Bed Head

What are mornings like around your house? Do the people who roll out of bed even closely resemble the people who come home at the end of the day? I doubt it. Let me tell you what I mean

Think of who you are in the morning. Your hair is sticking up, your breath smells like something crawled inside there and died last night, and I’m not sure that the Spiderman boxers you wore to bed as pajamas are as classy as you wish they were. But give yourself an hr to shower, eat, and shake off the early morning grumblings and you transform into an entirely new person. Few of us would like to be judged by the world for the people we are in the early hours of the morning.

We don’t like to let people see who we “really are”. We have a public persona that we put out for others to see that masks who we are on the inside. While superficially it means a shower and a little mouthwash, what about for the things that are really stressing you out today? How do you do your best at work when you know that at home there is a family member who is in a life of death struggle. How do you please the boss, when you’re dealing with whether or not you like yourself? What happens when the “stuff” of life seems to outweigh our ability to put on a good face?

I think too many times we are afraid to be vulnerable. We have been bitten before, and are scared to put ourselves back out there. But when life really starts to get challenging and our performance suffers then we can either be judged as incompetent or choose to open out about what we’re dealing with. The funny thing is that some of life’s most significant connections take place when we are open enough to share our challenges. Think about the last time a co-worker or family member came to you and asked for support. Did you look at them in disgust and send them away to “buck up” on their own? Well there may be a jerk or two in the crowd, the rest of us probably tried to figure out how we could help this person make it through. More importantly, it probably gave us cause to follow up and follow through on how they were doing later on. Relationships are strengthened through hardships like these. But the only way we get there is to be a little transparent and let the real us show through.

So go ahead.

You have my permission to show up for work tomorrow with out showering. Breathe a little morning breath and spread the love around people!