I said, "I imagine I'm standing in a round room lined with hundreds of doors. I'm opening door after door, desperately hoping that behind the one I'm about to open is the person who can take my extraordinary product and help me scale it up. I'm happy to do the work, but I don't even know what work I'm supposed to be doing to market it, to expand my reach, to take this as far as I want it to go."
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What makes your heart sing?
I don't believe we only have one path to take anymore than I believe we only have one soulmate (and truthfully, I don't believe in the concept of a soulmate at all). We have a life to live; our job is to be curious, ask questions, work through our stuff (believe me, we all have stuff!), ask for help, get as brave as we can and take the next first step.
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Why is it so hard to pause, rest and just be?
But even though I made vows to myself that I would honor the time I gained and the lessons I learned during COVID, I find myself moving back into the frenzied rhythm of the "before times" much faster than I hoped I would. My schedule is packed with back to back meetings, and my time for reflection, strategic thinking and just being is nearly as limited as it was leading up to March
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Sit up straight…and other lessons
Instead, I went with a version of what I used to call my "signature Dayna Del Val" look: a sweater, simple skirt, tights and low-heeled boots because I was walking a mile to the lunch (incorporating exercise into your daily life is another great point of the book).
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I’m FINE. How are you?
I'm facing some professional challenges that also feel like mountain climbing, too. This one isn't slippery; the challenge on this climb is that there are many paths from where I stand, all making their way up. While they all feel like they would be fine, I know there are some that will be better than others. Not easier, but better. How to choose?
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It’s time to recharge my spark
In so many ways, that talk in 2019 set a level of engagement and expectation that I have been trying to recapture ever since. I left that stage flying high, ecstatic over the interplay between the audience and me. A few months later, I gave the MSUM commencement address, and while the audience wasn't as effusive, it was clear the talk landed. Two months after that I spoke at Creative Mornings Fargo, and that audience was all in, too.
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Looks can be deceiving
This photo popped up in my memories today. I’m sharing it because behind this absolutely stunning dress (my grandma’s that she wore to the 1961 or 63 ND Governor’s Ball) and big smile is a woman who is as sick as she has ever been (including when I had COVID in Dec 2020). She is hopped up on DayQuil to the point of near hallucination. Her chest and back are covered in stress hives. She has a bruise on her chin from where she passed out the morning before getting out of the shower. Her husband is on day 8 of in-patient rehab for alcoholism and has been away from…
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15-22-33-45-67…
In fact, I was recently invited to be on the podcast, Leave Your Mark, with Scott Livingston. He asked me a series of questions about things no one had ever asked me about, including why I'm an actor, and that me articulate some of this in a new way for me. I've been thinking about many of the questions ever since. Start at minute 8 to hear me talk about why I've always known I am a performer and what drew me to it even further. And note what age I set for the G.O.T.E. sheet analogy to life as well as the fact that i was 22 when I…
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Removing another rock
I"m sitting here this morning, even as I type this, knowing I'm putting energy into something besides memorizing this script. I'm delaying the hard work, procrastinating to avoid the frustration of feeling inadequate that this talk doesn't just roll off the tip of my tongue. While some of working on this post might be about avoiding the memorization process, I believe I have to get to the root of this, or this talk is never going to live inside me, despite the fact that it was created by me, lived by me.
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Thoughts on The How by Yrsa Daley-Ward
There were moments that were utterly familiar, chapters that were challenging to traverse, dreamy and surreal passages that felt other-worldly and lines that reminded me that I was not in a place I understood or belonged. I simultaneously recognized and was bewildered by much of it. She writes as if she is inside my brain, has lived my life and is asking the questions I am asking:
