The Truth Behind Cinderella

My 6 year old is a Princess (with a capital P) — complete with a
pink room, wardrobe of pink dresses and a penchant for wearing tiaras…
When she was little, we tried hard to avoid raising a princess (she had
lots of trucks, trains and blocks) but I’ve come to the conclusion that
kids are who they are and have given in to the cult of the princess.

But, Princesses (in her mind anyway) are heroines and possess
certain traits (nice, honest friendly, helpful) – sort of like a pink
Girl Scout
  This morning we were talking about fairy godmothers — in Cinderella
specifically… Suzanne wanted to know if everyone had a fairy godmother.

I thought about it a moment and then decided that my answer was
“yes”.   If you want something badly enough,  somehow things work
themselves out that you either get that thing or get something better.

But, the key here is the wanting and letting the world know what you
want.  The part of the Cinderella story that is often overlooked is
that Cinderella worked very, very hard to get to that ball before the
fairy godmother even came into the picture.  She completed an
impossible amount of chores in record time, she made her own gown from
scraps she found around the house… only after working hard (and facing
some serious setbacks) did the fairy godmother come and help her out
(and then she had to be proactive at the end when the messenger came
around with the glass slipper).

Life (and if you think about it most “Cinderella” stories) are like
that.  Think of the unknown college sports team that makes the
playoffs.  That didn’t happen by chance.  The players and coach on that
team worked their tushes off (and then had some good luck) to defy
expectations and make the playoffs.

The danger in the Cinderella story – is that people ignore the
action and the hard work part and want to skip straight to the
Cinderella part.  Show me any overnight success and at least 90% of the
time, I can show you years of hard work leading up to that lucky
break.  Vision is good — but vision without follow up is just a wish…
(and follow up without vision is just busy work…)

There are fewer than 100 days left in 2009 – what you are doing to
create your Cinderella story?  This week, I’m working on the vision and
next week, I’ll be getting some support for the hard work part of
getting too my goals by taking part in the Fat Loss Quickie
Transformation Contest -  You can find out more about it here.

Want to join me in being a Cinderella story this year (tiara is optional…)