Hello, 2021!
We have all lived through the tough year of 2020, and we welcome the new year with open arms, pinning our dreams and hopes to it, making our lists, and checking them twice. Call those lists resolutions, intentions, goals, or whatever, you have set down some sort of promise to this new year and yourself.
For me, I did my list a little different, calling it My 10 things for 2021, which consists of how I want to truly live my life, how I want to show up in the world as the real version of me, and what I don’t want in my life now. Before making my new list of 10 things, I first had to settle my struggle with permission.
First, let me circle back to the fall of 2020, when I had the realization that I was waiting for someone (don’t know who) to grant me permission to paint again, something I had not done in 40+ years. I had all my supplies ready to go, I even had what I wanted to paint in my head but I could not get it on the canvas.
Yes, there was fear involved, the fear of not getting it right like someone would correct me and point out my mistakes, but I knew there was something much bigger.
I was waiting for permission to start.
From whom, I do not know but in my head, I was waiting for the “Okay, go ahead, you have my permission” before I could start.
Once I had that realization, here’s what I did, I put on some disco music (yep, Donna Summers, Bee Gees) and started painting, not caring if it was perfect or if I was ready, I just started. And what I had envisioned in my head came out on my canvas, maybe not perfect in someone else’s eyes but perfect in mine and that’s is all that matters. And I’m continuing to paint and enjoying it more and more.
Ask yourself this, is the reason the same dreams/projects/ideas keep showing up year after year on your New Year’s list is because you may be waiting for someone to tell you it’s okay to start? And waiting for the “right” moment, time, or full moon eclipse to start is the exact same thing as waiting for permission.
What one thing will you take from your list and put into action in this new year, even before you feel ready? I’m granting you permission to bring more of YOU to the world and I hope you do!
Here’s to all of us, my wonderful tribe, to starting before we are ready!
Image by PicsbyFran from Pixabay