By the Ocean
Partly Cloudy 74 Degrees
5:54 a.m.
We want people to buy what we have, but so many of us have an allergy to talking about ourselves.
I know. I talk to you. Business owners from all over the world. I hear those very words…often.
“I don’t like talking about myself…”
You want them to buy, but you don’t want to talk about yourself. That’s a little bit like saying you want to go swimming but you don’t want to get wet.
That’s a little bit like saying you want to go swimming but you don’t want to get wet.
Why is this so?
If we know that humans are thinking about themselves just about every moment of every day…that inside the mind, it’s pretty much, ME, ME, ME all day long…
…then why is it such a problem to talk to the world about our favorite subject?
Why is it so challenging to spit out, in the simplest of words, “I am talented and amazing?”
Do we think other folks won’t agree?
Do we, deep down, in our heart of hearts, not agree ourselves?
What’s going on? And more importantly, what can we do to resolve this inner conflict that keeps the truth from getting out to the world?
Why do we think it’s moral and just to tell the truth about everyone and everything EXCEPT ourselves?
Because we were never taught how to develop the capacity to hold the power of our own brilliance.
Think of the last time someone really paid you a compliment right to your face. What did you do? How did you feel? Where did your eyes move to?
How would you have felt if that compliment had been delivered to you in front of a large audience of people.
Most people can’t hold an incoming energetic charge as powerful as the one that you receive when someone on the outside appreciates your brilliance.
When your brilliance gets reflected back to you, the energy often can’t be received head on. It’s too strong. It has to be redirected, pushed off to the side, put somewhere, anywhere except right in the middle of your solar plexus, the seat of the power you hold on this plane. So you look away. Or you look down. Or you make a joke or say “it’s no big deal” or offer some other defense to diminish the power of the incoming charge.
You have to diminish it. Carrying it is too uncomfortable. It’s just too much.
Schooling teaches us many things. One thing it does not teach us is how to carry and connect with our own power.
If you can’t connect with that power inside, if you don’t have the capacity to hold that no matter what is happening “out there,” then talking about yourself is going to feel gross.
If you CAN connect with the power you hold inside, then talking about yourself is going to feel like a valuable act of service you offer to the world.
I have an intimate understanding of this journey. I received no training in the art of carrying this energy. In shouldering the energy of my own brilliance in a way that enriched the world. It is for this reason I’ve made so many resources, like this and this, to help with this important part of business.
I was taught to push this power away. I was taught to direct it to others. I was taught to downplay it at every opportunity.
It took me a long time to realize what a selfish and cowardly thing that is to do. To take that incoming energy from a well meaning human and push it somewhere else, as though I didn’t want it at all. All because I was too scared and too weak to carry it.
I wanted people to see my brilliance, but I was too scared to show them or tell them about it.
This is the insanity of the Matrix.
If you truly want to serve people, develop the capacity to carry your own brilliance. To show it. To speak about it. To make it clear that brilliance exists and that it is available for those who want it.
Talking about yourself has nothing to do with you. It has everything to do you with your desire to serve others by making it clear who you can help and who you cannot.