Fear of inspiration?!
I’ve mentioned Sophie Hainsworth on this blog before – most recently in this week’s installment of Freakin’ (Great Links) Friday – but she recently sent me an email that I HAD to bring your attention to.
It started:
“I invite you to take part in a creative project between you and your trusted friends, to bring further awareness to the fact that inspiration is everywhere…”
She asks then for an email in return that states the ways that you find her inspiring, and she in turn will send an email back to you saying how you inspire her. Sophie also requests that you send the e-mail to your girlfriends (aka Magnificent Marvelous Women) as sort of a chain letter.
I loved this project right away, and yet I balked at it at the same time. Why, I would be happy to tell Sophie how I find her inspiring – there were so many reasons: her energy, her adventuresome spirit, her willingness to try new things, her focus, her sass, etc – but sending it to others?! How scary is that?! The people pleaser in me does not want to request such things to my friends/family! Wouldn’t that be putting them out? Wouldn’t that be bothering them? Wouldn’t that be fishing for a compliment?
Wouldn’t that be a wonderful thing to bring into your life? The words of people who inspire you as to why they find you inspiring? How….inspiring! It could be the most wonderful of all chain letters – to send to your friends the way you find them inspiring and they can return the favor. I think, then, I would write down those words, make a Tag Cloud, and put them over my desk when I doubt myself.
If you want to join Sophie & I on this mini-project, you can join us at Magnificent Marvelous Women, or email me & I’ll be happy to forward you the email.
This request is scary for me, but here it is: If you’d like to leave a comment and tell me how you find me inspiring, I will certainly do the same for you. Eek! Scary but exciting.
UPDATE AS OF FEB 9, 2009: I have created a page where all my inspiring comments live. I’ve made a Word Cloud but don’t know how to make it appear on the page in anything but a bunch of code – but I’m working on it! View my list here, but feel free to still comment below.
Tags: Link Love
December 22nd, 2008 at 2:18 am
I find your openness about your fear and your willingness to find a way to do things despite it inspiring!
Especially since I'm totally with you on the scariness of asking for people's thoughts on this…
Cheers,
Alex
December 22nd, 2008 at 5:14 am
I'll second the comment from Alex, it's great though because I think that only when we are willing to become more open do we become more real. Then, often the fear surrounding an issue dissipates, or loses it's bite. When we realise that our fears are human and are experienced by all of us, it's then that we can embrace them and move ahead in life. It's as though our fears then become just part of who we are.
Sometimes we may fear that our friends really don't find us inspiring, and if they don't then maybe it really is time to find new friends who do! Because the truth is that we are ALL inspirational and we need the support of people who are able to recognise and feed that part of us. So, in essence a fear of your friends not finding you inspiring could be part of a bigger fear of becoming successful. You may know deep down that this exercise may cause you to shed friendships and relationships that may not be serving you, and to find new friends and new ways to be inspiring, which means shedding baggage, limiting beliefs, evolving as a person and catapulting you into success! And, are you ready for success? Are you ready to be even bigger than you are now?
By the way, this was aimed at everyone when I used the word "you"!!
December 22nd, 2008 at 5:25 am
Hi Michelle,
I am really inspired that you showed so much enthusiasm for for what started off as a "mini -project". In fact I realise now that I should have given the project mroe justice and called it a "huge" project" or a "magnificent" project, to convey it's boldness. It just goes to prove one of my main driving forces behind launching Magnificent Marvelous Women, which is how powerful women can be when they come together and give support to each other's dreams!
The things I find inspiring about you are:
Your really funky online identity/presence
Your empathy
Your really cool outlook on life
Your colourful personality
Your ability to encourage and give kudos unconditionally
Your unique creativity
Your energy
Your commitment to your coaching business, and your willingness to listen as well as go the extra mile and motivate and praise in a genuine way
Your ability to separate the things that matter from the bulls**t – very cool
The fact that you seem super happy in your own skin, and with your life
Your ability to pinpoint positive traits and celebrate people
Your natural ability as a coach
You have inspired me to journal more!
