What are you pretending not to know?

This question came up during a recent gathering with my wonderful writing group- a group member had been to a workshop and this question was posted in big letters on the wall. She brought it up at our gathering and it rocked all of us back on our heels.

It’s a great question, isn’t it? A great question in sort of a horrifying I’ve been caught with my pants down sort of way.

 

Since then, I’ve been watching how I think and paying attention to the big black holes of lalalalala I can’t see you! stuff that mean I am ignoring something(s) in order to stay still, stay safe, stay with my assumptions, stay with my fears (hey, at least they’re known).

I began this blog with the question of whether assumptions we have about ourselves are still true which is a question I keep coming back to.

And it is kind of interesting to come at this question from a different direction– looking at invisibles.

We all can be successful in our minds in that futurefantasytime when the stars align, when we’re rich, when we’re older, when we have more time, or money, or less to lose… and it IS scary to think about actually trying, to put ourselves out there for public view (even from our own selves, perhaps our most fearsome critic).

 

So brave people, if you dare,  ask yourself the question – what are you pretending not to know? What is keeping you from stretching into a new direction with your thoughts, actions, creativity, heart, life…..?

 

Isn’t it amazing how many obstacles we create to keep us from doing what we want right now? I know, there’s lots at stake, believe me, I know. I do not know yours but I sure do know mine. Identity and safety play largely on my stage of worries. And I have huge fear of making an ass of myself. Making a mistake. Being bad at something. See how many walls I can build? Heck, they’re already built!

So, assuming we’ve all gotten very good at visible and invisible roadblocks, is there one tiny step you can take, right now, to move yourself scared-but-joyfully along the path you envision for your self? Order the paint? Look something up? Send an email? Open a blank document? Get a small yellow sticky note and decide to fill Just that little space with something?

Don’t worry, you don’t have to DO anything so don’t panic, but can you think about who is the someone you *might* ask to help you? (more on this one soon!)