Hello Friend 🙂
I have been wracking my brain for the last several months about what I should offer on Mondays.
Knowing that creativity is something that grows as you feed it, and wanting to have some new content to stir your mind and heart every week day, I knew there needed to be something special on Mondays to start the week off right.
If you do not already know, I post a new video every Tuesday and Thursday on Youtube, and here on the blog there are new posts every Wednesday and Friday with added thoughts on the videos I have made. I also post daily on Instagram. So I am pretty good with sharing something most days.
But.
That left Monday.
Wide open and full of potential.
Where there is potential, I get excited.
Because expansion is always on the heels of potential.
As I pondered what I wanted to do, I had all the same kind of thoughts I imagine all creatives have.
"What do people want?"
"What are people caring about right now?"
"Does anyone read anymore? Should I bother with a written post?"
"What is of value? What is worth people's precious time? What can I give that is from my heart?"
Then, I had a revelation. And it was this:
"You will be a success if you learn to talk about what those who are listening to you care about. There is no doubt about this.
But.
You will be a revolutionary, you will change the game, change the way we think, the way we care, and what we care about if you talk about what YOU care about.
If you want to help keep this world ticking along, talk to people about what they are caring about. You will often have to muster enthusiasm, and what you say will sometimes hit and sometimes miss. We will grow, but only a little.
If you want to make waves, just talk about what you care about. What keeps you up at night. What makes you angry. What makes you cry. What makes you laugh. What makes you stay up all night for weeks straight working and toiling.
This kind of passion shifts shit. Forever.
You choose."
Do what is on your heart. People really dig that shit, as they say.
So that is what I am going to do 🙂
Every Monday I am going to post my "Monday Musings" - using this space as an outlet for whatever is most heavily weighing on my heart that week. Whatever I feel has the most power to transform ME. Whatever has been growing and stretching and changing my mind. I will offer it as a service to you, because I know that we are all one. As I grow, share and change, so do you.
With that idea in mind, I want to turn around and extend this invitation to your heart.
I invite you to start producing the art that matters to you.
To start talking about what you care deeply for.
To start sharing what it is that keeps you awake at night.
To start allowing whatever is rocking your world right now OUT.
If you are in any kind of position where you share content with others, give yourself a break from trying to figure out your 'target audience.' Try to give yourself a break from speaking to the audience you have.
Stop.
Saying.
What.
You.
Think.
We.
Want.
To.
Hear.
Say what you want to say. Share what you want to share. BE YOURSELF.
You may find, over time, that this makes you a kind of magnet. It creates an aura, a glow about you. It turns you into the kind of person that people want to listen to. The kind of person people make time in their schedules for. The kind of person that people 'subscribe' to and 'follow.'
Because your enthusiasm is your magnetism. It is that extra something special that sets you apart from everyone else.
Your content - in and of itself - will not.
Nothing is new. We have all heard it before. We have all said it before. We have all expressed it before.
But we have never done it how YOU do it. We have never seen it through your lens. Through your story. Through your experience.
We need YOU. We do not need another person preaching to a choir they believe exists. We do not need one more person telling us what we want to hear. We do not need another version of someone else.
Now is the time to step into who you are. To step into what you care about.
To share what rips your heart apart.
To write about what makes you cry.
To sing the song you can't get out of your head.
To pain the piece full of the colours you are drawn to.
To speak out about what drives you fucking insane.
It is your time to be you.
This is what will help you shine. This is what will make you a lasting figure in whatever your field is. This is what will draw your audience to you.
Of course, do not do it for those things.
Express because what is in you must be expressed. Do the work because the work needs to be done. But know that the work will reap fruits. Maybe not the fruits you want, maybe not in the way you expected, but in a way that will make you more fulfilled than any ideal client worksheet will ever make you feel.
Still get to know your ideal client. Still be willing to get on the level of those you are here to serve. But do it from YOUR heart. Do make time to express exactly what you care about, on a regular basis. Serve in the way that feels most authentic to you.
This is where all you power is friend.
Lovingly, and with a slight tinge of sass and crass,
Ali
