Worth Reading – and DOING!
Originally shared by +Alvin Stearns
I've thought something for a long time, and here's what I've come up with:
All it takes to be who you're supposed to be, doing what you're supposed to doing, is to start to authentically be and do. Others, attracted by your authenticity, start to affirm you. Because you are being true. The affirmations don't make you any more you, but they are life saying, "Hey! I see and feel you, and you are so true! Please keep being you, doing that. You are one of life's heroes, and we have too few of those." Good stuff.
Trickier than it sounds, granted. Rarely does anybody start to be authentic, stumbling along a path that is theirs, fumbling for the right ways to be and express, and everybody shouts, "Oh! Look! S/he is so true! Let's go over there and encourage him/her to be that person and do those things!"
Look at it this way. Lots of people have won a Best New Artist Grammy after having performed, written and sometimes recorded for years before being declared "new" and winning an award for it. They weren't new to music, they were just new to a wide pop music audience. Long before grasping their golden shiny, a smaller audience already knew their greatness. But, each "new" artist started with an idea. The idea became a path. The path had to be traveled. Starting with a first step. Years later, they get an award for being so awesomely new to us.
It easy to hide from your authenticity. Let's face it, the world is not set up to encourage you to be the true you, to do your true things. Sometimes even the ones you are closest to you will not understand. Some of them, without intending you harm, have an investment in actively blocking you. Anyway, you tell yourself, I have roles to play, bills to pay, and people's expectations to live up to. Right?
That's the trap. Years can go by. Whatever you choose, years will go by. Who are you? What do you need to do? Tick/tock.
Start. Look for the path. You know it. Since you were old enough to recognize yourself in a mirror, life, your body and your consciousness have been informing you, and you have been playing a song, writing a story. Maybe you stopped playing, stopped writing. Somewhere along the way. For whatever reasons.
Still. It's your life. Or, it's not.
Choose. Start to be yourself, a little. Start to do what you know you're supposed to do. A bit. Flex. A little, for now. Build your strength.
Nothing may happen at first. That's OK, even though it might feel foolish to deviate from the role, the pressures and the expectations for something that seems to exist in a vacuum. Shake it off, sugar. Keep going. Have a little faith. In you.
If you have been pretending to be a sheep living among sheep, keep pretending. If it's safer. The sheep can be brutal if you start to deviate from the path that's been chosen for you. So, pull your sheepskin close, but stop denying the tiger underneath it, at least to yourself. You are clever, so be clever. When nobody is looking, keep flexing. Keep building your strength. Keep going.
If you are true, keep going, keep getting stronger, something is going to happen. Something wonderful is going to happen. One day you'll be minding your own business, sheepskin concealing your true tiger form and nature, and somebody will affirm you. It will be like a tiny beep! What was that? Go look. Wow. Somebody got it.
Exciting!
Keep going! It's becoming a risky time, sure. You put yourself and your works out there, exposing yourself. But, that beep! Wow It's wonderful when somebody affirms you. And not because you wear your sheepskin so well, that you trade your life so beautifully for a soul-crushing role that sacrifices everything true and wonderful in exchange for . . . For what? It's all crap!
Now you are getting it!
Keep going!
Beep! . . . . Beep! Beep! . . . Beep! . . . Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! . . .
Hey there, beautiful. I see you. Beep.
