How Big Is Your Brave?

Has there ever been a time when you didn’t say what you wanted to say?  Are there times when you’ve refrained from expressing what was in your heart and meaningful to you?  Are there times when you don’t write the blog you really want to write?

We all have internal voices that sometimes scream louder than our next door neighbor.  They might sound something like this:

It’s not important

It’s going to push too many buttons and I want to keep the peace

Who cares about what I have to say

Lots of other people have said the same thing

But my blog isn’t about this subject

My website is about something different

I don’t want other people’s opinions

It’s too complicated

No one will understand

It’s not relatable

I’m not good enough

What will other people think

…feel free to add to this list.  There’s a familiar space in your head that these voices reside in and they can contradict what you really want to say and do until you decide to start shifting your perspective about what you want to express in whatever your inspired way of expression is.

It started months ago when I noticed that I wasn’t writing.  I really wanted to but… I really wanted to, but…

I was putting other things ahead of my writing and finding reasons not to do the very thing that I really wanted to do. 

Why? 

Because I was opposing my desire to share my deepest ideas with thoughts that ring the tone of the ones I noted above.  And, I also believe that my ideas are not always mainstream, which at times keeps me from expressing them unless you’re asking.

Then, Illana Burk of Makeness Media landed in my inbox appealing to my desire to write with her latest, “The Bravery Blogging Project”. 

She’s challenging herself and other bloggers for the next six weeks to get our ideas out; to create and publish “real, original, difficult content”.  To share what we’re not seeing others teach, our real-life stories and our unique perspectives.

And as Illana suggests, “our clients hear our best and most brilliant ideas and it’s time to get them out”.

What I’ve realized because of her call to the Bravery Blogging Project is that as I continue to refrain from expressing my ideas, I’m not serving those that I could help.  If only one person gets something out of a perspective I’ve offered, that’s got to be good enough.  Not only that, but if *I* get something in terms of feeling fulfilled, satisfied or expressed through writing, my writing has served a really good purpose.  It reminds me why I started writing in the first place.  It’s never been about the “likes” or the followers for me, although it brings me much pleasure when I know someone’s enjoyed what I’ve written.

For me, writing is personal.  And when someone disagrees with my point of view, it can muddy up the waters.  Because my expression was never meant to be a challenge to, or disagreement, with someone’s beliefs.  It’s an opinion; a suggestion to think about and simply that….

I thrive on offering perspective that puts the power back in your hands.

What I know for sure is that when I write for my clients, I write clearly.  I write what I know.  When I write for a broader audience, I’m aware of wanting to please too many people and make my words more palatable to the majority. 

Kept on the inside, my shadow wins and I refrain from expressing what I know.

I’m accepting Illana’s challenge and joining the “.  I challenge you to join in if you’re a writer, or want to be one. 

The Bravery Blogging Project

Illana’s project has inspired my challenge you:

“Say what you mean and mean what you say”

– when you think, when you speak, when you write.  Say it with integrity and alignment with who you are.  And be proud of your opinions.

You can start speaking up. 

I want to know how big your brave is.  Feel it.  Speak it.  Be it.

Stop your tongue holding.  Tell your truth – whatever it is.

The cage you live in with your truths is one imposed by you, on you.

…how big is your brave?