Stop Waiting to be Picked

It starts in elementary school. In gym class. At recess. Everyone standing along the wall, ready to join, waiting to hear their name.

It continues through middle and high school. Play auditions. Gifted programs. Team tryouts. The cool-kid clique. Everyone showing up, best foot forward, waiting to be picked.

College applications.

Job interviews.

Promotion panels. 

With few exceptions, every step on our path to advancement involves us waiting and worrying and wondering and working to get ourselves picked. To be let in.

[Photo: Soldiers in period costume guarding a fort tower.]

It is cultural training meant to keep society organized and orderly. It is a an ancient system that preserves the current hierarchy. 

The bosses pick the bosses of the bosses who pick you.

The gate-keepers guard the entry-ways to keep us riffraff from getting through.

The cool-kids turned into the cool-(mostly) men. The captains of the dodge ball team are now the captains of industry. 

And you - ever polite and raised right - will stand along the wall, waiting to see if you make the team. Just like always. At least that's what they're hoping...

Because that waiting? that patience? that standing in line? It doesn't change anything.

It keeps us small. It keeps us quiet. It keeps them in charge. It keeps the status quo - you truly want to change - firmly in its place.

That's the opposite of what we're doing here...

And it's a criminal waste of your Genius.

Stop waiting to be picked.

Stop waiting for permission.

Stop waiting for someone to say that you are allowed to care -  because you already do.

Stop waiting for someone to give you your chance to lead - because you already can.

Stop waiting for someone to request the pleasure of your presence or your voice or your work. Stop waiting to be nominated. Or discovered. Or asked to join. Or invited in. 

That permission slip you're looking for, simply isn't coming.

[Quote: "You don't have to ask permission to take responsibility." - Ed Catmull, Creativity, Inc.

You can lament that fact. You can rage. Please do! Get pissed! Let that fire fuel your determination to do something that ignites a change. 

You can roll your eyes and shake your head. You can shrug your shoulders. Just please don't quit!

Accept that this idea - that you must wait for somebody else to give you permission - is a lie designed to hold you back.

You already have the necessary authority.

Because you are the necessary authority.

This is your life. Take responsibility.

You already have permission. 

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References:

Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert

Choose Yourself: Be Happy, Make Millions, Live the Dream by James Altucher

Creativity, Inc: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace