Lately, I’ve been receiving the same message from various quarters in my life. The message is this: I can do less, in a less is more way. I can push less. I don’t need to try so hard. I can trust the universe. That all sounds almost dangerous, especially the trust part. Also, how can I be less-is-more without diminishing myself? The message is hard to receive, because, at first blush, it seems to align with a long-held, not-so-happy belief—that I am too much. I talk too much and laugh too loud. I am too bossy, too excitable, too energetic, take up too much space, too, too and too. You get the point. Sometimes I feel like I’ve been getting this too-much message since I was born (at a sub optimal moment that I was told negatively impacted my father’s career).
Yet I know (in that deep knowing way) that this time the words are not coming as criticism. Rather, they arrive as an invitation to be more myself, which sounds paradoxical, since the message is about less. Do less. Yes, and…be more. Less noise. More presence.
What does this mean in my day-to-day? Well, in the learning groups I facilitate and the 1:1 coaching I do, it means—ask one question, without refining it fifteen times to get just the right word or adding seven more layered questions, with icing flourishes in between. Ask one question. Then wait for the answer. Literally.
And metaphorically. Trust that the energy I want to share with others will be felt without me doing a jig, standing on my head and waving a fiery sparkler. I am enough, without needing to push my energy out into the world. This feels like the difference between authenticity and personal brand.
As you can see here, I am still very much in the wrestling phase with these ideas. I haven’t corralled them into a coherent narrative of how I will be going forward. I am exploring a new equilibrium between my exuberance and trusting my presence.
Enough.
