I AM…

Why do we spend so much time letting other people decide what we are and what we’re not? Why do we spend so much of our mental energy believing them? Our opinion of us has to be greater than the opinions of others, and so much more important. Only you hold the power to be, or not be. Only you have lived your every experience. Only you know what lies inside of you, what sets you on fire, what drives you, what makes you get out of bed each morning…

I dare you to drop here, one word/ phrase that tells me who you are. Dig deep. If you think you were born to be an artist, but you flip burgers for a paycheck, say “artist”. Isn’t it time we put some purpose behind those nudges, those inclinations that we feel and try to push away, or try to shove back in a drawer for “someday”? Don’t be afraid to acknowledge what you already know in your bones. If you are, and you know you are, then don’t let anyone convince you otherwise.

Maybe your “artist” won’t look like someone else’s. Maybe that’s still ok. Because you were meant to be you. And that will never happen if we keep shutting ourselves down, stopping ourselves before we even start, shooting ourselves down before we even get off the ground. Maybe we don’t know what it will come out looking like, what the result will be and how it’ll fit into our image of what our life is supposed to look like. Maybe that’s ok. Just take the first step, the rest will work itself out.

We’ve lost the childlike ability to dream, and to lean in to that which we know about ourselves, because of what everybody else thinks. Well, everyone else hasn’t lived your life. They don’t know what lies inside of you. They don’t know that inside you, there is a force the size and power of which they have yet to even imagine. The world is so caught up in putting you in a box, wondering if you can; when you not only know you can, you just aren’t sure how well you can, which turns into if you could. The world might make you feel like you can’t. You know why? Because we humans feel small, and we like to make other people feel small, too. Don’t let this happen to you. You might think that if something isn’t perfect, it’s not good enough for the world. That is a lie! There is beauty in imperfection. There is power in the process of becoming and embracing who you were born to be. The only voice you need to hear is the one inside, the one your creator put there, the one we’ve drowned out with busyness, commitments, doubt, and other “stuff”.

Dare to visualize the YOU you know you are meant to be. Dare to speak it. Dare to write it down. Dare to hold it close. Dare to chase it. You can follow it, but you will never reach it until you first accept that you are capable, that you are able, and you are more than worthy. The power of attraction will begin to work in your life, if you only first admit it to yourself. Then, everything else will seem like wasted time. I’ll start.

Activist. Author. Politician. Counselor. Humanitarian. Artist. Professor. Philosopher.