with her girlfriends. While her husband was wonderful to drive all over the country with her and their two sons through all those 27 years because she wouldn’t fly and he never pushed her, the fact she is willing to now opens up the whole world to them. Their sons are now in college, so it’s the perfect timing for them to be able to do whatever they want to do without the limitation of her not flying. It had to be in her time, when she was ready, but now that she has conquered that fear, who knows what’s next!

That’s the kind of feeling I get anytime a friend, family member, or employee does something they didn’t think they could do. For me, it’s the reason I have loved leadership so much. To see people grow, develop, gain confidence, do things they never thought they could do…those are the moments I remember and cherish. There’s nothing better than seeing them succeed. I wanted to share this story for two reasons, to celebrate her success publicly and also to use it as an example that anyone can inspire anyone, but first we have to be willing to share. And of course, no one needs to share to the extent I am, but on whatever level you’re comfortable with, sharing real life can lead to unbelievably rewarding relationships and experiences. And in addition to sharing, we just have to make people a priority. Knowing this flight was a huge step for her, I made sure to write down when her flights were on my calendar, so I’d be reminded to send her encouragement around those times. The recording of the dates and the follow up texts took only minutes, but as she mentioned above, they were meaningful to her and helped encourage her to get through something very difficult and come out the other side. Sharing life with people in that way is mutually rewarding and certainly more so than a five-minute scroll through social media. Certainly, you can do

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