How I Finally Got Unstuck by Lenore Braun

I couldn’t believe it. There I was sitting at my desk when this feeling overcame me. It was a feeling that landed somewhere between total frustration and sheer panic. How in the world, after everything I had done and everything I had tried, was I stuck? I was stuck in this typical 8-5 administrative job. All I wanted for my life was to do something creative. Something I could be passionate about. Instead, I was sitting here feeling trapped. As I sat there thinking about this feeling, a voice inside of my head started repeating the definition of insanity. It’s when you keep doing the same things over and over again expecting a different result. But how was I going to get a different result? What is it that I would do that would be new? I realize one of the things I had never done was push myself outside of my comfort zone. I was going to have to do that if I was going to switch tracks in my career path. As I sat there thumbing through some emails, I came across an announcement for a speaking club for women coming to the area. This was something new, and this was something different. Definitely scary. The more I thought about it I realized, this was it. This was the moment I was going to change my career.

Why did you choose this topic?

The most powerful moment in my professional life came when I realized that the change I needed and wanted so desperately was right there at my fingertips. All I had to do was reach outside of my comfort zone and try something new. The moment I opened my mind to that fact, the opportunity presented itself: That’s when I discovered Speaker Sisterhood.

Why do women in the community need to hear it?

So many of us (women) settle into the belief that our lives can only be as good as what’s handed to us. Our professional paths become restricted by other people’s expectations and limited perspectives. Most of our jobs and even career paths were never customized to fit our dreams, our goals, our expectations. Instead, we’re often forced to fit into a mold created long before we ever came along. That’s not such a great feeling for those of us who dream of so much more. If we want to be the masters of our universe, have the ability to create the life we truly dream of, we have to break out of the confines of our comfort zone and be willing to try something new.

WHMP celebrates Women’s History Month in a series of women speaking their truth, produced by WHMP News Director Denise Vozella, who leads a speaking club for women in Northampton, as part of the Speaker Sisterhood. The Speaker Sisterhood provides a community to women who want to discover, awaken, and create their voice through the art of public speaking.