How CHER Became My Life Coach: I too REFUSE to be Labeled
We all have bad days, weeks, months, etc. and for me the only way out of a bad patch is to self-sooth with music and laughter. Cher is my current and most favorite go to muse who unknowingly pulled me out of the worst slump I have experienced in several years. Let me take you through that journey step by step — stick with me.
First, like so many I grew up on Cher music, TV shows, films, and concerts as part of life’s soundtrack/cultural touchstone. I was born in the year of her solo album debut, “All I Really Want To Do” in 1965 and I’m sure my mom played this record while I was in the crib. Obviously my personal memories of the 1960’s is non-existent but the cultural memory is there thanks to so much material out there.
Throughout the 1970’s my family remained glued to the TV making sure we never missed any of the many iterations of her show (with or without Sonny) while my mom and I marveled at her costumes. When It was announced Sonny and Cher were divorcing it was like my very own parents split then when she married Greg Allman I thought the world was coming to an end. Pictures of a pregnant Cher rocked me to my core. What was happening? Will things ever be normal again? How could this glamorous icon be so out of control? By the late 70’s all was right again with the release of her Disco hit, ‘Take Me Home’ — PHEW! (Yes, I’m Gay in case you’re curious). Cher refused to quit.
The 1980’s — The decade I became an adult while Cher became a serious actress — doing so despite ‘the system’ not believing a washed up TV personality who no longer created radio hits had a right to do so. She showed the world with a string of hit movies, albums, and awards by the end of the decade while I met my husband, got ‘serious’ and embarked on a fulfilling career of my own. Everything was possible in the late 80’s and Cher once again inspired us all to keep on going.
The 1990’s come along with various setbacks in the earlier years and once again derail my muse (remember the shampoo infomercial incident). Sonny dies and it is like a death in the family — what will we do next? Is it over? Cher’s turning 50 so it must be time to pack it all up and say “she’s had a good run”. Well she once again defies the critics and blows up the planet with the release of her massive hit, “Believe” in 1998 at the unheard of age of 52 in pop music achieving the biggest success of her career. This is now the third decade she saved and I’m once again inspired to do big things. She refused to quit.
You get my point by now. Cher is now 75 years old and shows no signs of slowing down or apologizing for being herself. Her career took every twist and turn imaginable with extreme highs and lows — like us all — life is supposed to be clumsy yet we are taught to remain on the path decided when we were young and naive. Why must we be labeled with a decision we make at the age of 18 when choosing a major in college — it is absolutely ridiculous. Imagine if Cher wore only one label and missed out on an entire career because she was labeled as part of a duo back when she was a teenager. She’s a lesson in being yourself and rolling with the setbacks but more importantly she believed in her abilities when traditional thinking did not allow her to — she showed them all.
I’m now old enough, wise enough, and confident enough to know that we do not get what we don’t ask for in this world. Life has taught me to keep trying and that failure is part of success. It has also taught me that I have not been reaching high enough up until this point but those days have come to an end.
What I want is to simply take a burning desire to be a communicator, a conduit, a connector of people, places and ideas on a massive scale . Many knew me as the ‘museum guy’ who was part of an ecosystem welcoming the globe into The Met. Most assume I should simply stay in that lane and be happy with that label — something I simply refuse to do. My entire career was in service to millions of humans each year — my presence was used to take chaos and put some order around the insanity- something I do brilliantly. My former career was the foundation of the rest of my life’s work- connecting souls from around the world- I just need a stage now.
So in closing, the millions of souls I encountered each year have left their mark on me in such a way that I need to put that energy to use and I will not stop searching for it. Cher kept going, asking and getting a bigger stage while refusing to be labeled so why can’t I do the same? If she can do it then why can’t the rest of us do that too?
Dream Big 🔹 Dream Bigger 🔹 Repeat 🔂 #aspiringbetterhuman
