DW168: Getting Ahead at 9 or 90 with Diane Rolston

Diane Rolston: 00:00:00

Everyone wants to get ahead at any age, if you want to reach your goals, if you want to build a better life for yourself, if you want to be happy, then you're needing to get ahead and invest in your life in some way or another. That is the purpose of this episode.

: 00:00:19

You're listening to the Dynamic Women podcast. Each week, you'll be inspired by our global community of women. They'll share with you tools and stories to help you be dynamic in every area of life. Here's your host, award-winning coach and the CEO and founder of Dynamic Women, Diane Rolston.

Diane Rolston: 00:00:48

Hello lovely dynamic women. Welcome to the Dynamic Women podcast. I am Diane Rolston, your host, and I'm going to talk today about getting ahead at any age, whether you're nine or 90. I'm going to share with you a couple of stories from two people that have had some big impact on my life. And you can probably see some of yourself in them. And if you're not, it's going to be a really great reminder of like, oh yeah, I need to be doing these things. I want to be doing these things so that I can get ahead.

Diane Rolston: 00:01:18

So let me start with my daughter. My daughter is 10. And the title of this was Nine or 90, and it just rhymes better than 10 or 90. So I want you to think about your younger self. Okay, so my daughter is very much into art. She loves art. She does art. She goes art camp, she loves having art supplies. And so I noticed that Harmony Arts Festival in West Vancouver, BC, Canada was having an art call for children for young people maybe up to age, I don't know 15 16 I'm not sure the exact age. But I thought maybe she wanted to submit some of her art. And I asked her about it. And she said, Yeah, mom. Yeah, I want to do it. But she was a little bit nervous of like, Should I do it? What piece should I submit and then she found the piece, the perfect piece, it was a sailboat, she was very proud of it. And based on the timeline, we had to choose something she already had done, because we were very limited in what we could have her submit. And then she noticed he was all excited about this piece. But then she noticed oh my goodness, there's a there's like a little pen poke mark in it. And so she wasn't going to be able to use that piece. She was very, very disappointed.

Diane Rolston: 00:02:28

And let me just backtrack for a sec. This is submitting the art to be put into an art show calls For the Love of Art, which is I'm guessing just to foster that love of art for children, artists, child artists. And so they were going to put it in the gallery, an outdoor gallery at the Harmony Arts Festival. And then there was the ability for people to bid on these different pieces. So my daughter really wanted it to be a great piece. And I thought it was important for her to foster that love of art in her and to teach her about you know that this is what happens to artists, they submit their art and they go and shows their galleries. And then there's a potential to sell and make money from that piece of art. And that's that's the way that business works. And so she was very disappointed that she couldn't put her sailboat piece and especially because Harmony Arts is right on the water, right on the beach. And it would be a great piece to have. And so she was going through her other pieces and thought I found this piece. It's not a new piece. It's from like two years ago, but maybe we can submit it. And so she did. And she was accepted. And I was very excited. And the deadline to drop off the piece was about four weeks later. Now I went on vacation, the family went on vacation, there was lots of trips that happened and we missed the deadline. And I said to her it was my fault. And I said to her I'm so sorry. We missed the deadline to drop off the piece. So you might not get in the show. And she's like well can you ask them and of course I sent an email and thankfully they said no problem, drop it off.

Diane Rolston: 00:03:57

So we just recently went to the Harmony Arts show, the festival about a week ago when it started and we went and we ran over and we found her piece on the wall. They framed it. It was beautiful. And she had that moment that, moment of wow look my piece is framed professionally and in an actual show with my information and my name on it. Such a cool thing. And so for her getting ahead meant first having the courage to put her piece in the show then it was when you know obstacles hit like missing the deadline, we still kind of pushed ahead to try and get in and then now she was being rewarded by seeing her art up but this took us to the next stage of people bidding on her art and what I noticed in half of the pieces in the show there was no ability to purchase the art. But for the other half there was and a lot of people had bids and at this point she didn't have any bids yet and so I felt bad. I felt bad for her. But you know I pushed that idea of there's amazing are piece is here and they she still had the rest of the week for people to put bids in. So many days later, kind of at the end of the show, we come back. And we want to see if there are any bidders or at least I don't want to see, because I don't know if I need to go and bid on it. And I see that the sheets have been taken down, the auction sheets have been taken down, because they already were processing them, for the people that purchased them. And as I thought, Oh, well, we're gonna have to go ask if there were any bids on it. I see two people talking about my daughter's piece. And I called her over and like, yeah, hey hey, look, those people are talking about your art, you should go talk to them. And she was so nervous. And I said, Okay, I'll go over. And then you come over, and I said, Oh, are you talking about this piece? And he said, Yes, we are. We're trying to figure out if it's the four seasons, because there was strips of maybe I'll put a, I'll give an image with this with this episode, so that you can see it. And they, they were trying to try to figure it out. So well, the artist is right over here. And I called her over and she was able to have this conversation about what medium did she use? Which season was which? How did she get the lines in it? So did she was a pastel, was a crayon, what type of paper was it, she got to to have this moment where she was the artist. So not only has she had this experience of her art is in a show first, her art was picked that our art's in a show. Now she's speaking with people, as an artist, like that's how you get ahead, you have moments when you get to step into being the person that in the future you want to be and have that knowledge of what it's like so you can tap into that feeling. It was so amazing to see her in that moment. And she was super shy at first. And then and then Oh, yeah, like did this and I did that it was so cute. So cute. And so as this mom, you know, wants to kind of facilitate a positive situation, we go over to the office, and we asked them about it and ask, you know, if there were any bids, and I didn't know when I felt kind of bad. And she was flipping out. She's flipping the sheets, I see all the all the bids on all the other pieces. And and it comes to my daughter's piece. And she says, Oh, yes, there was someone named Kelly who purchased her piece for $50. What. Like, that's amazing. And they said, Yeah, so we're gonna send her a check for $50 in the mail, and I said, Oh, or her cut, because you know, a gallery takes a cut. And they had already told us that they would be taking a cut. And I think that's only fair since they framed it. And they mounted it and they did all of the facilitation with the buyer like a gallery does. They said no, we've decided to give 100% So she's so excited. She's getting a check her first payment for her art. A $50. Like, how amazing is that? And it's funny, as we walked away said, Wow, isn't that great that someone bid on it? And she goes, Oh, I had a few bids. Oh, so she already knew because she ran over another data check. And there was another bid before that bid at least one other bid at $30. And so I was so nervous.

