Part II of the post I wrote Monday on “Living Bolder” is not what I expected to write for today but as usual life happens shoving aside the best laid plans of mice and women. Upon waking this morning, along with my latte, Martin handed me the iPad. In our email cache was a message from Santini Maglificio Sportivo, an international bicycle clothing manufacturer out of Italy. The email announced Martin as one of two semi-finalists chosen in Santini’s 2013 Sportswear Design Contest. Wow! An exciting moment, not only for Martin but for me as well. Hence, Part II of “Living Bolder”.
What does it take? Living bolder takes a willingness to put yourself out there. Despite what others may say about your efforts, your ideas, your abilities, you have to be willing to open yourself up to any criticism as well as any applause. We all like applause but if it’s not guaranteed applause, it can be a little scary. That old specter, Fear of Failure, often rises above any desire to try something new. You know the old adage, “Nothing ventured; nothing gained.” Risk. That’s what it takes to live bolder. It also means having belief in your abilities. Just slap down Fear of Failure. Martin’s always had a very creative side. He’s dabbled in artistic adventures since grade school. He’s also always been willing to take some risk. When taking a chance and using your innate talents come together, the result is, even if you don’t win the race, just by entering the contest, you are a winner. So, today, we’re enjoying this moment of Martin being chosen as a finalist in an international competition sponsored by one of his favorite sportswear manufacturers. Fun!
Living bolder also means persevering when things don’t go your way. You see, we live with a handicap. We live in the boonies, the hinterlands. Though not as back country as you’d expect from my description, it still means no DSL, no cable company running wires down the road. Some of our neighbors have satellite, working or not working depending on the whims of mother nature. That’s just too much money to pay for so much brain damage. Dial-up? Ugh! Even more brain damage. So, no high speed internet translating into no computer connected to the internet. Our lifeline to the the high speed world is an iPad with a MIFI Jetpack. But it has it’s limitations as in it’s just a giant smartphone, not a razzle-dazzle computer where you can do all kinds of wizardry with graphics. Stymied about how Martin would get his design uploaded to Santini, we brainstormed such possibilities as using the library or a relative’s computer. Those were cumbersome at best. Persevering, Martin finally came up with the idea of producing his design on paper, photographing it and submitting the photo image. Obviously, that worked.
So, Martin didn’t see the design contest and tell himself he couldn’t design as well as anyone else. He did nothing to talk himself out of submitting an idea. He didn’t let the obstacle of uploading his graphic to the sponsor stop him. He decided he had a bold life to live and he’s living it. And me? Well, I’m going to shamelessly put myself out there and ask all of my readers to click this link and vote for Team Merlino. While it’s fun to live in the moment of being a semi-finalist, it’ll be even more fun to win the race!
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