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Let Hurdles Make You Strong
by Christine Harvey
If you were a 17-year-old mom, what do you
think your chances of becoming a State Senator would be?
Don’t Let Motherhood Hold
You Back
Most of us don’t think 10 or 20
years ahead. We just get on with the job at hand. For Patricia Noland, that
was finishing school and later as a single parent, providing a roof over the
head of her son and daughter.
Patti wasn’t from a well to do
family. It was up to her to make it happen. So, as a mom at 17, she went to
work as a file clerk for the State of Washington. She gradually got promoted
to typist, secretary and finally administrative assistant.
Keep
Moving Up
At 21, she decided to try her
hand at business and went to work for a lumber company as an administrative
assistant. They tested people there for computer aptitude. Patti was
selected and went off to school for four months to become a computer
programmer.
Two years later, she was a
single parent with no child support. She moved to Arizona and took a
demotion, back to clerk/typist with the City of Tucson, while she waited for
a programming job to open.
Keep
Going For It
All the while, she kept working
at her schooling and after seven years, got her AA degree. “It’s always a
balance,” Patti says, “between holding more responsible jobs and being a
good mom.” But she figured out a way to do both. She moved to a smaller
town and became Assistant City Clerk. When the City Clerk retired, she
moved into that job.
Get Involved, Then See
Yourself In The Position
Then in her mid-20s, she
remarried and didn’t work for three years. “I got involved with the
Republican Club,” she said. “I went to all their luncheons and listened to
the candidates.” She started scheduling the speakers and got to know more
and more people. After three years, she became President of the group. “I
think sitting there, listening to all the speakers, put the thought in my
mind that I could run for office,” Patti says.
As so often happens in life, we
get a thought and then it materializes! We believe we can, and then we can.
Don’t Complain If You’re Not
Willing To Do The Job Yourself
So there she was, only in her
late 20’s, when someone suggested that she run for County Supervisor. A
colleague said to her, “You give half your time to the cause anyway, you
might as well hold the office.”
At first she said no. But then
she started to think. “If I don’t step up to the plate and try to do the
job, then I can never criticize those who do,” she said to herself.
Go For
It, You’ll Always Gain Something
And so she ran, even though the
district was four to one, Democrat to Republican. She didn’t win the race,
but she did win campaign know-how. And, she won respect and recognition. A
good experience, but enough to take away any further desire to run for
office.
Get Broad
Experience
She also decided to go back to
work. As Town Clerk and later as City Clerk of another city, she got
experience in all areas of city government, including running the
elections.
“We had to do everything from
picking the polling places to building the voting booths,” says Patti. “It
all had to be done according to statutes.” She had three staff members
then.
As City Clerk, she also had to
be present at the City Council meetings. “I had to prepare everything before
the Council Meeting, and get documents out to the Council Members. Then,
after the meetings, I had to prepare minutes of the meeting and make sure
that all the ordinances that were passed, got published and recorded,” she
said.
That was all new to Patti, but
it didn’t stop her.
Ten years after her first
campaign experience, the opportunity came to run for State Representative,
and she won. In the fourth year of her term, a terrible thing happened. Her
stepson was shot and killer.
It happened during the holiday
period – a road rage incident. It was her husband’s only son. Patti had
helped raise him. To make matters worse, the offender had escaped.
Know Your Rights
Luckily Patti knew about the
law. During her term of office, she had passed legislation that had enacted
the Victim’s Rights Act. Together, she and her family and friends raised a
$50,000 reward to help find the offender. They appeared on America’s Most
Wanted and the Oprah Show, and finally, after four years, the offender was
caught.
Can you imagine the emotional
drain of losing a family member and trying to find a killer! It was during
the four months after the murder that a Senate seat opened up. Again
friends urged her to run.
If You Don’t Try, You’ll
Never Discover Your Ability
She weighted the pros and cons.
Her energy was low. Her pain was high. But she reasoned, “If I don’t do it,
I’d always wonder if I would have won and what I would have been able to
accomplish.”
She ran and won. During her
eight years in the Arizona Legislature, she Chaired both the House and
Senate Judiciary Committees and served as the Senate Parliamentarian.
Just Do
It!
Think about your own life as
you read this. I asked Patti if she got a Law Degree along the line. After
all, ‘Judiciary Committee’ sounds like it requires a legal degree. “No,”
she said. “I just get in and do what needs to be done, and learn what needs
to be learned.”
I asked if she gets nervous
treading new ground and what advice she has for others.
“Yes, sometimes I get nervous
or anxious, other times I’m so focused I don’t even think about it,” she
said, “but you should just go and do it either way.”
Only You
Can Hold Yourself Back
“It’s important to understand
that you are the only one who can hold yourself back,” she says. “If I try
and don’t get it, at least I tried,” is her motto.
You Never Know What Influence You Can Have
During those eight years, Patti
influenced the world in many ways. Her successful passage of legislation, in
addition to the Victim’s Rights Act, included Sex Offender Notification,
Lobbyist and Election Law Reform, the Omnibus Child Protection Act, other
laws involving criminal justice, and last but not least, the Rewrite of the
Arizona Criminal Code!
Don’t Let
Education Hold You Back
All that from the woman who
started out as the 17-year-old mom. No Law Degree. No Master’s Degree. No
Bachelor’s Degree. Just the determination that if she doesn’t try, she’ll
never find out what good she can do.
In January of 1999, Patricia
Noland was sworn into office as Pima County Clerk of the Superior Court in
Arizona, with over 200 people reporting to her.
Imagine the experience she
brings to this position from her days as a typist, her days as a programmer,
her days as a City Clerk, her days as a State Representative and Senator,
her days as Chairman of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees.
Remember,
you’ll be amazed where the walkway of life takes you.
But you
must step out onto it
ACTION SHEET
Ideas
for Development:
1.
Are you letting motherhood hold you
back?
2.
Are you constantly looking for new jobs
to move into in order to increase your skills?
3.
If you’re interested in politics or any
other field outside your career, are you getting involved?
4.
Are you getting broad exposure in your
career field so that you can move up the line?
5.
Can you develop more of an attitude that
‘only you can hold yourself back’?
6.
Are you letting lack of education hold
you back?
7.
Others...
Of the above
ideas, which one is likely to get the best results? What percentage
increase could you expect if you do this? (Of salary increase, or community
change, or quality of life, etc.)
How long
will it take to develop the idea?
How long
will it take to get results?
Who should
be involved?
What date
should you start?
What's the
first step you should take?
Want to learn
more? Motivation Marathon, a 4-CD series with Beth Walkup, Sue Dyer
and Hilde Bartlett is still available! More than three hours of conversation
with Christine Harvey about
How they create success, joy
and prosperity in their lives without loosing the adventure.
Visit our
eShop
to get your 4-CD set now!
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