What's Your Thing?

What's your thing?

There are very few lyrics in the Isley Brother's 1969 hit It's Your Thing (Do What You Wanna Do).🎶

The message I take from the lyric:The agency to act on what you want lies with you.

In a recent video reflection on her Substack, writer Elizabeth Gilbert contemplates, "What happens when we decide to make our own thing, rather than wait for what we dream of to exist?"

It's such a great question.

Most of us wait.  We wait and wait.  

We wait for the perfect invitation; The right time; The exact amount of money; The best collaborator; We wait until we have enough experience; We even wait for the right weather.

In my experience as a coach, there comes a point when a client makes a choice without all of those reassurances and allows the experience to show her the way forward.  

A woman in my spring 6-week intensive celebrated this week "My speaker proposal was accepted into the national conference and I will be presenting!"

At the beginning of our six week course, she knew what "her thing" was: To become a speaker. 

It had long been a desire that she could not bring herself to act upon despite her obvious professional qualifications and connections.  

What tipped her away from waiting and into a full on commitment?

1. Her desire for this experience was a 10.   She knew what she wanted.

2. She knew she needed to learn some new mindset skills in order to take the risks she wanted to take.

3. She engaged in a community with a shared purpose - to fear less and create more of their thing.

Within a few weeks she found childcare, booked a fancy hotel for a weekend and wrote her first ever talk. 

This is not a fairy tale story. 

This is a woman, like you, who has experienced painful rupture and recent loss. 

She is a single mother. 

During the course she showed up at networking events and managed her fear through practice and with care.  

And in less than 3 months she went from no talk - to a paid gig and more on the way!

Becoming aware of "your thing" creates choice. 

Practicing with a supportive community cultivates our capacity to make the choice to create it.  

🎶Let me hear ya say,

"It's my thing (it's my thing)

I do what I want to do

I can't tell you who to sock it to

Hoo, It's my thing (it's your thing)

I do what I want to do"🎶