A confused mind says no.
“Just tell me what you want!”
For years I stumbled about because I was too afraid to decide what I wanted to be when I grew up. In fact, I balked against growing up altogether. The internal anxiety this caused was phenomenal, eventually leading to physical depression and ill health.
It took courage to own that I deliberately stayed in this state because it gave me an excuse not to own my own brilliance.
It takes courage to own your personal brilliance.
I developed digestive issues, and food allergies. I went through hell. Then I recovered. But I still wasn’t willing to own my gifts and use them to make a positive impact on the world. So, I whined and wandered aimlessly, and eventually became ill again, this time with breast cancer. I recovered again. It took 15 more years and other serious health issues to get me to do the inner work necessary to discover, name, and finally own my personal brilliance and roust out the inner demons that kept me paralyzed in fear and unable to step out in my own power.
One day, you realize the hard work you have done to avoid doing what you came here to do is too costly.
Not everyone fights it like I did. I wish no one besides me does this. But some do. Some fight discovering their personal brilliance even harder than I did.
One day you realize all that effort to avoid doing what you really want to do is too costly. You have run out of excuses. You make the DECISION to follow your heart and do what you really want to do. You surrender and throw in the towel.
No matter how bad your life can get, you can always pivot. You can start again. You can recreate yourself – over and over and over and over. Again, and again and again and again.
You are ready to step into your brilliance. At least, you are ready to try.
The first step is to make the DECISION to become the person you know you want to be. Now here’s the critical piece- you don’t need to know HOW to get there. You just need to make the DECISION that you want to go there.
The first step is to make the DECISION to become the person you know you want to be.
The second step is to develop a VISION of who you want to be. Take the scariness out of this step by being playful. Make it a game. Put some ideas on post-it notes and make a wall board of ideas.
The second step is to develop a VISION of the person you know you want to be.
If you are stuck in this step, try this. Pick ONE of your ideas and for one week write a one-page description of what your life looks like if this vision is your reality. The second week, pick one of your other ideas and do the same. Then another. Somewhere along this process, you will hit on an idea that is uplifting as you daydream about it. You will find yourself going deeper and deeper into this vision and that it takes you to even more fun places as you write. You feel expansive and hopeful. Jazzed. You may even see a path to get there forming in your mind.
You will feel jazzed. You may even see a path to get to this vision forming as you write.
Pick the vision that excites you the most and has the EASIEST first steps to get it started. You are looking for the steps that MOVE YOU FORWARD and make you feel EXPANSIVE. Sure, there will be some work. Some hard work. But it will likely not be as hard as the effort you have put into avoiding finding and owning your A-game.
Baby steps, baby.
You now have a VISION. You have made a DECISION to do what it takes to realize this vision. There could be a mighty chasm between where you currently are and where you will be when your vision is a reality. And that’s ok. If you knew how to get to the goal from the beginning, you would have already gotten there. The point is to take those baby steps, baby. Grow as you go. Learn the next step from having taken the previous one. That’s how it works.
Find the joy in the journey.
They say the joy is in the journey, but most people don’t buy this because they can’t comprehend how to allow themselves to revel in the fun along the path. The journey seems too hard, too long, too far. They are too impatient. But have you noticed how cool it feels to figure something out for yourself? To achieve something that you thought you couldn’t – all on your own? To gain understanding of the difference between asking for guidance instead of asking someone to do it for you?
Your soul THRIVES on expansion.
Your soul thrives on expansion. In other words, your soul THRIVES on creating, growing, becoming. Figuring things out. Finishing the next step. Reaching the goal. Manifesting the vision. Becoming your personal brilliance. If you pay attention, there is a lot of fun in this. Don’t let someone else’s idea of where you want to be dampen the everyday joy of all you can become on the way to realizing your vision.