Permission to Be What I Am

Permission to Be What I Am

by | Aug 16, 2010 | Self/Business Growth

Fly

\’\’

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.

Ma and God by Shel Silverstein

by | Aug 16, 2010 | My Journey | What's On My Mind

God gave us fingers–Ma says, “Use your fork.”
God gave us voices–Ma says, “Don’t scream.”
Ma says eat broccoli, cereal and carrots.
But God gave us tasteys for maple ice cream.

God gave us fingers–Ma says, “Use your hanky.”
God gave us puddles–Ma says, “Don’t splash.”
Ma says, “Be quiet, your father is sleeping.”
But God gave us garbage can covers to crash.

God gave us fingers–Ma says, “Put your gloves on.”
God gave us raindrops–Ma says, “Don’t get wet.”
Ma says be careful, and don’t get too near to
Those strange lovely dogs that God gave us to pet.

God gave us fingers–Ma says, “Go wash ’em.”
But God gave us coal bins and nice dirty bodies.
And I ain’t too smart, but there’s one thing for certain–
Either Ma’s wrong or else God is.

Shel Silverstein is my favourite poet. I’ve read Where the Sidewalk Ends a million times over. This poem is from it. He doesn’t think we need permission either.