To be an effective speaker and writer, you must, must be unabashedly and unapologetically yourself. There is no ‘right’ way, no ‘best’ way, to do or be anything. When I recognize this preeminence in another person, what I'm recognizing is their genuineness, their fearless, unapologetic uniqueness and loyalty to oneself. And yes, it does make them vulnerable. But vulnerability just makes us even more likeable, I've found. So the takeaway is to stop looking and waiting for the right answer, because you'll never find it. Just do, now, in the present.

What’s so frustrating is that I have heard this maxim how many times now? And yet I’m still struggling to realize the message. It’s so hard for me to remember that there isn’t some invisible how-to rule book for life that I just need to find, and that then everything will be okay.

I think its harder for people like me; I’m going to call us analysts. We analyze and consider everything we see and learn about the world, and more often than not hold ourselves up in comparison and inevitably find ourselves lacking. Every once in a while I’ll see or meet someone, oftentimes an artist, who upon talking with them or listening to them, it’s quite apparent that it never even occurred to this person to look to others for examples or guidance in how to be, how to act. They never even thought to question their own methods and expression. That perspective is mindboggling to me, and yet I find myself jealous of their seemingly unfettered perspective.

So have you ever asked yourself, what exactly is my voice? What is my message, what are my truths that I deem important enough to stand behind, and to spread as widely as possible?

May, 2015
Monterey, California