The Direction of Intention

55.

Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

The actions you take each day are the things you are practicing in your life – they are the things you are reinforcing. What is the difference between what you are practicing and what you want to practice?

A friend once told me that his definition of health was the difference between who you are (what you practice) and who you believe yourself to be (what you want to practice): the shorter the distance the healthier the person.

Most of us experience a gap between those two poles. This is really a question of what you are willing to reveal and what you think you need to hide or protect; sharing yourself is vulnerable stuff especially if you are invested in what others might or might not think.

The days leading up to my first solo art show were excruciating. I loved my paintings while they were in the studio and hated them the moment they were hung on the gallery walls. They transformed before my eyes. I wanted to rip them down, apologize for my incompetence; I drowned myself in the fear of being a fraud.  The prospect of other people seeing my work, of seeing it through eyes over which I had no control, was terrifying. It was easy to be the artist secluded in the studio. The artist who shares his work was another matter entirely!

Many people came to the opening. I practiced hiding behind a glass of wine. What I learned was that some people liked my work, some people were indifferent, some people didn’t care for it, some people pretended to understand it, some people contemplated, some people came for the food…and none of what they saw or did had anything to do with me. My paintings provided a common focus for multiple perspectives. My fear of being a fraud was my own to nurture (practice) or release.

I learned the growth is always found in the gap. What are you practicing?

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