I did it. I did it, I did it, I did it!
In case you missed my last article, “What Are You Waiting For?”, it was all about how it’s not too late to do something that keeps pulling at you, that won’t leave your heart and mind alone.
My story starts like this: 41 years ago (but who’s counting?!), I saw a speaker at a conference, and I thought to myself, I want to do that. Then life happened. While I accomplished other kinds of caviar dreams like doing TV commercials, theatre, film and life coaching, I hadn’t yet formally pursued my desire and the opportunities for public speaking.
I had done many a presentation to small groups, but never an hour long talk for lots of people with slides, pictures and videos, oh yes, meant to inform and entertain.
Until this month! And it was so much fun! And not only that, but people also really liked it, and the content resonated with them.
My talk: Rewrite Your Stories, Reignite Your Life, A Spoken Word Experience was about how to learn to recognize and reframe the stories holding us back. The ingredients: a half a cup of personal stories, a half a cup of humor and a large dose of vulnerability. (If you have a group looking for speakers let me know!)
Why am I writing about this, you may be wondering. Number one, because I am 65 and just did something really big for the first time that I’ve been wanting to do for over 40 years. And…
It. Is. Never. Too. Late.
Number two, to be fully transparent, while I was on the stage speaking, I realized that I need to walk the walk and not just talk the talk. As the wise words came out of my mouth, my inner monologue went something like, “You hypocrite, why don’t you try this yourself?!”
Have you ever found yourself helping others and thought to yourself that if you only heeded your great input, it could help you as well?
I think that all too often we don’t talk to or treat ourselves as well as we do other people that we care about. We also, all too often, don’t allow ourselves to fulfill our desires because we’ve been conditioned to believe that it would be selfish to take the time, or that we’re too old to do that thing. That thing that is still calling your name. That thing that you want to do that won’t leave you alone.
Sometimes It’s Just Because We’re Afraid to Try
Fear can be an artful dodger. It can disguise itself as a legit concern, or masquerade as perfectionism or overthinking to name a few of its many faces.
You want to know one thing that helped me for this talk?
I once wrote an article here on Sixty and Me entitled, “Can Death be a Motivator for Following Your Heart?” So, when I was asked to do the talk, I thought to myself, what if I was told I was going to die in a matter of months? Dark, I know. And my answer was that I would do the talk and try everything I wanted to do with no fear.
And then I thought, I don’t have to wait for something like that to happen to do this! I don’t need an expiration date stamped on my forehead to motivate me!
And honestly, it put everything in perspective.
I realized that I had absolutely nothing to lose. (P.S. our egos are not our friends.) So what if you try something and it doesn’t go well? You move on to the next thing, and you trust that the process is leading you to where and what you are meant to be doing next.
So, in addition to my podcast, Loving Later Life, I know that I am meant to be pursuing public speaking. After receiving such validating feedback from audience members, I know that I’m going in the right direction.
We All Have Special Gifts to Give!
We each have something special to give to others and we must look at it as a gift, and who are we to not provide that gift to others? Maybe we flip this on its side and say that if we don’t share our gifts, that would be selfish!
Our path may have challenging obstacles along the way, but if we keep following the clues it can either validate continuing on that path or take us in another direction. We won’t know until we jump in and take the chance.
What have you got to lose? I believe there’s more to lose if you don’t go for it than if you do!
Your Thoughts:
So, what’s your dream-accomplishment story? Have you tried going after something special to you? Is there something you’ve wanted to try that you are now starting to consider doing? Let’s talk about it!
