Category Archives: Brave

Make Somebody Smile

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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?

Turn the f*ckin faucet on!

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Indeed.  Here’s the secret that Andrea Scher didn’t mention: once you turn it on, you won’t want to turn it off. faucet

The water is so refreshing and crisp and clear and wet, hot if you want it, cold if you want it, add soap and you can clean up, add a tea bag or slice of lemon and take a long drink, fill up a tub or a swimming pool, attach a hose and wash the car or water the plants or add a sprinkler and run through it–I mean it is so much fun, so good, you feel so clean and refreshed and AWAKE: how do you bring yourself to turn the damn thing off?!

Sam, Water Dog

It reminds me of Sam when you put out the sprinkler to water the yard. He’s part Lab (water dog) and part Border Collie (herder), so he will stay in the yard the entire time you run it, herding and chasing and biting and running through the water.  Even after you turn it off and coil up the hose, he’ll lie down and stare at the pile, just waiting for the water to come back, breaking his gaze only to look to you and whine, wanting you to help him get the water back.

Or, like me in the shower this morning.  I was done with all the things I needed to do in there, the task was completed, but the pressure and warmth of the water was so nice, I just didn’t want to get out.

Now that I’ve turned the f*ckin faucet on, I don’t want to turn it off.  I want to take the Myers & Briggs Personality Type test like Jen Gresham suggested, and then sign up for her eight week self-study “No Regrets Career Academy” course and learn how to change my career into “an exciting, successful career that makes a difference, without sacrificing the lifestyle you desire.” I want to fill out the “Ideal Work Day” worksheet that Chris Guillebeau recommends in his book, “The Art of Non-Conformity” and on his blog, and finish reading his book. I want to work on my Mondo Beyondo and Superhero Photo class assignments.

I want to go on treasure hunts and make dream lists and build a shrine to my three big wishes and take a long walk with my dogs and then take a nap with them in the back yard and take a yoga class and meditate and stare at my toes and make blog posts and kiss my husband when he comes home from work and hold his hand and feed him good food that I made while he was away and both of us take another walk with the dogs and talk about all our dreams and plans and work on my book and do research about just about everything that’s so interesting about being alive and human and talk with my friends about all of it over a Red Table or a margarita.

Now that I am giving myself permission to write, to dream big, to make wishes, to be brave, to see where this could all take me, I am extra fed up with my other work, the work that I get paid for, and I am finding it so hard to focus on it when I want to be HERE.  There’s just not room for all of it, at least not in this space and time continuum.  I am greedy, taking on more than I can possibly do, but there is just so much I want.

  • What do you want?