The Lump in Your Throat
“Was there a brown van that used to come by the cottage to sell us Chelsea rolls on Sunday mornings?” my cousin asked, hoping that I’d be able to settle a friendly wager she was having with her husband.
I couldn’t recall, but I said I’d ask my Dad who I was planning on seeing that coming Saturday.
Earlier that day, I had interviewed my friend Vanessa Mentor in Haiti whose final advice to our listeners was, “Tell your stories out loud. Even if only for yourself. And your kids.”
So I was planning on asking him to share all.
Because, truly, how many more months, weeks, days would I have for him to tell me about brown vans and Chelsea rolls?
How many more months, weeks, days would I have to invite him to tell me about the time his brother wrapped an inner tub around his midsection and threw him into the Rhone River? Or to hear him talking about skiing hungover with the Austrian Olympic team? Or why he believed (and I swear these were his words) “of all the pugilistic art forms, greco-roman wrestling is the finest."
Two months, one week, and three days, it turned out. 72 days. And I never got to hear the stories.
So yeah.
Ask the questions.
Get the stories.
And tell yours.
But what’s that?
There. Right there.
That lump in your throat.
The one that makes it hard to swallow.
What’s in there? What is that energy?
Sometimes it’s hard to tell if it’s grief or rage or a beautiful orchid of a desire.
But it’s something and it needs you to release it. Only you can do it. The ideas you long to communicate. The questions you long to ask. The injustice you MUST call out. The wishes you dream of bringing to reality. The radical change you want to effect. The thing you’ve needed to say for too long that it seems that is has long since calcified. It hasn’t.
Practice saying it. Hum it. Sing it. Whisper it.
Truth is, my friends: sometimes it IS the Imposter Complex that keeps us from asking what wants to be asked and from saying what needs to be said.
But sometimes, we just simply run out of time.
Ask the questions.
Get the stories.
And tell yours.
It may be hard.
Releasing grief, rage, and even beautiful orchids often is.
But you’ve done harder than this.
You’ve asked questions that didn’t have answers.
You’ve told truths when it was neither welcome nor convenient nor appreciated.
You’ve told your stories into the dull din of ambivalence.
And I promise you this. With all that I have and all that I know:
It all matters.
And it’s what we have.
Bridging, connecting, becoming more real.
Check out my free training on the 5 ICONIC Shifts Leaders Use to Overcome the Imposter Complex and Grow their Income and their Impact
Where I pull back the curtain on five shifts to start raising voices, rates, and hands all while being the kind, congruent, and authentic leader I know you to be.