Diane Rolston: 00:07:54

But I know that that experience for her is going to foster so much into the future. And so I'm asking you right now for yourself or your children, for people around you. What experience do you need to have to be able to get ahead and to jump in early and early, not young, early, but early as in like early in your development? So if you don't have that experience, it doesn't matter. Just jump in and do it. I know the people who have been part of the Dynamic Women's secrets books have just loved that moment of holding the book and feeling like oh, this is this is true. I'm an author. Oh my goodness, like that moment. So just jump in. That's how you going ahead is having these experiences before you're maybe truly ready.

Diane Rolston: 00:08:41

The next one about getting ahead when you're in your 90s, At Toastmasters, I met a gentleman named Yan. And he was a Norwegian boat builder. And I was talking, I talked with him quite a bit about his life and moreso his kind of life as a senior, you know, in his 70s he learned fencing. And then in his 80s he wrote his first I think his first book and then he was in Toastmasters. And when I met him, he was in his 90s in Toastmasters and he would take me out to the senior center nearby that Toastmasters Club, and we'd have a meal together was so it was so fun, and we chat. And one day I said to him, how do you stay so young Yan, like you're in your 90s and you're coming to Toastmasters. And you know, I will share with you that oftentimes he would fall asleep because this was like a maybe seven to 9pm meeting. And he had driven over from Bowen Island, which meant he took a ferry over and so he was quite, quite tired by that time of the day, so it was really fun and we'd have to like Yan! Yan! and wake him up and be like, it's your turn to speak and he jump up and shuffle over with his cane and he was so funny because he was sometimes a bit crude in his in his jokes and things that he'd share but boy was he full of life.

Diane Rolston: 00:08:45

And so I asked him, How do you stay so young? How do you stay so vibrant at like an older age. And he said, I keep trying new things, I keep challenging myself, I keep giving myself a reason to live. And we want to keep getting ahead at 90. I'm not saying you have to have these amazing big challenging goals and drive yourself forward and push yourself and be stressed and, like work too hard. But he said, I just I just kept trying new things, and challenging myself and really not letting age be a factor. And he said, You know, I've watched too many of my friends die, because they've kind of given up on life. They don't have a purpose or a reason to live. And that for me was so so eye opening yet so sad to know that he continues to to watch people have no purpose in life, that they kind of were stagnant, and they're not getting ahead anymore. And that he continued to dive in and bring himself to new experiences. And that's why he also would take people out for a meal and, and would have that interaction with people because he wanted to keep living wanted to keep living, and I just he has passed, he did end up having a car accident, breaking his hip. And then you know, oftentimes for seniors, that's kind of a downhill path for him, sadly, but boy, did he have just the most interesting, exciting life, even into the final years in his 90s. It's really impressive.

Diane Rolston: 00:11:31

So I wanted to share these two stories with you about getting ahead about living your passion about diving into new experiences, you know, I could have named this this, like live your life or live on purpose. But really, it is about getting ahead and moving yourself forward. Because I'm curious, what things have you done recently? And I mean, recently, not like oh, before COVID or a few years ago, or in my 20s? I mean, like recently, what have you done to push yourself, challenge yourself, dive into your passions? Get ahead. What have you done? Ask yourself that and what can you do?

Diane Rolston: 00:12:08

My husband said to me just the other night, I think I think we should do those dance lessons because I was pushing years ago for dance lessons. And he was not into it. But I think he's come to see that that would build some really great connection for us. And I also see it as an opportunity for me to challenge myself because I'm not a dancer. I like to dance. But I don't have any formal training and dancing, at least not since I was about five. And so that's something that I'm going to take on is doing maybe some salsa or something as a way of getting ahead in my own life, challenging myself and also of connecting with my husband more.

Diane Rolston: 00:12:42

So let me know what you choose to do. You'll inspire me, you'll inspire others. And I just love I love hearing from you. And so if you haven't yet, make sure you hit subscribe so you don't miss out on any of our episodes and share with a friend like who needs to hear this message today. If you haven't yet also, please write a review. And once you do, take a screenshot of it and send it to team@dianerolston.com with your mailing address so I can send you my appreciation by giving you a little something in the in the mail in snail mail. Yeah. And so until next time, everyone, make sure that you're getting ahead by some means and stay dynamic. Take care. Bye.