This lecture series was a treat to attend, and yes the pun was intentional. Carla talked about being unapologetically herself and coming into her true authentic self as she’s gotten older and how her acting career propelled her to come out of her shell. She advised us to take the windy path, and that life’s unexpected events help make us who we are. We don’t need to have everything “figured out,” and that we should aspire to get comfortable being uncomfortable. Say yes, adventure follows, then growth.
Then Carla transitioned into talking about her wardrobe and how she values her wardrobe and allows it to reflect her personality. Carla encouraged us to embrace who we are by the self expression of our clothes. When Carla is wearing clothes that she likes and feels comfortable in, she feels powerful and confident. Throughout her time on tv, there have been times where Carla was told how to dress or do her makeup and hair, and she’s come to realize how valuable self expression can be on your mood and performance. Despite the media’s wishes, Carla Hall has insisted on letting her hair go naturally gray, rather than dying it artificially. This was a decision she had to think about a lot, because it goes against society’s expectation that gray hair should be colored to look more youthful. Now with gray hair, Carla promotes the natural beauty of aging and being your authentic self, gray hairs and all. This was Carla’s way of taking her power back, and not letting others have too much influence over her life. She claimed that she would rather lose a job being who she is vs keep it trying to pretend to be someone else.
Some of the things Carla spoke about really resonated with me. She is also an enneagram 7, which is “the enthusiast.” This was unsurprising, as she gets very enthusiastic about everything and radiates a very positive energy. In her words, her superpower is that she loves people, and I feel like this is the same for me. I also love that Carla is very passionate about being your authentic self because this is something I frame my life around. Lastly, Carla discussed the importance of living in the moment and how when you’re overthinking things too much, you lose authenticity by being too calculated. We draw attention to ourselves when we get too embarrassed, but if we just accept our mistakes and learn to laugh at ourselves and not take things too seriously, we become more magnetic.