1st Logo of GoneGirlGo

GoneGirlGo Logo in 2012

In 2012, I decided to give myself permission to go on and go.

That summer I had an epiphany. I was a  middle-aged woman and the picture in my mind of who I was, did not resemble who I thought I was at all!

When I shared this with my dad, or as his grandkids call him “G” (short for G-Dad), he simply stated, “Yea Zo, I guess you are.”

The recognition of that reality and my dad’s confirmation of it rang in my ear for the rest of the summer.

I was in the middle of my life.

As the oldest of three girls, I had never been in the middle before so I struggled to try and relate. But the sudden realization of my median position ignited a pilot light in me!  Call it middle age crisis or call it what you want, I  needed to do something before my time was up!

As I considered the timeline of my life, I couldn’t go back and redo anything, but I could go forward with intention and gusto!

What if I decided to go forward a little differently than I had in the first half of my timeline?

Confession: I was a dreamer who was always afraid my dreams would turn into nightmares and haunt me. I had ideas, I mean great big ideas, but I wasn’t able to see them as reality because I forever contemplated, walked with trepidation, analyzed, and second guessed myself.

Yet, there was something about being in the middle that compelled me to push my ideas forward so that’s when I decided to do something about it. The term “GoneGirlGo” was actually born on Facebook as a word of encouragement to the many women who were energized to make changes in their lives and the lives of others. Whenever I read a female’s post that seemed to be a declaration of forward movement, I would respond “Gone girl go!”

Then I thought, “Wait a minute! That means something to me!” It soon became an internal proclamation of freedom, and a call for me to move forward.

That’s when I decided to start blogging about GoneGirlGo. I wanted to publicly share GoneGirlGo and encourage women to push forward their ideas. Mainly because I have witnessed how we all have walked with trepidation, ignored our calling, gave others the power to talk us out of our dreams, second-guessed ourselves, downplayed our strengths, and kept ourselves constricted and confined to our own little box.

Because I had this habit of thinking a lot, and not moving forward with my thoughts, I was in new territory. My mind started speaking negative self-talk again.

Would I fail?

I’m not ready.

That’s just stupid.

Who cares, anyway?

But then, I remembered my middle position and pushed forward. I wasn’t going to give in to doubt anymore.

So I took my first step and shared my thoughts with a few close friends. I was shocked when as soon as I said “GoneGirlGo”, they understood immediately what it meant. They encouraged me to explore the concept, so I felt even more compelled to push forward and go.

During this time, another fascinating thing was happening to me. I was being surrounded by other women who were ignited as well. I saw firsthand what happened to a woman when she pushes forward, engages her ideas, and lives her dreams. Again, I had to move.

To organize my thoughts, I created this mind map. It was rough, but from it I was able to see what GoneGirlGo was about.

mindmap on the nightstand

Then I started drafting my first blog post. The rough draft of the mind map and blog sat on my nightstand for about 3 weeks. It ended up on the floor at some point and stayed there for another week. I finally put it in my bag to take to work where it sat for 2 more weeks.

When I pulled it out again, I said “Go. What are you waiting for?”

With some tweaks here and a few more edits there, it was good and I was determined to start this blog and the journey of GoneGirlGo.