Listen. That thing you have always wanted to make, those words you have always wanted to write, that adventure you’ve always wanted to take…begin now. Put your phone down and pick up a pen. Put your pen to paper or brush to canvas or lyrics to chords. What wants to be expressed through you? And why do you treat your creative voice like it is not worthy or wise? Is it because you don’t think your voice is as good as Beyoncé or Bronté’s? The world doesn’t need their voices repeated again and again; the world needs your voice.
My forthcoming memoir, Fierce Joy is everything I know about bravery as a woman, a partner, a parent, a leader, an athlete, an activist, and a brainstem tumor survivor. My editors say it’s fast-paced and beautiful and funny. I say, don’t forget that it’s a love story. This is the memoir I’ve been working on in the pre-dawn darkness every day for the past two and half years. It’s about showing up real in life and at work and what gets in the way, namely perfectionism. It’s about love and death and living life to its fullest. It’s about choosing joy over fear and brave over perfect. It’s about looking underneath our fears to find unlimited joy. It’s about how our striving, saving, and performing to do things the “right” way is making it impossible for us to show up real. It’s about how Fear has become a main character in our lives, and a dangerous obstacle to real change.