Dear Self: this is a big deal.

Hi Everyone!  Happy Wednesday to you.  I am really, really excited to continue this “Dear Self” series because it is helping me make sense of so. many. things.  Writing for me is like looking at a bunch of tangled necklaces and getting the knots out one by one through each word that’s laid down.  – Sometimes it’s a real pain in the arse, but it’s necessary if you want to shine that metal again.

If you are new here, this is the background on the “Dear Self” series. 🙂

These letters, written to myself, were created with the purpose of cleaning up some of the sticky stuff in my head…  Like goo gone for my brain and I want to share these thoughts because I think many of these sticky subjects are so intertwined with the fabric of our internal life that we sometimes forget that they also exist outside of ourselves – that other people experience sticky stuff, as well. And sometimes the sticky stuff is the very thing that binds us together.

So, welcome to the sticky inner workings – where the pollen is harvested, refined, and hopefully, at some point, turned into honey.

This week’s letter follows chronologically behind letter 1, and letter 2.

Dear Self,

This was a BIG week.  But before I dive into the details I want to remind you of something you re-discovered on Saturday.

It’s a necklace you had made at the beginning of the year.  It has a phrase hand stamped on it, because in January of 2018, in all your excitement and wisdom, you decided you wanted to wear your mantra so it wouldn’t be easily forgotten.

Then you forgot to wear the necklace.

LOL.  Life is funny like that sometimes.  You have the best of intentions and then life happens and you forget. But, thankfully, on Saturday morning you re-discovered this necklace and the reason for having it made flooded back…

It says “I AM READY!”

Somehow, some way, even though you couldn’t articulate it at the beginning of the year, you knew you were getting in your own way.  You knew you were scared of success.  You knew you were fearful of failure.  You knew, deep down, that even though you’d been working so hard for so many years, that in your heart of hearts, you didn’t yet believe you were ready for what the Universe had in store for you.

So, you set an intention: to open yourself everyday to the idea that you were indeed ready.  

After all, who is always ready for what life throws?  Yet, if we don’t seriously open ourselves to possibility, we seriously limit the opportunities available to us.

We MUST ACT AS THOUGH WE ARE READY BEFORE THE OPPORTUNITY CAN ARRIVE.

Jaclyn Steele

Re-discovering this necklace made you feel like you had been sprinkled with fairy dust.  Humans are so much wiser than we realize.  All this time, without even understanding it, you knew intrinsically that you needed to open yourself to your own readiness.

Humans are only limited by the limits we place on ourselves.

Jaclyn Steele

So what does that idea look like in action?  Because waxing philosophical is something you do well, but putting an idea into action is even more important.  You took this necklace you re-found on Saturday and placed it around your neck.  You felt the feeling of being ready for this phone call on Monday – the one with the super amazing music manager in Nashville.  You realized that it was your choice to be ready.  No outside force could dictate your level of readiness… it’s an inside job.  You’ve done the work, and now you realize that’s it’s your job to OWN IT.

So fast forward from Saturday to Monday – 15 minutes before your call with this manager.  You got in your car and turned on the heat.  You want to be in a distraction free zone.  No dogs, no computer, no lights… just you and your mind and your breath.

You purposed to whole heartedly show up as yourself.  To answer his questions with absolute honesty even if you didn’t think it would be something he would want to hear.  To sit in each minute and show up unfiltered, uncensored, unabashedly and totally authentically you.  You meditated on this goal, the goal of your life: to bring value to the world through your creativity.   

This simple goal anchored your thoughts.  Your thoughts have a habit of being a hurricane in your head, but knowing that bringing value to the world through your creativity is your purpose, made it feel like there was a lighthouse in the storm leading you in the exact direction you need to go.

The aha moment came before the conversation.  You rooted in your purpose and it made your fears fall away.  Why?  Because no one can take your purpose from you.  NO ONE.

And damn girl, you showed up on that call!  You were impassioned and emboldened by your belief in your purpose and your belief in your ability to carry it out with or without someone else’s help.  That little necklace was right: you are ready.

And the manager?  He said “you’re an inspiring woman.”  He concluded that I was doing the right things – building, building, building, and that now it was just a hype game since everything in the music industry is built on excitement.  He said I asked great questions and that my answers were good and that we should stay in touch and that he would help me get in contact with whomever I wanted to get in contact with in Nashville and that I should save his number in my phone because he wanted to talk soon.

The call couldn’t have gone better.

And you know why, dear girl?  Because you showed up as you.  Not a diluted, or filtered version, but the real one.  You know now that the more you you are, the easier it will be to filter the right people to align with.  Now, upon reflection, you cannot imagine showing up any other way.  If you cannot be you, then why would you want to hitch your wagon down that road?

So, yes, it was a big deal that you had this opportunity to speak with a reputable manager in the industry but it was an even bigger deal that you found your voice first.

You anchored to your purpose, your mission, the reason you want to get out of bed every day.  You trusted in your own readiness and allowed THE TRUTH to lead the way.

I’m really proud of you.  Thank you for showing up for us.

Love you,

THE TRUTH

p.s. You put the necklace around the framed picture of Johnny Cash flipping the bird because you love the juxtaposition of it.  Life is full of dichotomies and specifically with this one:

The ability to be ready and to stay open requires the strength to say “no” and the resolve to reject the negative projections of others.