Permission to Be What I Am

August 16, 2010 in Growing · Written by Tara Joyce · Follow Me on Twitter

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Can you provide it for me?

Unfortunately, I’ve agreed that in order for me to be something, I need external validation to be so.

Things aren’t real and true because I feel them. They’re true when something bigger than me validates them.

They’re true when some else agrees.

Like you.

Will ‘credentials’ make me confident being what I am?

It’s easier to feel confident about what you’re doing when you have them.

An MBA will give me permission to have confidence as an entrepreneur.
A formal art education will allow me to paint and create without guilt, and scorn.
A literary agent will make me feel like a real writer.

I know I don’t need to rely on outside authority to proclaim I’m good enough to do what I feel.

I  just need to do it. And keep doing it.

Whether you or They like it or not.

I don’t need your ‘Go Ahead’.

Though I understand why I want it.

I need help sometimes. I need someone to tell me what the right thing to do is.

Except the only person who truly knows what I need to do is me. And I know that now.

I don’t need your permission.

It’s support and encouragement for those things most tender within me that I need.

I need space to be what I am. I need to feel that you respect my passion and my choices.

photo credit: Funkyah

Have you heard of the Personal MBA? This article was inspired in part by it’s Rule #1: You Don’t Need Permission. Thank you, Bill Boulton, for the reference.

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  • TDKtalks

    How true. We spend alot of time always wanting someone to validate us & what we do/want to do.
    Very good post. Good for us to remember next time we doubt something we want to achieve. Do it anyways, regardless of what someone says.

  • TDKtalks

    Yes, for the longest time I realized I was always seeking qualification, from people. I found myself always trying to prove myself to other people. Growing up in a small town, being raised of high moral standards by both my parents & being an avid people person, didn't help either. I don't know if it's a part of society today, but the only time you will find it is when someone wants or needs something from you. You then become “a stepping stone across the creek in the wilderness”. Excellent article.

  • http://www.elasticmind.ca/innerpreneur/ Tara Joyce

    Thank you, Jeff. Those words are beautiful. And you introduced them to
    me.

  • http://www.elasticmind.ca/innerpreneur/ Tara Joyce

    Wonderfully said, Terry.

  • http://www.elasticmind.ca/innerpreneur/ Tara Joyce

    Terry, you made me look at what I wrote from a different perspective
    with your words. Thank you.