There’s GREAT POWER in a SECRET

 

HAVE YOU EVER FELT REALLY EXCITED ABOUT SOMETHING?

Have you ever been inspired to act on a thought that you just knew was right for you?

Have you ever said, “That’s it! I’m going to do it!”

Have you ever been so excited and inspired to act, only to share your idea with someone else who flatly pronounced the words that took all the energy and joy out of it, the words that brought you to a grinding halt and stopped you in your tracks, “IT won’t work.”

Who or what is IT? What law dictates that IT won’t work for me or that I even want IT to work for me? What if I am the one who decides how IT will work out? What if IT and I work together?

What if I decide, what if I captain the ship, what if I am the reason IT does work out?

At this point, there are two ways you can go. You can listen to the voice of another’s limitation or you can choose to go with your intuitively inspired action. One offers diminished capacity, regret, possible resentment and stagnation. The other offers you growth, self supporting challenge and infinite possibilities.

I’ve found myself in situations just like this over the years and I have had the privilege of working with some wonderful people, inspiring people, who have also experienced this type of fork in the road, and it is a fork in the road, because each decision will lead you down a road with very different outcomes.

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                                  What if I decide, what if I captain the ship
                                  What if I am the reason IT does work out?

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For me personally, a prominent real life example of not buying into somebody else’s disbelief and limited thinking was in 1996. I had attended a bodybuilding competition in Dublin and the girl who won amazed me and I was inspired to lift some weights and find my feminine muscle and power.

Things started off quite shakily, literally. My puney 48kg frame nearly cracked under the strain of a 5kg bench press and I got a nose bleed right there in the middle of the gym! I bled all down the front of my t-shirt. I felt so embarrassed and ridiculous that I wanted to run out of the place and never come back. I was a light weight and I was very much out of place in this no frills gym in the basement under a car mechanics body shop. (Interesting isn’t it, pounding bodies into shape in the mechanics garage and the basement below). How on earth did I hope to find my feminine muscle and power there!? I may not have chosen the most elegant location as my training ground, but I certainly did find grace, inner strength and resilience.

I choose not to take on the disbelief I could see in the eyes of others as they wondered what I was doing there, sometimes even offering to hand me the weights in case I couldn’t pick them up off the floor! I lifted the small weights and then I lifted some heavier ones, and then a bit more and a little more again, for six months. During this time I kept my gym antics a secret because I knew that somebody looking at me from the outside would probably see the practical challenges and unlikelihood of what I was striving to achieve, and I wasn’t prepared to take on board that doubt and allow it to undermine my self belief and commitment to my inspired action. Instead I focused completely on the result.

Of course the challenge of my secret mission and belief was inevitable, as it always is when we’re making a powerful statement in our lives. It came on a Friday night as I was walking out of the gym after my final workout.

The guy at the desk asked me if I was going to go to watch the National bodybuilding competition the following day. “No” I said, “I’m not”. “I’m entering it”. Writing this now still makes my heart beat a little harder, this was a huge moment for me. I felt like I was hanging on the edge of a canyon and I could topple over into the abyss of doubt and skulk off home, pull out of the competition and live to regret it, or I could hold my ground with every ounce of courage I had. He laughed at me and said “You’re what!?” I didn’t break eye contact with him, I was shaking but I did not sway. I decided in that moment to hold my ground.

Some other people, who were standing nearby, heard what was going on and began laughing too. I choose to leave before I cracked. In their defence, it was unheard of for someone to enter a bodybuilding contest after only 6 months of training. For me, that wasn’t enough reason not to do it. Yes it was risky, yes I was scared and yes I was dreading being on stage in a 2 piece in front of 2 thousand people, but there was something far stronger that propelled me to continue and that’s where I was focusing. At the time, I wasn’t sure what it was, but I trusted it and I followed it. I now know what that thing is, we have become very good friends and we have built an amazing relationship.

That thing is my spirit, my inner voice, the source of my inspired actions. My true self who will not be compromised.

I’m sure you’ve felt it too at defining times in your life.

When you keep a secret, make sure you know why you’re keeping the secret. If it’s out of fear you can be certain that the fear will find a way to challenge you at the most in-opportune moment.

If it’s to protect something that you believe in while it’s still a fledgling, until you have done some research or ground work, something that you feel inspired and compelled to do, then you keep that secret. You build the power and strength within yourself and around your project, and when you’re ready, when the time is right and you are sure of your resolve and commitment then you can fling open the windows and tell the world. Because by then, nobody can undermine your resolve, nothing can impose it’s disbelief upon you and most importantly, you will have learned the power of truly believing in yourself and what you can achieve.

Of course, I highly recommend expressing your power and believing in yourself from the outset, shout it from the roof tops and those who understand the power of belief and inspired action will carry you on their shoulders.

Remember this is not about secrecy or being subversive, it’s about magnifying and amplifying your inner power, courage and commitment. It’s about protecting what is aligned with your values. It’s about saying, I believe in me more than any doubt or fear. The voice I’m listening to is the clear one inside me, the voice of my spirit and IT knows what I am truly capable of !

How does this story end? The following week I went back to the gym and on my way in I quietly placed my 1st place trophy on the reception desk. I said nothing, I just looked the same guy in the eye and then headed for the change rooms, only this time I was shaking for completely different reasons.

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                                       “Whatever You can do or dream you can,
                                                                     BEGIN IT.
                                   Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.
                                                              BEGIN IT NOW.”
                                                  Johann Wolfgang Goethe

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