I’ve always avoided the spotlight at all costs. I don’t seek it, I don’t want it, and I tend to walk briskly in the opposite direction when it comes my way. I’m a writer, the voice behind the scenes, the Cyrano behind a company’s sales force or executives. I guide others’ words; I don’t deliver them myself. And even when I do use my own voice on my blog or Twitter, it’s behind the invisible cloak of the written word.
When I met with Dyana Valentine last weekend, I had a sneaking suspicion that she would want to post a video interview to her blog discussing my 40 Day commitment. I came up with a dozen excuses for why I couldn’t do it. And then she asked me and my mind went blank. Much to my surprise, I found myself sitting on the porch in front of her computer, letting iMovie work its recording magic.
And that was when it hit me: I can do this. I’m not the awkward 15-year-old standing in front of my Biology class, reading a paper about lesions in the livers of mice. (In hindsight, perhaps a sophomore writing a paper about hepatic lesions just might have been foreshadowing about my career choice.) I’m not the gangly 16-year-old that nearly hyperventilated before delivering and analyzing the Hamlet soliloquy in front of my 18-person English class. I’m a confident and knowledgeable adult. What do I have to be nervous about?
As strange as it sounds, this has opened doors for me. I’m not saying that I want to immediately run out and sign up to give a speech to thousands of people, but it’s given me enough of a wake-up call to remind me that there are lots of opportunities outside the four walls of my home office. Maybe I should be doing more to shake things up and rattle myself out of my comfort zone.