Share Your Inspiration, Even If You Are Sporting Scary Hair
Now more than ever, people need to feel joy. They need to feel seen and heard. They need to belong. They need to feel appreciated. They need to feel loved.
If you are like me, you have a passion for filling that need, and you know that doing so comes with amazing perks. Not only will you light up someone's day, you will also inspire them be more present and engaged in their personal and professional lives. Those little moments of levity and inspiration shake us out of our funks and can be just the thing we need to push through one more meeting, create one more spreadsheet and make one more phone call.
Last week, I had inspiration hit me, and it came in the form of a new Jason Mraz song. As a business and professional speaker who has a pretty intense hoopdancing hobby, I was thrilled to hear a new-to-me song from my absolutely favorite artist. My tribe of fans and followers have enjoyed my hoopdance videos in the past, so I thought it may be a good time to record another. However, there were lots of barriers to getting it done: I wasn't wearing the "right" clothes, my face was makeup-free, and my hair...well, let's just say that my hair was Simba-like in nature.
Maybe you have found yourself in a similar situation. You want to share an inspiring or informative message with your team, but you don't have all of your ducks in a row yet. You have reservations because it's not perfect. You wait...and wait...and wait some more. Life being what it is, you get busy, distracted and focused on some other shiny-object, er, I mean pressing issue, that comes your way. The opportunity to emotionally engage your team is gone.
Here's what you can do to take advantage of those less-than-perfectly timed moments of inspiration:
1. Don't Wait for Perfect. You will never have all of the stars lined up to get your message out exactly as you want it. If you wait for it all to be pristinely delivered, you'll be waiting a lonnnnng time (and so will your tribe). If you have the urge to share, SHARE. Don't get caught up in the comparison trap of thinking that everything needs to look like it came from a Hollywood production.
2. Don't Dilly-dally. We are in a rapid-implementation business cycle, and time will wait for no one. When you have something to deliver to your customers, team or tribe, even if it's only part of the story, tell that story as purposefully and passionately as you can. Ride the wave of urgency to get it out to the world ASAFP. Don't be a Scarlett O'Hara and say, "Fiddle dee dee; I'll think about it tomorrow." Definitely getting it done now is infinitely better than possibly getting it done sometime in the future.
3. Gut It Out. Invariably, you'll run into snags on your journey. In my case, I had a heckuva time purchasing the song, finding it my computer and then actually having iMovie recognize it as a usable track. (I've got about 17 iTunes libraries on my hard drive, external hard drive, and thumb drives; Don't ask. It involves the co-mingling of my teenager's libraries and other atrocities.) When you run into a nasty hairball that you have to maneuver in, around, over or under, just keep breathing, take it slow, and keep your eyes on the prize. Make a goal for yourself that you won't go to bed until your masterpiece has been shared. Do whatever you need to do to work through the nasties to get 'er done. If you need help, ask for it. If you don't have the help, hire it out. (I'm a big fan of Upwork.com and Fiverr.com)
4. Let Go. No matter how brilliant you think your inspirational message is, it is only as good as how it lands with others. (My little video got over 500 views within a few hours of posting it on Facebook.) Your job isn't to orchestrate the response (as if you could anyway); it is only to deliver compelling content to as many people as possible who may benefit from it. If they love it, great!! If they don't, oh well. Don't stop just because you didn't set the room on fire with this one. You never know what roads you are paving with your contributions that seem to go unnoticed.
When we recognize those oh-so-gentle nudges to inspire another and then actually take action on them, we are making a difference in an often scary, sad, and scarce world. Through our actions, we declare that we are doing something to stem the tide of negativity in favor of putting just a little more joy back into the workplace and home space. The next time you get the nudge, act on it; the world needs it.
Even if you have scary hair.
*****
Theresa Rose is a business and motivational speaker, award-winning author and hardcore hoopdancer who works with organizations to help their teams sell more, lead stronger and live better. She is a proud Minnesotan and President of her local chapter of the National Speakers Association. For more information, visit TheresaRose.com. You betcha.
#JasonMraz #leadership #sales #attitude #inspiration #hoop #hoopdance