Pick yourself.

Now is the right time.

If you waiting for someone else to ask you to do what it is you do, you may be waiting a very long time.

A conversation with someone within my organisation underlined this for me only yesterday.  Their most important comment was that I was smiling when I described the work I’m developing.  Others have said this too; it’s not inconsequential and I’ll say more in a moment.

Annie Dillard offers this crucial insight:

‘Why do you not find anything written about the idiosyncratic
thoughts you advert to, about your fascination with something
no one else understands?  Because it is up to you.’

What is it you do which makes you smile?  You wonder what’s going on with your face and you realise you’ve just been contributing your art and it’s made a difference.

When people tell me about what they love to do, they light up with energy.

There are two kinds of time: chronos – days, hours, minutes – and kairos – the time to begin, the time in which we find ourselves.  When these connect – we do the thing we do in the hours and minutes and seconds of our days – then we are doing the thing we must do.

There are lots of different things we need to be about to make this happen – we need reflective time, intimate time, workshop time, collaborative time, perch time (moments ‘to pause and lean for a brief encounter’ – i.e., reconnecting).

But don’t wait for the moment when someone will see what you do and fall over with amazement.  Now is the time to pick yourself.

(Seth Godin’s quote in today’s cartoon comes from V is for Vulnerable.)