photo taken with thanks www.motivatedphotos.com

I have been traveling a lot this summer, first to San Francisco for a week, then Chicago and now coming up on my eleventh day in my very favorite city New York. And at least once a day, someone asks me for directions.  Which is odd if you know me at all, because I am almost always lost. I still regularly need to ask whether to take the QEW or 403 into Toronto and I have lived outside the city, pretty much my entire life. I can’t read a map and I hate GPS.  Although the TomTom with Snoop Dogg’s voice is tempting, but anyway…

So then, why do people think I know where I’m going?  On the subway, waiting for a taxi, walking, in every city…

I kind of have this walk.  That’s what I’ve been told anyway, my whole life.  Even when I was in grade school, the boy I had a huge crush on (who shall remain nameless) used to tease me about my walk.

Strut might be more like it.  Whether I know what I’m doing or not, I look like I do, and unless you are in my mind (or on the other end of blackberry messenger, being asked directions to the same place for the fourth time) that is really all that anyone ever sees, and all that really matters.

About a decade ago, I was a social worker.  I did outreach with homeless people living in Hamilton and Toronto shelters and on the street.  I walked at night handing out clothes, food, housing help, stuff like that.  Amazing work and some of the most wonderful people I have ever had the privileged to meet.  My walk served me well.  I think it makes me look bigger.  Like how I am on the inside, somehow shows when I walk.  It’s in my eyes too, but not everyone gets that close.

In my life now, I’ve  learned that how I walk is about more than just the way I move in a space, its about confidence.  And confidence, even in the face of a situation where you are totally lost, can be a powerful tool.  Now I am not saying to give advice when you don’t know the answer, if I don’t know which bus takes you to the Whole Foods in Chicago, I don’t make it up.  What i mean is that sometimes looking like you know what you’re doing is a really great start.  Especially when you are working to inspire others, or share your vision. In parenting too, trusting yourself first, is at the heart of making things work.

Because no one follows, no one buys in, and no one is moved, if you don’t first walk like you know where you are going.  And own it.  Like you’re ten feet tall.

When was the last time to thought about how you walk?  On the street, in life, in love…share your walk with me, and please don’t tell anyone I have no idea where I’m going.