If You Ever Doubt Who You Are, Just Look At What You DO.
I started playing the flute when I was in the 6th grade. I didn’t ask for it. I didn’t even have music on my mind as a possible activity.
My mom, however, had decided that if I was going to grow up in troubled times, in a neighborhood primed for worrisome temptations then, by golly, she was going to keep me busy.
I didn’t know any of that rationale. I also didn’t know how I was going to learn it. How anything past the flute itself was going to be paid for or if I was even going to be any good at it.
All I knew was she’d found a used flute somehow and offered it up to me as a possibility.
I had no idea what being a musician would entail. Would I enjoy making music? No freaking clue. I had no idea if I could commit to practice. Thoughts about embarrassment while I was still learning never even occurred to me.
Without hesitation, I said, “yes.”
Unbeknownst to me, this was to be my modus operandi for decades to come. Just. Say. Yes.
The original owner showed me 2 basic notes and taught me to blow across the hole, not down into it. That was all I needed. That night I wrote my own song. A spooky, hollow tune that was as sad as it was wistful. I’m 100% sure it outright suuuuucked.
Yet, I learned that I enjoyed even the slightest big of new information.
The school band teacher offered to work with me outside of class. The hallway to the band room consistently bore the misty hallmarks of his presence; musky tendrils of pipe smoke that followed him from place to place.
- I found out that people like to help other people.
- I discovered that something in me enjoyed small, intimate details in the seemingly mundane.
For 7 years I learned about myself through music’s adventures. I had tenacity and grit. I cared what people thought about me….until I didn’t…and then I did again.
I learned the piccolo next, then the bassoon (and along with it the Bass Clef). Chimes, timpani, xylophone and more. I kept growing, not through mastery of any one particular thing, but through action.
I didn’t have any particular passion for music, mind you. It was really just something to do and people to meet. I DID have a passion for learning. By extension, I discovered I’m a great teacher as well.
You can imagine the complicated journey that showed me my purpose as a Life Coach.
Learning who I am and what I’m on this planet for never once came from merely thinking…it came from doing.
Just. Say. Yes.
You’re Week 3 into a brand new start. 2019. If you’re following along with the Passion on Purpose prompts you’re wrapping up the Gathering portion of the month. Soon, it will be time to just say, “yes,” to your plan.
If you’re like me (a solid 9 on the Kolbe Quick Start scale) you’ve jumped ahead and at least committed to some of it if not outright started a task or two.
If you’re not like me (a solid 9 on the Kolbe Fact Finder scale, perhaps?) you’ve buried your nose into course catalogs, the internet and your contacts list. Those proverbial ducks are working hard to find their row and the idea of just saying, “yes” to anything feels miles away.
Regardless of where you are on Nike’s “Just do it” scale the important thing is that you’re prepared to take a step. Any step. Big, small or somewhere in between it is the forward movement that is going to nudge you out of whatever has got you stuck in life. Grief, ennui, mid-life crisis…doesn’t matter.
Thomas Jefferson is credited with the following quote, “Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act. Action will delineate and define you.”
Wishes don’t strengthen you.
Planning doesn’t make you bold.
Outcomes illustrate what you have left to learn.
It is only action that can show you who you really are.
The Missing Piece of Your Action Plan is, Most Likely, ACTION.
If you still feel stuck in life it’s quite possible that the missing piece of your action plan is…well…action.
As you move through January remember what you’ve set forth to do: Trust, not force, your path to purpose and passion.
Take your next steps, not because they’re easy but because they’re necessary.
Leave a comment at TriffanyHammond.com/passion-on-purpose/PoP-January to let me know how you’re doing.
Just.Say.Yes.
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