A few weekends ago, I traveled to Vermont to celebrate the birthday of a dear friend. Well not just any friend, my best friend since kindergarten and not just any birthday, her 40th birthday. There is actually 9 of us in a group and this is the year of 40 for all of us.   Honestly, it snuck up on all of us.  One minute we were celebrating the Dirty 30’s in ATL and then it seems someone hit the fast forward button and here we are a decade later, blessed beyond measure to celebrate each other turning 40.  Thank God, no one really says you’re “Over The Hill” anymore or decorate everything in dreadful black.  Thanks to Jay-z we are living in the 40 is the new 30 era.  He may have said something different but you catch my drift.  Make it work for you.  In the small town of Middlebury, my friend, Christal Brown decided to “Party With A Purpose” for her 40th.  She invited the community to come out and celebrate with her while also celebrating her love for dance.  All the proceeds from her party would go towards building a new floor at the recreation center where she dedicates her time teaching ladies in the community.  Typically, when we have a milestone birthday such as 40, we want everything to be all about us…though the community came out to celebrate Christal, her mind and purpose was focused on how to give back and keep dance alive in the city of Middlebury.  As I sat back and observed the love they showed her and the level of respect they had for her, I also assumed they felt she went through the night beaming and performing effortlessly.  Being behind the scenes I was able to know the planning process and see it all unfold.  The party was truly amazing but I could tell my friend had put a lot of thought into creating this vibrant and lively experience for the people in her community.  It all had a purpose. By the end of all the performances, slide shows and speeches I was in tears.  For those that know me, know that it doesn’t take a lot to get the water works from me, but for real my friend is AMAZING.  She is a FREAKING ROCKSTAR!!!! I am so proud of Chris and I left her party inspired.  Here’s the kicker…. Christal is a dancer, not just any dancer.  A passion filled, I am the only person in the world when I am on stage, keep your eyes on me, tell a story, receive this history lesson, change the world type of dancer.  I mean, that is who she is to her community and I am sure we all would have loved to see her dance her heart out, but my girl did the total opposite.  She took a risk, stepped out of her comfort zone and challenged herself to do something she is not comfortable with… SINGING.  Yes, she will sing with no cares in the car driving, at church with the congregation or in the shower, but what all of these environments have in common is there will be a level of being drowned out by someone else or something else.  Nah, my girl got center staged, solo and sang her heart out to people that love her but could possibly judge her, but she didn’t care.  It wasn’t about them.  It was about her challenge to herself, stretching herself to do something that did not come easy to her.  In that moment I realized, that characteristic, being a risk taker, is connected to her success, her impact, her desire to want to inspire someone else.  Well I was definitely inspired.  There are so many things I want to do and accomplish in my life, knowledge I want to use to inspire others and impact my community.  There are so many things I want to do to create abundance and levels of success in my life and legacy for my family, but I have to take risks and step outside of my level of comfort to make these things happen.  We all do!!!  Often times we find ourselves living day to day, wanting more out life but somehow we end up being in auto pilot mode.  We all have a purpose in this world, a footprint that we are supposed to leave on the sands of time but we can’t do it being fearful of doing something different, taking risks or stepping outside of the box.  I was so inspired and I hope the other party attender were as well.  If you are reading this, I hope you are feeling inspired.  With 40 chasing me down, I know it is time to begin stretching myself and time to take a step out of the box.  Even if I have to start doing the Hokie Pokie, with my left foot in and my left out.  It is time to start shaking things all about.  So my first Hokie Pokie move is writing this blog post.  I have never felt the most confident writing and that feeling created a limiting belief that I am not a writer, but power is in the tongue and today I will begin speaking a new language.  A language of I Am….I Can and I will.  Of course at the end of the night Christal charged everyone at the party to take on a new challenge in their life.  So I would like to follow suit and challenge all of my readers do the same.  And before I end this I would like to wish my bestie another Happy 40th Birthday.  You did that in the most 40 and fabulous way ever!!!