Recently, while at the Atlanta airport coming home after two weeks away, I was invited to a New York City rave. That night.
I considered not going—wasn’t I too old for that?
Who cares? I went for it. Landed. Grabbed a costume. Wound up having a blast. I almost let this story in my head about my age hold me back, but I was brave enough to kick it aside and live my life.
What about you? When was the last time you considered that you could live a braver life?
Every day, we turn on the news and are bombarded with scary stuff. What I’m most afraid of is waking up one day and realizing that I didn’t live the life I was meant to live.
There’s a hospice nurse who said that the most common thing she hears from people at the end of their lives is regret—especially for the things they didn’t do. So many of her patients say, “I never lived a life true to myself. I lived a life other people wanted me to live.”
I don’t want to feel that way at the end. Do you?
The scariest things are not moments that jump out at you but decisions that compound over your whole life.
As a writer, avoiding regret means digging as deep as possible and embracing radical vulnerability. In her memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou wrote, “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
Are you bearing a story that wants out?
It can be difficult to pull that story from deep inside and pour it onto the page, which is why coaching can be so helpful. In The Finishing School for Writers, I work with you to tackle the vulnerability and craft necessary to share your story in your unique way.
Don’t let that story sit inside until you regret holding onto it. Share it with the world.
May you tell your untold story,
Paulette
