Thank you.
Thank you for who you are.
Thank you for being as full and whole as you can be.
Thank you for not settling for less than being who you are, and doing what you are able, and embracing life for all that it is.
I know you.
(Well, I feel like I do.)
Because, if you’re here, sharing in these words with me, I suspect that I understand something of the contents of your heart and soul.
I know that you care so much.
I know that you have so much to give.
I know that you have conquered challenges and overcome trials on your journey.
I know that you have tried so much and so hard, already.
I know how hard it can feel to just keep going.
And I know that, having come so far already, and having championed so much to date, you are still only just getting started.
There is so much more to you, and to life, and your dreams, and to your callings, that remains available to you to realize, in due course, in due time, on your own accord.
Whatever it is that calls to your heart is there for the taking.
What If You Are Still Only Just Getting Started?
In candid moments “offline” and in private conversations with folks who are like you and me, I tend to hear a lot of quiet admissions from conscientious souls, and self-starters who dream of living with more purpose, and creatives who are called to activate their voices and share what they know with the world.
Some of those stories have sounded like…
“I’m tired of trying so hard to figure all of this out. Will I ever get it right?”
“I can’t keep spinning in circles like this.”
“I feel like the only thing that keeps getting in my way is me.”
“I am exhausted by over-analyzing every choice, decision, and pathway to death, month after month.”
“I keep starting and stopping, trying and quitting, and never seeming to make the forward progress that I need, and yearn for, and crave.”
“Just when I think I’m on the right track, something seems to suddenly change. My desires or needs or interests shift, or I hit eject right when I get overwhelmed, or I bail on all the hard work I’ve done just before I reach the finish line.”
If you are feeling any of these ways, I understand those feelings, and how burdensome they feel.
The truth is that I have lived far longer in spaces of self-doubt and second-guessing than in those that are totally sure, 100% certain, and unwaveringly confident.
I have learned that doubt is not indicative of destiny with failure.
Feeling uncertain needn’t spell a journey of endless stresses and anxieties and frustrations.
Second-guessing is natural, normal, and a good thing — even if it does feel that way — and it does not mean that your dreams are self-deceptions that will deprive you and leave you with less than you even began with.
If you are doubting yourself, it is not you who is the problem.
If your dreams have not been working out as you had hoped, by now, it is probably not you who has ever, at any point, been at fault.
What if you have been doing the best that you have been able?
What if you have managed this much, and come this far, with the limited resources, space, energy, and experience that you’ve had available to you?
What if you have learned to do all you have been able, doing things in the ways that you have been doing them, to date?
What if there is simply a ceiling to how much you can continue to learn, grow, or achieve, continuing to do it all in these same old ways?
What if it is time to evolve out of the solo act — and doing everything, alone, all on your own, repeatedly?
What if it’s not you who needs to “change” or “do better” or “be perfect” or “figure it all out,” quietly, in isolation, in your own head?
What if you have simply reached the natural limitation to what you can do as a solo act in manifesting your dreams to serve others?
What if you just need to tweak, shift, and evolve your approach?
What if you have naturally outgrown what had once worked for you?
What if you are not the problem — and never have been?
Nature’s Magic Trick: A Reminder
The learning, experience, growth, perseverance, and intentionality that you possess are not “not good enough” or in any way lacking. They are just asking you to help them. They want you to help them find their right outlets, and to move on from the old ones that no longer serve them, or you.
What would change if you had all the affirmation that you could need and that reminds that you do, in fact, possess all that you require to lead without followers, to live from within, and to leave a trail of love in your wake?
What good could come from making a supportive series of integrated, holistic changes in your creative or professional journey, right now, and in the months ahead?
What if, instead of laboring under the way things “have worked so far,” you received all of the help, support, guidance, camaraderie, creative insights, entrepreneurial experience, community, time and space, practice containers, deepening self-knowledge, refinement, and alignment, and collective energy that you have been longing for of late?
What could your life, your leadership, or your art look like in 1 year, 2 years, or 5 years?
What if — for all you’ve conquered, overcome, championed, learn, grown through, achieved, celebrated, let go of, and accomplished — you are, still, only just getting started?
To me, there is nothing to mourn, or regret, or resent in that possibility.
To me, it speaks to our abundance.
It speaks to all the possibilities that life has to offer us.
It speaks to the unbridled growth and limitless experiences that we should be so lucky to endeavor into and through, on the paths of living our leadership from the inside, out.
Our world is an abundant one; all around us, year after year, new life and possibilities sprout, as if by magic, out of seeming nothingness.
But that is nature’s great magic trick.
There is never nothingness, even in the absence of seeing what’s subtly there.
Everything that can be, already is.
Opportunity, possibility, and new life are always present, even when we cannot see them.
It looks, on the surface, like everything sprouts from nothingness. But nothingness is the illusion; the sleight of hand.
The truth is that everything sprouts from everything.
And, us?
Even when it’s hard to see that truth, our everythingness is present — and the journey to realizing it may only still just be getting started.
Onward, dear friend, onward!
