Personal Blog about Life, Leadership, and Growth

Welcome to My Legacy Blog!

Personal Growth, Leadership, and Life’s Funny Moments

Hello, and welcome to the beginning of my blogging adventures! My name is Ben Lawson. I hail from central Illinois (yes, there is a lot of corn around me!) and I am coming to you with the intention of sharing from my heart on topics that can support you in your personal growth journey. I have been on a personal growth journey since 2015, and it’s been one of the most wonderful and challenging journey‘s I have ever experienced. It has allowed me to forgive myself for past hurts I caused others, to improve my relationship with my daughter over the years as I work to be an amazing father to her and I have found the love of my life after many years of thinking I was not a lovable man.

I will be sharing topics here with a focus on leadership and personal growth principles. At the end of each piece I will add one or two questions that will give you the option to put words into action if you so choose. Now and then I will also share funny moments from my life that, hopefully, will bring a smile to your face.

Let’s Kick this Off

To kick this off the right way, I’ll begin with a short story that happened to me about 3 months ago. This story is both humorous and has a good life principle I will share. I was in our basement, sitting at my desk, and I asked my fiancé if she had seen the vacuum. I did not attempt to look for it. I knew she had been the last one to use it, so I focused on the task at hand and just asked. She gave me a funny look, pointed, and said, “You mean the one sitting on the other side of your desk, directly in front of you?” I turned, and yes, there was the vacuum. I felt my face suddenly flush and sweat appeared on my forehead as if I had been working out for the last 10 minutes!

Amanda laughed and claimed she had never seen me so red. I felt embarrassed and, to be honest, kind of dumb. All I had to do was look up and I would have seen the vacuum handle in my line of sight. I did have a good laugh with Amanda before finally using the vacuum. She has poked fun a few times since. It has become a catch-phrase in our house when one of us is looking for something: “It’s next to the vacuum” is our response of choice.

One thing that stood out to me in all of this is the response I had when she pointed out the vacuum was directly in front of me. Why did I respond with such embarrassment? It was just a silly oversight on my part and it was only in front of the love of my life, not in public and no big crowds around. I believe it is connected to a deep seeded program we all have of wanting to “look good” no matter who is around. I immediately felt like a fool in that moment and I chose to feel that way. We all make mistakes. No one is perfect now, and no one will ever be perfect in the future. And the looking good program runs deep in most everyone. So what do we do to overcome this unconscious response?

What’s the Worst Thing That Can Happen

That simple question above is the key to overcoming this response. When we are feeling nervous, scared, anxious, or a dozen other feelings, we can ask ourselves “What’s the worst thing that can happen if I mess up?” If it‘s anything other than dying, we will be ok. If you fail at something, use it as an opportunity to learn and improve for next time. If people laugh, use it as a funny anecdote in the future (I have laughed several times now about this incident!). Each opportunity will allow you to either move ahead, or move backwards. That choice will always be yours to make.

I’ll leave you with this thought: When was the last time you failed at something? How did you feel? How did you respond? What did you take away from that experience? Hopefully it was an opportunity for you to grow and move ahead.

If you are still working through that experience, or many of them, and not sure what steps to take, reach out and I can share how I support individuals through my coaching programs.

Go create your legacy!!