ARE YOU A MISFIT?
Are you a misfit or are you your own goose?
This is a question that I ask in every workshop, and surprisingly I get a 90% plus response that people at some point in their lives have felt like a misfit. The get the feeling that this is often a something that they are not proud of. Perhaps they feel embarrassed or like something is wrong with them, so they reluctantly put their hands up. The truth is that we are all misfits, and that is what makes us awesome.
As I reflect on my past - how I wore multi-colored toe socks to class in grade 5 gym class. Now for
those of you who remember toe socks, they didn’t have a long life span in the fashion world. I got into
trouble at school for talking too much, for doing daredevil acts like shooting small objects off a friend’s
head with a pellet gun. Then the same misfit pattern went into my working life.
I started bagging groceries at Superstore, then moved to Regina, SK. I meandered into the restaurant industry and eventually
earned my chef’s papers, just in time to leave the industry to dismantle cars, while moving into Massage
Therapy College. Phew..wait..there's more! I Became an entrepreneur and created massage therapy clinics, a medical
multidisciplinary clinic, and then moved into becoming a myofascial release therapist, and started a
business consulting company using instincts as a way to create a better business. Presently, I have done
case studies on chronic pain and instincts, writing a business book based on duck, duck, goose, and
helping businesses and people grow. Now, if that isn’t a life of a misfit, I don’t know what is.
The truth is, it is all those varied experiences that got me to where I am today. The misfit in me is what
took me down that path, and without it, I would not be where I am today. Taking risks like wearing toe
socks to school, taking on new opportunities, creating new businesses, helping people along the way,
and spending a lot of time out on the edge. Those times have inspired me to continue to keep going,
and to do things differently, and leave my unique splash in the pond.
The misfit in you is what makes you awesome. It is what is right with you. These are your specific
talents, your drive, your inner goose coming out to play, it is what makes you, YOU! Now, people
outside of your pond may judge, criticize, complain, and label you as the odd duck in pond full of geese.
They just don’t understand your awesome, and that’s ok, be awesome anyways! Ruffle some feathers,
make waves, flap your wings, make noise. Honk to the beat of your own drummer. So, were you really
an odd duck, or your own goose?
HONK!