The fact that you have pedicures and go to happy hour! Good for you!!
Your ace profile photo, there is definitely a really funky energy about it (you could ask people what impression/reaction they get when they see your profile picture on twitter/your website etc cos for me for some reason it's really motivating!!)
Yes, there is so much fear surrounding this exercise, it would be interesting for a client to do it and then see how their fears in general have shifted afterwards.
December 22nd, 2008 at 10:10 am
Alex – Thanks for your comment, and for admiring my fear! Seems funny but when I hear stuff like this it gives me more purpose to go and do this scary thing. I think I had a big shift when I confronted a big scary fear of mine (heights) by taking a helicopter ride – and loving it! My post on that is here in case you missed it: http://is.gd/d19H
Sophie – What's so funny in this fear is that it might not be a blip on your friend's radar! Those that it speaks to will partake, but those that don't – will just press Delete & not give it a second thought. I have to remind myself of that when I say "no" to something. Usually I build it up into this huge thing where I have to make a worthy excuse so I don't hurt the other person's feelings – but who am I to determine what a worthy excuse is for someone else? And how much of a headache is that for me? Geez Louise Louise. Now I've found that I can just say, "Oh, I'm so sorry, that won't work for me" and I'm not even asked why! They don't care why! They just say, "What about this date?" or "When will it work for you?" or "Too bad, so sad."
And thanks so much for posting why you find me inspiring! I was hoping you'd do that
I already posted yours on the Marvelous Magnificent Women blog (http://magnificentmarvelouswomen.wordpress.com/) but I'll happily do it again:
I find so many things inspiring about you:
* your energy
* your passion
* your enthusiasm
* your thrill at adventure
* your sense of risk
* your ability to look inward and discover what both is and is not “working” for you
* your commitment to change
* your eagerness to learn
* your sassiness
* your focus when you have a goal to reach
* your determination
* your bravery!
December 22nd, 2008 at 10:51 am
Just emailed this out to my friends! Feel free to copy & paste!:
Hi my favorite ladies,
I invite you to take part in a creative project between you and your trusted friends, to bring further awareness to the fact that inspiration is everywhere. It is within us, and it is in other people. We just need to bring attention to it to make it come alive!
I am sending this little project to all my ladies that inspire me, So,if you want to e-mail me personally with how you find me inspiring, I will be happy to tell you how I find you inspiring, too. Yes, it seems needy and embarrassing, but I did this with my client Sophie (who started this project) & it had the opposite effect! I hope you all know how much you mean to me, but I want the chance to tell you in specifics. Also, with being thisclose to finishing my coaching school & delving into the intent of being a full-time life coach, I can use the words of encouragement in 2009! I'm planning on taking all the words and phrases I receive, printing them out & framing them on a single page of paper to hang over my desk. That way I can look at them while I'm working and remember how freaking awesome/inspiring I am.
This is honestly a very scary thing for me to ask you to do this, & I absolutely do not want anyone to feel like they have to partake in this. If you're not interested just trash this email – no harm done. But if you want to participate know that it's coming right back to ya! You can also pass this email along chain letter style & see what your other loved ones say.
Talk to you all soon!
Love, me
(Taken from Sark's "Make your creative dreams real – a plan for procrastinators, perfectionists, busy people, and people who would really rather sleep all day")
December 22nd, 2008 at 10:54 am
How you inspire me:
Your ability to be yourself, no diluting, no apologies, no holding back
Your unbridled enthusiasm for coaching and being a coach!
Your sense of humor
Your keen, curious mind
Your commitment to moving forward despite that pesky day job
Your imagination — you always have interesting blog posts
Your ability to see the best in others
And that winning personality I am always alluding to!
December 22nd, 2008 at 10:55 am
I find you inspiring cos you posted this on twitter and acknowledged your fear! And ASKED for us to respond. Good on ya
December 23rd, 2008 at 3:28 am
Thanks Joanne & Tia! I'll email/tweet ya both separately to give the inspiration right back to ya. It means so much that you commented!