True story: I cried in yoga last week.
Not while hovering in a tricep pushup (though I came VERY close to collapse).
Not while standing on one leg and leaning forward (though I definitely fell down on that one).
I cried at the end, during shavasana, when the teacher quoted Mr. Rogers.
After an hour of deep stretching and moderate cardiovascular effort, the chatter had been swept from my mind. My body lay long against the floor; my arms and legs fell open. From that place of peace, I felt kinesthetic energy swish through and around me like a swirl of tiny lights.
Somewhere in the distance, I heard the instructor start to speak.
“Today,” she said, “invoke the law of karma and find a way to serve the world. You can pay it forward, like Mr. Rogers said, for all ‘the people who have smiled you into smiling, people who have talked you into talking, sung you into singing, loved you into loving.’”
My tears came immediately, from a place of deep and gentle gratitude. Because lately I’ve been dancing with my own fear of being of a failure in service—wrestling the disquieting idea that I do, in fact, want to serve in a bigger, bright way, but that if I do it by following my intuition, in a way that feels true to me, I am necessarily going to show up from a place of not-quite-certainty.
The truth is, I want to live in a world where all of us feel safe and loved enough to share our inspired ideas, do work that matters, and show up as the bravest, boldest, most brilliant version of ourselves. If you’re a creator, as I am, then you know that this requires a certain level of uncertainty. If you want to show up and share from your own creative edge, you need to leave space for mystery. Your heart won’t have it any other way.
If you want to make an impact on others through your skills and authentic ideas, you are required to share what belongs to you and no one else on the planet.
You won’t be the first person
to think these types of thoughts, and you definitely won’t be the only creator
or service provider who operates in your chosen field. But doing your thing,
the way you do it, is truly unique to you. The words you say, the offers you
sell, and the heart you share—these things have never been seen before and
never will be seen again.
When you create from a place of radical
authenticity, it’s natural to question the validity and value of what you want
to say or do or share. After all, it’s never
been done before.
Entering this in-between place can feel like stepping off the diving board before you hit the pool. For a moment, you shimmer, suspended between what has been and what could be.
Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of seeing many powerful service providers navigate this in-between place. I’ve been lucky enough to support them in taking those tentative first steps, in defining the high dive they want to tackle and working up the nerve to jump. I’ve witnessed the magnificent things people want to say and hope to create. I’ve seen the brilliance that follows the leap and power of hearts freed from invisible chains.
So if you’re in that in-between
space, with fear-monsters and doubt-arrows aiming at your throat, let me be the
one to say: You deserve to be here. You don’t need proof that you’re going to
land. You don’t need evidence it’s going to work. It’s enough for you to
simply show up and say something new in service for the greater good.
Which brings me back to yoga class.
What Mr. Roger seemed to
know, in a way that very few people have articulated consistently on public
television over the years, is that who you are is enough. Sharing the love
that’s in your heart is a worthy goal. You don’t have to be perfect. You don’t
have to be clever. You just have to be kind and willing to share it.
Up until now, I’ve been scared to share my
thoughts and ideas because I couldn’t see the full buttoned-up picture. I’ve studiously
ignored the fact that leaders must go first. That people like me and you must
step boldly into the unknown and trust the water will be there.
But my body knows truth and peace that my overactive mind avoids. When I rest in my body and free my thoughts, I have permission to not know all the answers.
Maybe you’ve experienced this. You sink deep into meditation or visualization or a highly concentrated workout class, and suddenly you’re floating. Your mind loosens itself from pretzel knots and concedes it can’t control the world.
That’s why I cried in yoga class: Because I
remembered that I don’t need all the answers. I don’t
have to be perfect. I don’t have to be clever. I just have to be kind and
willing to share it.
Today, I encourage you to embrace your in-between-ness.
Don’t label this space of uncertainty as some kind of fault or flaw.
Remind yourself that leaders go first. They step into untested waters. And if “leader” is a term you aren’t comfortable with yet, consider yourself a role model.
Right now, you have everything you need to embody what matters to you. You show others what’s possible by doing it. You get to model the habits and principles you wish you saw another people. You get to operate from a place that no one else has experienced and create something that will never be seen again.
This is how you start a revolution: by being different, behaving differently, and saying things that have never been said.
Allow yourself to enter this place where adventures are born and life remakes itself. Sink into your body, step off the board, and see what happens next.
