“Not great…” I typed.
“It’s flat. There’s no traction.”
Paul was writing back… He’d asked me how my work was going, in a Slack message.
“OK, What does “no traction” mean to you?”
I told him it felt like people weren’t noticing anything, like it was missing the mark.
It was May 2019. Rain was hammering the roof. He was typing…
“Instead of worrying about “no traction,” what if you started to bring out the part of you that you’re holding back?”
I read it twice. Gutsy. He was typing again ~ ~ ~
“What part of you are you not bringing into your work? What are you hiding?”
I knew what he meant.
Paul wasn’t trying edge me into the faux authenticity circles you see on social.
He was helping me see that I was holding back in fear.
I was trying to create work I thought would be “interesting,” or stand out. But I was getting further away from who I really was and the people I wanted to help. I wasn’t clear.
I was putting myself in a box, rather than showing up to do real work, and serve with my own ideas and experiences.
His one question lightened a weight on my shoulders and the next day I sat down to work with more energy than the entire week before combined.
Paul’s message helped me see I could live into my own story more fully, and I could serve people in my work from there.
And that’s the only way we can really stand out – when we walk as who we really are.
It’s a gutsy message – but it maybe it’ll help you too:
“What part of you are you not bringing into your work?”
