Mrs. Missouri article by Kay Hoflander in the Examiner

Take positive risks at any age, says Mrs. Missouri America
By Kay Hoflander
Special to The Examiner
Posted Oct 14, 2009 @ 11:02 PM
Lafayette County, MO —

“I’ve found that luck is quite predictable. If you want more luck, take more chances. Be more active. Show up more often.” – Brian Tracy, author and motivational speaker


Heather Chatlos, Kansas City’s own 2009 Mrs. Missouri America, has jumped out of airplanes. No problem.
However, she says the idea of walking on stage and down a ramp wearing spike heels and a swimsuit was far more risky.
No kidding. Most women at any age over 19 consider shopping for and trying on swimsuits to be an utterly frightening experience, let alone wearing one in a competition. Yikes!
Ladies, you know our swimsuit theme song: “She was afraid to come out of the locker; she was afraid that someone would see .... she wore an itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny yellow polka-dot bikini…”
Twenty-seven-year-old Heather wasn’t afraid. Instead she took on the challenge, knowing well the old adage that “the fruit is on the limb.” One just has to crawl out there to reap the rewards.
As a result of overcoming her self-doubts and after two and a half years of trying, Heather won the crown.
She will reign until March, when – guess what – her mentor, Bobbi, will try her hand and enter the competition. Bobbi is a 50-something, Heather’s former church youth group leader and old enough to be Heather’s mom.
Good for Bobbi. I am impressed and will be watching from the safety of my living room, cheering her on.
Heather explains why she and women like Bobbi take such a risk, “If you ever have that inkling and wonder if I can do something, go ahead and try. I’ll bet you can. You are never too old to try something new. When I walked off that stage after the swimsuit competition, I thought to myself, well, at least I didn’t fall. I did it and had fun, too.”



That is the premise of Heather’s platform, “Empowering women to take positive risks in their lives.” Most contestants choose a platform to help their favorite charity, Heather says, but instead, she focused on the idea of going after one’s dreams.
It doesn’t have to be a beauty pageant, she explains, “Judges in a beauty pageant are just five people and their opinion is theirs. What really matters in anything you do is what you think of yourself.”
Whether you win the crown, land the new job, get the promotion or tackle living life by yourself for the first time, Heather says it is the journey that counts.
“The journey is bigger than the event itself.”
She recalls watching the Mrs. America Pageant on national television a few years ago and especially enjoying the segment in which each contestant competed in the state costume competition. She turned to her husband and said, “That looks like fun, an adventure. I think I’ll try it.”
I can identify with women like Heather and Bobbi.
Nearly five years ago I decided to write a newspaper column again after a couple of decades of raising kids with no time to write. I admit it; I was frightened at first, “What if no one reads what I write, what if they don’t like it and what if no one publishes it?”
Like Heather, it still sounded fun to me, so I literally took a deep breath and tried my hand at writing again. And as Heather points out, it is the adventure and the journey itself that counts. If one has fun, it works. Simple as that.
To be perfectly clear, however, I won’t be wearing a swimsuit on stage any time soon, but I’ll cheer for you if you do.
Instead, maybe I will just get over my apprehension of writing a new book and get started. Perhaps, I will crawl out on that “taking a positive risk” limb with Heather and Bobbi. Wanna join us?