Day 23 - Showing Up Feeling Like a Dunked Cat

Day 23 brought chaos from the moment I woke up. Squeezing in a workout before a back-to-back meeting and client day, housecleaners needing to change their schedule so I had to vacate my main work area, and then—the final straw—a work situation that demanded immediate attention, making me 15 minutes late for everything that followed.

My hair was soaking wet. Normally, I need a good 20 minutes to blow dry it properly, but today I couldn't spare even a minute. No makeup either, though that's become somewhat regular for me, so it wasn't the stretch.

The real discomfort came when I had to choose: show up to my work Zoom call with dripping wet hair or keep my camera off and hide.

Initially, self-consciousness won. Camera off, safely invisible behind my professional voice. But then I remembered my challenge—the commitment to do something uncomfortable each day. What the heck, I thought. This is exactly the kind of moment I've been practicing for.

Camera on.

The wave of vulnerability was immediate. There I was, hair feeling like it was plastered to my head, completely unpolished, in a professional meeting where I'm supposed to have my act together. Every part of my conditioning said this was inappropriate, unprofessional, not how we show up to work.

But something magical happened as the meeting progressed. I got over the self-conscious thoughts and settled into being as authentically myself as I was able to be in that moment. No pretense, no perfectly curated professional image—just me, wet hair and all, doing good work.

The sky didn't fall. No one seemed scandalized. The meeting was productive, engaging, and I even choose to speak up and engage - which I’m sure in some people’s settings put me on a bigger screen due to speaker mode!

There's something profound about releasing the need to be polished in professional spaces. This small act of showing up imperfect felt like a quiet rebellion against the impossible standards we place on ourselves, especially as women in professional settings.

(Regarding photo - I was outside and couldn’t see my photo until I went back inside after the meeting - so imperfection all around :-).)

The nervous system challenge here wasn't dramatic, but it was real. Every impulse wanted me to stay hidden until I looked "appropriate." Choosing visibility in my imperfection activated that familiar flutter of exposure, of being seen in a way that felt vulnerable.

But on the other side of that discomfort was a deeper sense of authenticity, of not fragmenting myself into the "perfectly presentable" version and the "real" version. Just one integrated human being, doing her work, wet hair and all.

Sometimes the most radical thing we can do is show up exactly as we are, chaos and authenticity intact, and trust that our presence matters more than our presentation.