I saw this video last night, and it brought me to tears.  You have to watch it. Go ahead, watch it.  It’s okay. I’ll wait.

Can you imagine what it would be like to do the kind of work that made people feel like that? To do work that made that big of a difference in a life, in the world?  I can, but I’m not doing it right now, or at least I haven’t been.

I’m not blaming my employer or my husband or my gender or my environment or my culture, (well, maybe my culture needs to take a tiny bit of the blame), for holding me back. Really, it’s been me all along. I got caught up in a trap of fear and doubt and doing what I thought would make people like me and accept me. I wanted to be comfortable and safe, so I did what I thought would get me there, allow me to stay there. As Brene’ Brown explains so well in her book “The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are,” some of us get stuck in self-hate, get stuck making choices based on a need to please, perform, and be perfect.

But there is another option. Doing something like the Operation Smile people who made the little girl above so happy, doing the kind of thing that Michael Bungay Stanier calls “great work.”

I am not going to do bad work anymore, and I’m not going to stay stuck in the rut of good work either.  I am going to stop waiting for that one great project to fall out of the sky into my lap, (or to hit me on the head). I am going to stop waiting for my Fairy Godmother to magically make over my life or a rich benefactor to give me special funding or permission.  I am going to stop allowing my fear to paralyze me.  I am going to stop listening to that mean, nasty, little voice that tells me I’m not good enough, not smart enough, not creative enough, not enough.

I am going to breath deep and open my heart.  I am going to be afraid, but I’m going to do it anyway.  I am going to make wishes and dream big dreams and I am going to believe in them, believe in me. I am going to do great work.

I am going to make someone smile like that.

• What great work do you want to do?  When was the last time you made someone smile?  What is stopping you?  What are you waiting for?