How to get unstuck: don’t allow the fear of looking bad stop you from getting good

I felt stuck, stymied, and mired for years. 

I felt I could do more, give more.

I wanted to build an audience and a brand.

But I was unwilling to begin.

I wanted to already “be there.”

To have MADE it. 

And in the wanting so badly to “be there”, I stayed trapped for years.

One day, about a year ago, I did something simple: 

I decided I would take the smallest step I could think of toward building my platform.

So I wrote one post for LinkedIn. 

I did it nervously, self-consciously…and put it online.

Very few liked or commented. Hardly anyone even noticed.

Despite my self-consciousness, I was sick and tired of being sick and tired.

So the next day, I got up and posted again.

And again, and again, and again.

Fast forward 15 months. 

My posts on LI reached 1,161,566 people in the first 2 months of 2021. 

That’s like speaking with every single person who lives in Dallas, Texas—the 9th largest city in the US.  

And all just because I was willing to keep showing up.

This is what 1 million people looks like.

I’m not special, nor a particularly gifted writer. I don’t even enjoy social media. 

But I am persistent and the effort is slowly bearing fruit. 

And I’ll soon be launching The Daily Creative (more on this in the coming weeks).

My posts have netted dozens of podcast invites, earned dozens of new clients, r in dozens of talks. 

But more importantly, it’s given me the willingness to invest, to put myself out there. 

To start. 

This is just the beginning.

As Brené Brown so wonderfully said, “courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen.” 

So here’s my message for anyone with a project or a goal marinating in their mind: 

Stop waiting. Start creating. Start letting yourself be seen.

Not the fake-you you wish you were r think you ought to be. 

Share the real you as you are today, scars and all. 

Do it. Every. Single. Day. 

Start showing up and letting yourself be seen. 

“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation, and go to the grave with the song still inside them,” said Thoreau. 

Don’t let that be you. 

Simply put: don’t allow the fear of looking bad stop you from getting good.