Give Yourself Permission – Go First!

We had fun play dates these past two weekends, first with family then with friends. We are blessed to have creative people all around us, who inspire us to do great things. In our family play date, we gave three of us the same small notebook filled with sketch paper and let us loose. Our job is to create and then share what we have done in our books with the family. Here is my first entry in my book. I wanted to have something encouraging to see each time I opened the cover.

I thought about the first word in this quote – LET. It can take courage to let ourselves do and be the person we know we really are inside. That means creating and sharing without fear of judgement or editing things first, to make them suitable for others to see. What prevents us from being and sharing our true selves, usually fear. Fear of not being accepted, fear of criticism, fear of being mocked or belittled or even ignored. What if we share our true self and we experience any of that…so we hold back, edit, or remain silent never reaching our full potential for fear of how other people will react.

Then, as wisdom and time take over we begin to realize that everyone has those exact same thoughts and fears each time they share a part of themselves. For our relationships to work, someone has got to go first. So let me encourage you to give yourself the gift of being and sharing your true self. Go first! Dare to risk and therefore give others the courage to do the same. LET your fears, anxieties and edits go…be who you are no matter what. You will see that people admire your courage and are encouraged themselves to do the same.