So I was at a conference where the presenter talked about having her own Personal Advisory Board. Love her. She’s brilliant. Don’t we all need our own PAB? This is
not just your group of friends. We need to consciously choose our PAB membership and give it a name.  If you make it concrete in your head you’re more apt to take care of it. To pay attention to whom you allow into your head, your heart, your crazy tree.

We are different iterations of ourselves through the years (adolescence, young adult, not-so-young adult), through our different life roles (daughter, sister, mentor, supervisor), through different milestones (girlfriend, wife, mother, grandma). At each point, we change just a bit; our world view skews this way and that. People who are dear to us, important to us at one point in time, lose their seat on the PAB. But that’s OK. We need different people at different times in our life whispering in our ear, yelling in our face, questioning our sanity and our shoe choices. They may still be dear to us, but in a different way.

It’s important to realize we shift as individuals, so we need to change our PAB membership. The PAB needs to be well-rounded too. Don’t stack it with Yes Men/Women. Right now, mine includes a colleague who has become a dear friend, a former colleague, college friends, a college roommate, a seven-year-old and a five-year-old, my mother, my father, a sister. There are a few people through the years who no longer serve on my PAB, and a few who I’m considering appointing soon. Who’s on your PAB?

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