The First Lemon

Paige Dean

The idea to put Paige in the spotlight first came from Leanne because she knew Paige had her fingers crossed for the Women's Marathon in San Francisco. I instantly agreed, already excited for her simply on the prospect of running this marathon, so I sent her a message later that day. Paige, being the positive, down-for-anything-fun girl we know and love, was all for it. I couldn't wait to hear what she had to say about her goals, and my anticipation doubled when, on her birthday (Best Birthday Ever) she found out she was accepted to run the marathon. The energy buzzed around the store and on facebook. Paige achieving her goals was yet another push for the rest of us to go out there and achieve the big, the hairy, and the audacious. But, enough of my rambling. Let's feel the energy from Paige's own words.

Current goals:

Training for and running, on October 14^th, the Nike Women’s San Francisco Full Marathon this year.

-          This is a ‘bucket list’ item I am PUMPED about! After graduating university this year and not returning back to play varsity volleyball for Mount Royal, it is the perfect opportunity for me to devote myself to this goal for the coming 6 months!! I am not running for first, I am running to finish.

Attend accounting recruitment this coming September and successfully be hired on by a CA (Chartered Accountant) firm as a CASB (Chartered Accountant School of Business) student.

-          Graduating this year with my BBA – Accounting, the next goal I have for my education is to successfully complete the CASB program with a CA firm here in Calgary. Although I will be attending recruitment this September, it will be for a full time position beginning in September of 2013. This will allow me to do something that I did not think I would do – take a year off!! I am very excited about itJ

Travel and backpack, location to be decided! Europe looks nice….

-          Upon graduation and successfully being hired on with a CA firm, fingers crossed for PriceWaterhouseCoopers, it has recently become a big dream to go travelling. I am going to make that dream happen and have designated it as a one year goal to go backpacking abroad and divulge myself in another culture somewhere in the world!

There are many things in my life that inspire me and I like to think that the majority of that inspiration comes to me from the people I surround myself with on a daily basis. At the top of that list, my family is the most important to me and I want to achieve my goals so I can look back and say that it was in large part due to the opportunities I’ve been given throughout my life, big or small.

Playing on a varsity sports team for 5 years, inspiration comes from the girls on my team and certainly my coaches. Surrounded in a competitive atmosphere on a daily basis, the world of sports, and with a few fabulous quotes along the way, inspiration is not hard to come by! Whether or not it is possible, I like to think that some of my inspiration comes from myself and wanting to be successful! Having concrete goals in mind, and an idea of what I want my life to look like, pushes me every day towards achieving that outlook. Where I see myself, what I want to achieve and how I plan to get there all factor into the inspiration I need in working towards those goals.

Looking at inspiration and how I may be able to inspire other people is something that I’ve definitely thought about. I don’t think there is one particular thing about me that inspires other people, but the fact that I am who I am and that’s kind of the way I’ve always thought about things. I like to think that my personality and passion for the things I am doing can inspire other people to live their life in a similar way. Being infectious and enjoyable is something that I hope has rubbed off on other people, and of course my competitiveness. The thought of being beat is not something I enjoy, and if it happens, I want to work harder to make sure it doesn’t happen again  - the athlete mindset in me I guess! I hope that serves as inspiration for other people to know that there are things worth fighting for and when you achieve what you want it is totally worth the sacrifices it took along the way to make them all happen!

Most importantly, I think it is nice for everyone to remember the words of one of my most favourite people, Ellen Degeneres: “Be kind to one another.” Something so simple can make a world of difference in so many people's lives. 

When I got to the end of Paige's goals, I was reminded of something I saw on TV once (this is what I love about this blog - one cool story spawns another). I was watching Ellen's show and she was showing a video of her and her crew in Disneyland, I think. The location doesn't really matter; what matters is what she did. She rallied up a group of about twenty people, young and old, and had one of them ask a random stranger to take a picture for them. Ellen was off somewhere, hiding and watching the whole thing on camera, as the group of people fidgeted and fussed and babies cried and the person asked to take the picture was forced to wait until they had everything together. Some of the people got fed up and handed the camera back to them, saying they had no time, and probably muttered something rude under their breath. Actually, most of the people did that. But a handful of people stuck it out the whole time until the group was finally good to get their picture taken. When that happened, Ellen came running out of seemingly nowhere, shook the person's hand, presumably gave them some kind of gift, and said, "Thank you! We always like to reward kindness. Thank you."

This just goes back to what Paige said, "Be kind to one another." Something so simple, yet something that doesn't happen as much as it should. I think there's something very inspiring about a person who's genuinely kind and also something inspiring about a person who is kind to themselves. And I don't just mean eating well and taking self-deprecating words out of their vocabulary, but also someone who allows themselves to be the best person they can be. And I think, along with all the amazing goals Paige has achieved and has yet to achieve, what we can really admire about her is her kindness and her determination to stick tough situations out to the very end. 

Thank you, Paige, for being the first person to plant the inspiration seed :)

Planting the Seed

    It should be no secret to anyone that my first passion is writing. Lately, when anyone at work asks me what's new and exciting in my life, I tell them I'm moving to Victoria in August to attend UVic’s Creative Writing program. No big deal, only one of my BHAGs being coming true.

     But now, I’m done school at Mount Royal (forever!) and I have four months before Victoria, which means, as much as I love writing, I’ve hit a writing lull. What should I write when there are no deadlines breathing down my neck? Which of my hundreds of story ideas crowding my mind should take precedence over all the others? The result is that, unfortunately, I usually end up writing nothing at all. My summer was looking pretty barren of words until Leanne came along and gave me this idea. 

     Being as goal-oriented as we are at lululemon, Leanne recently gave me the job of writing about our goals and what inspires us and, most importantly I think, what’s inspiring about us. All you need to do is step foot in one of our stores and spark up a conversation with one of us to get a sense of why lululemon is inspiring, but nobody will ever have enough time to hear about everyone’s goals in one trip to our store. So, this blog is the answer to that conundrum. Weekly one-on-one interviews with our glorious staff.

     A few weeks ago, on a Saturday morning at the store, Leanne asked me if I had any writing of mine I could read at the opening meeting. I didn’t have anything short enough to read, but I instantly had a favourite poem in mind, so she had me read it. Sometimes at work we only see our educator's physical goals and passions - yoga classes and events, marathons and half ironmen - so it was really special for me to share with the opening team something a little bit different. Leanne knew I loved writing and she wanted to showcase that. 

     I read If by Rudyard Kipling and, for a brief moment, all eyes were on me. I got to read and then talk about what that poem meant to me. For about five minutes, I was it. But the cool thing about that morning was, once I was done talking, Cara jumped in and shared a humbling experience with us. The poem affected her in a certain way and we got to hear why. So, for five minutes, Cara was it. She was the main event. After her, Jess Martin had something to say. Then Christina. I loved being able to share something that was very personal and meant a lot to me and find out how it affects the people around me when I’m showcasing my passions, my goals, my inspirations. 

     So that’s what this blog will do. It will showcase one person a week and then we’ll see a ripple effect of how each person inspires the next. That’s what makes lululemon exceptional. Scratch that. That’s what makes people exceptional.