The answer is almost always: bring more of you.
From the moment I landed the plane on the language that I currently use around my process: “Step into your Starring Role,” I have had to defend it.
Most people hate it.
“I don’t want the spotlight!”
“I don’t want the stage.”
“Stars are egomaniacs… why would I want anything to do with that?”
And yet, yet, there is something to it.
Because folks stick around. They stick around and they read my words and they work with me and I am forever and truly and deeply grateful that they do.
And I’m stubborn, it’s true. But given how vociferously folks argue with me about the language, I’ve always wondered why I haven’t let it go for the ten years I’ve been using it.
It wasn’t until last week when I invited Nicole Lewis-Keeber to teach inside my program and she had us consider what our younger selves wanted that I remembered.
Settle in for story time…
When I was six, I was in the church Christmas pageant. I wanted to be the Angel. Not Mary, but the Angel. She, to me, was the Star of the show. The Knower and the Wayshower. Instead, I kind of called it in for the audition, shelved the fullness of my passion and was given the role of a Shepherd. I loved the staff my father handcrafted and stained for me and I really loved getting to wear a colourful terry cloth bathrobe to Church, but for all my brave face, I was miserable that I didn’t get to be the Angel. It was made worse by the fact that my arch-nemesis got the role instead.
You know how these kinds of pageants go. There are few lines and even fewer directions. So the directions that are given are sacrosanct.
The Angel decided to breach protocol and step out in front of Mary and Joseph. Her act of defiance was more than my little six-year-old jealous heart could bear and I was apoplectic.
“SHE’S NOT SUPPOSED TO GO IN FRONT OF MARY AND JOSEPH,” I proclaimed to the congregation, pointing the sinner out with my awesome staff.
The audience did not join me in my righteous indignation. In fact, they started to laugh. And so, I responded — as one does — and started to pee right there on stage. My Sunday School teacher came to carry me off… mid-stream. I remember being in her arms as she made a lighthearted joke about wishing she knew how much the staging of the Angel mattered to me… she would have given me the Role.
Truth of the matter is, I have made peace with this 41-year-old story. I have loved up that wee one and given her plenty of care for the shame she felt. I have forgiven her for her temper and she has forgiven me for making light of that story for all these years.
But the idea of not having had the chance to Step into my Starring Role then? Because I didn’t bring the fullness of myself to the audition?
Well… I see it now. I see why and how deeply it matters to me. For me. And for you.
You see, we all know the truth of it:
We offer others the thing we most want for ourselves.
Love.
Care.
Permission.
Amplification.
Kindness.
Generosity.
And for me, I see in others what I wished I had seen in my six-year-old self. The Star she was.
So, I get to see the Star in you.
In fact, I don’t just see the Star… I see the Moon. I see the Universe. I see the ALL.
And I want you to see it too.
So that’s what I do.
That’s why I offer breakthrough calls.
That’s why I defend the language.
The answer is almost always: bring more of you.
I want you to change the game.
How?
The answer is almost always: bring more of you.
That’s what’s on my heart.
That’s what’s on my mind.
Bring more of you.
And that thing you give so freely of yourself?
Give it to yourself…too.
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