This post is dedicated to a dear friend of mine who needs to be heard, and to anyone else who desperately wishes to be bold.
I find my richest inspirations through difficult situations. Through pain. Through heartbreak. Through misunderstandings. Through fear.
Talents are not born; they are cultivated. Say you have a natural talent for singing. It will not improve unless you care for it. Unless you practice, and tend to your voice.
You have to share your voice with the world.
All I’ve ever seen myself doing in the future is writing. Traveling the world and documenting the hole-in-the-walls, the tiny gems of the earth. Writing reports in a magazine or newspaper on the latest trend. Or, my personal favorite, creating stories for myself and readers to get lost in.
I am in love with my ability to share my feelings, my thoughts, my findings with the world and the people around me. Writing is one of the few things I’m actually decently okay at, and I will not let that ability go to waste.
But that entitles living boldly.
Fearlessly. Stepping out of my comfort zone. Living most uncomfortably.
It’s all easier said than done, right? I’ve always thought so.
Every time I write something on my blog and hit ‘Publish,’ there is this sinking, detrimental voice in my conscience, telling me I suck at writing and that no one will read my blog. I cannot seem to tell that voice to GO. AWAY. It always, always, always comes back, no matter how many posts I write.
But I hit ‘Publish’ anyway. My small act of defiance. It’s riveting, actually. A tiny victory with a tiny reward, but every little act contributes to something much, much bigger, something I have yet to discover. But I know it’s there.
Life is too short for waiting around for someone else to make the first move. If you want something, just go for it. It doesn’t really matter what other people think because really, what can they do? Look at you funny? Tell you to take your business elsewhere? Laugh at you for thinking you could do something different for a change?
Shouldn’t these opinions fuel our creative fires, if we even listen to them at all?
Something I am still learning is how to ignore the opinions of others. Compliments and constructive criticism are great, but the opinion that matters most is mine.
But every now and then, hearing something someone else notices about you can encourage you to embrace it.
Someone older and wiser than myself once told me she saw leadership potential in me. You can imagine my reaction. Who, me? Are you sure you’re not thinking of someone else? No, she meant me. She told me she knew I could lead people.
And from that moment on, her words haunted me. Through self-reflection I realized that all I really wanted to do was move people to do amazingly beautiful things with their lives. I realized that I wanted to lead people.
Slowly but surely I am accomplishing just that. For the past few months I have been leading my yearbook friends in a brand-new project for our school–a newspaper. It combines every reason why I write, and I am able to involve the people around me in stepping out and sharing their talents with the world.
Don’t let fear hold you back from doing what you love to do.
Fear is not worth your time. Remember that.
don’t try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. it’s the one and only thing you have to offer.
Barbara Kingsolver
Commenti