Look! Something shiny!

Many of us already know (or just realized) that we had the power all along.

Yet, it actually takes more than just knowing that to step out into the potential of our own brilliance….and we all have it…potential of brilliance, I mean. It happens when we allow ourselves to set aside fears and “what if’s” and walk into the very thing we have always wanted to do.

I like to call it our “Look! Something Shiny!”s. It’s that thing that we always gravitate towards..or it could be that thing we just found a passion for and can’t get enough of. It’s very recognizable when you start to pay attention. When I’m asking women my favorite question:

“What would you do with your life if there were no obstacles? What would the pie-in-the-sky be for you?”

..I identify several things that point us in the direction of our “Look! Something Shiny”s. What section of the newspaper do you always gravitate toward first? What is your absolute favorite (can’t wait to sit down with a cuppa coffee and have downtime to read) magazine? If you had an entire afternoon free to be alone and concentrate on one thing, what would it be? For most women, there is a definitive answer…yet, a lot of these women don’t allow themselves to go there because of fear of what change it could bring. The fantastical wonderful thing is that you can experience this shiny thing in my small ways to start. Tara Sophia Mohr calls it “dating your dreams” , which I thing is so brilliant. Kind of a “getting to know you/let’s flirt” kind of thing.

I started dating photography seriously about 13 years ago. As a elementary school teacher, I didn’t allow myself to walk away from the classroom to blindly pursue shooting the cover of Vanity Fair. I took out my camera (it was a film one back then…Oooo, nostalgia) and played outside with it taking pictures of just about anything I can turn into something “artsy looking”. This was expensive, as I had to process my $20 rolls of film each time, but it was worth the investment because I had to know if there was something to this “photography thing”.

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Well…there most certainly was.

I remember PH and I having a conversation one day while we were driving back from seeing family in Seattle. We had three hours to get into something good and we wound our way into our “Look! Something Shiny!”s. Mine was to be a freelance photographer and create art. Even as I said it, it felt so strange on my lips….like I was sharing some big secret I’d been keeping….like this is truly who I was and I had been squishing her down because “I was a teacher, darn it…with a classroom to prove it”. I did allow myself to dream out loud that day and sweet PH listened without freaking out that I would walk away from my teaching position merely because I had voiced an interest in something completely different. I do want to say that I think it’s really important to share these deep down desires with people you know won’t machete them to death upon hearing them. When dating your dreams you want to introduce these lovelies to people who will be kind to them (just like you probably did when you were dating your significant other). It was important to make a good first impression with the men in our lives…and it’s the same deal with our dreams. They are to be treated with respect and love.

It’s up to you whether you take steps to move toward this shiny in your life.

It’s also up to you how slow or fast you go when stepping into this incredibly exciting possiblity.

If a new year feels like the perfect time to leap (that was my word for last year—it is a GOOD one, let me tell you), then give it a go in January and write down three major things you can do to click those heals together and own the power to move forward.

I would love to hear what your shiny thing is…maybe writing it down for someone else to see would make it more real for you.

Hope your holiday season is filled with non-crazed moments of reflecting on the things you are grateful for in your life…and a moment for a cuppa and good glossy.

OX.

p.s. My sweet pals at Brave Girls are making “things we think are awesome” lists…I contributed yesterday. Love their project!