It’s hard to say no to the good.
If you read my story from a few weeks ago, Risk Failure and Try to be Aunt Harriet, you know I auditioned for a part in a play, and I didn’t get the part.
I wish I hadn’t auditioned.
It would have taken more courage to not audition than it took to audition. It is hard for me to say no to my desire to be on the stage. Yes, risk failure, try. Be brave.
But.
What are you risking failure for? The good or the best?
The play was good. I enjoy acting.
I would be lying if I said, “Oh, I really didn’t want the part.” I didn’t get the part, so I could pretend that I don’t care.
The truth is, I did want to be in the play. But, it wouldn’t have been the best.
We are our choices.
― Jean-Paul Sartre
Life is about making choices.
Steven Pressfield in his book “Turning Pro,” talks about Shadow Careers. The careers we pursue because we are afraid of pursuing our true calling.
In the shadow life, we live in denial and we act by addiction. We pursue callings that take us nowhere and permit ourselves to be controlled by compulsions that we cannot understand (or not aware of) and whose outcomes serve only to keep us caged, unconscious and going nowhere.
Steven Pressfield: page 18 Turning Pro
Do you know what you want to do? How do you like to spend your time? Steven Pressfield, in his late twenties and early thirties, drove trucks for a living.
What I was really doing was running away from writing. I wasn’t writing books. I wasn’t facing my demons. I was speculating at life through the movie screen of a cab-over windshild, while every mile I traveled only carried me farther away from where I needed to go and from who I needed to become.”
Steven Pressfield: Turning Pro- Tap your inner power and create your life’s work
The play I auditioned for was a shadow career. I wanted to be chosen. The desire to have someone say, “I choose you.” The addiction of an audience. Waiting for permission to be in someone else’s play, playing someone else. The play I want to be in now, is one I am writing myself. The play of my life, as a writer and a painter.
There is no one to say, I choose you. There is no one to say, “You have to get my permission first.”
You decide.
Give yourself permission to choose your part in the play of your life. Don’t ask for permission. Take it. [Would you like to tweet that? Here is the link. tweet tweet]
Do you want to be a writer? Then write. Do you want to paint? Then paint. Do you want to compose music? Then compose.
Every time you get an opportunity, take time to decide, “Is this good? or, is this the best?”
Sit quietly and ask yourself, “Hey, self. What do you really want? Do you want to paint napkin rings and sell them at a craft fair or do you want to write and illustrate a story about a woman who was stung by a bee and turned into Weed Woman, a super hero?
Write done your feelings if it helps you clarify your goals.
Say no to the good, so you can yes to the best.
Learn to say ‘no’ to the good so you can say ‘yes’ to the best.
John C. Maxwell
How do you spend your time? Are you pursuing a shadow career? Please share in the comments.
