Today is October 24 and the Navigate the Chaos question to consider is “How often are you proud of who you are?”
People that navigate the chaos generally have a high degree of self-awareness, work hard at improving themselves, and are often very proud of who they are.
English singer-songwriter Adele Laurie Blue Adkins, simply known as Adele, is very proud of who she is. Adele was born on May 5, 1988, in North London, England.
She was the only child of Penny Adkins, an "arty mom" who was just 18 at the time of her birth, and a Welsh father, Mark Evans, who left the family when Adele was only 4 years old. Adele did, however, grew close to her mom, who encouraged her young daughter "to explore, and not to stick with one thing."
Early on, Adele developed a passion for music. She gravitated toward the songs of Lauryn Hill, Mary J. Blige and Destiny's Child.
But her true, eye-opening moment came when she was 15 and she happened upon a collection of Etta James and Ella Fitzgerald records at a local shop. "Chart music was all I ever knew. So when I listened to the Ettas and the Ellas, it sounds so cheesy, but it was like an awakening. I was like, oh, right, some people have proper longevity and are legends. I was so inspired that as a 15-year-old I was listening to music that had been made in the '40s."
While clearly bright, Adele wasn't oriented towards traditional classroom settings. Instead, her mother enrolled her in the BRIT School for Performing Arts & Technology, which counts Amy Winehouse as an alum. While at school, Adele cut a three-track demo for a class project that was eventually posted on her MySpace page.
When executives at XL Recordings heard the tracks, they contacted the singer and, in November 2006, just four months after Adele had graduated school, signed her to a record deal. In 2007, she received the Brit Awards "Critics' Choice" award and won the BBC Sound of 2008 poll. Her debut album, 19, was released in 2008 to commercial and critical success. It is certified seven times platinum in the UK, and three times platinum in the US.
When speaking about her looks, Adele said “I've never wanted to look like models on the cover of magazines. I represent the majority of women and I'm very proud of that.”
How often are you proud of who you are? Or do you try to change yourself to please others?