This is Part 2. For Part 1, click here.

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Did I tell you, The Designer in me has always had a bigger vision for you than you had for yourself?

Stop playing small.

As 2016 beckons, the burden burns.

I see something I cannot let go of. It’s a bigger you than you see. We’re missing your risk. We’re missing your Lead, with a capital L. We’re missing your dream, we’re missing the execution of your dream.

I know you don’t feel like you’re ready. It’s why you dream more than you do. I hate fear, masked as “wisdom”.

Didn’t you hear about Paris, Ann? Lebanon? Fear. Small. Safe. I’m just trying to figure it out, Ann. Maybe next year…..

Stop playing small!

I know you are frustrated some times. Even angry every now and then. In a righteous sort of way. I know you can hide bitter even though you never talk about it. I know you only occasionally drink or eat too much. At least compared to her. Or certainly him. I know. I know you perform. I know you hide.

But here’s the thing. You are that way because you are playing too small. There is a capital L Leader inside of you that is silently screaming to come out. Every time you let something slip, it tells me. You are playing too small.

You were made for more. Way more.

Two times in one week, I had the same encounter with different, (not yet doing) powerful people. 

Every year, when I seek in that secret place for the next season, the next year, I ask for patterns and insight.

Where are you moving wind? What is blowing where? What are you leaving? What are you bringing? What is your heart crying out for that we need to sit still to hear? Gather me. Lead me. Teach me. That I might gather, lead, teach.

I understand what I do best, today. It took me decades to be ok with it. For today, I am at peace at what I do best.

I see patterns, make observations and create pathways. I design, so you can thrive. I push, I gather. I simmer you, boil you and sometimes broil you. In love of course. Seared with purpose. YOURS.

You see, I need your dream to become a do. I die without the best you in this world. You owe me your risk, your heart, your Lead with a capital L.

Don’t ask me to nail your details. I don’t do that. The big picture? I hammer that. Your big picture? It’s time.

Stop playing small.

Remember, I have always had a bigger vision for you than you have for yourself. Mixed Media Art. My specialty. It takes every material you know. It all works together. Body & Soul. Spirit & Mind. Industry & Intention. Mixed Media Art.

Don’t tell me you only are one thing. I am only this. No, you’re not.

You are a painter who uses every media: body & soul, spirit & mind, industry & intention.

You are a Mixed Media Artist. I can see you, you see. Body & Soul. Spirit & Mind. Industry & Intention. Mixed Media you see. It’s the key.

I ran into this powerful and beautiful woman. She almost became what she was supposed to be. I left the encounter sad. Then I got mad.

Why doesn’t someone tell her I shout in my heart?! Can’t she see?!!!

Oh. Eerie quiet in my soul.

Stop playing small.

She could be so much more. But she was playing too small. And my life was missing something because she would not become big.

I hate you fear. I despise you pride. religion, you who mask yourself in too many outfits to count, are a spirit straight from hell. And no, you do not get a capital r.

This woman is a world changer. She doesn’t know it. Or maybe she does. In the wee small hours of an ordinary night when everyone else has gone to bed and the tears flow. Or the house is just too clean, or the whatever is just too whatever. But still, no big.

Stop living small.

Does she even know there is an exit door? To this thing called small?

Stop living small.

She lives in every neighborhood. Her competency, inner and outer beauty are way bigger than every lie she has surrounded herself with, starting with her own.

I can’t.

What will they think.

What if I fail.

What if I make the wrong move.

It’s not time.

What will they say?

I can’t afford another mistake.

But my kids need me…my (whatever) needs me (stop living small).

I’m afraid. To. Look. Stupid. Like you.

Stop playing small.

She calls her carefully crafted life big. She calls it noble. She calls it local. She calls it sacrifice. Stewardship. Love. Giving. Green. Powerful even. She calls it work. Volunteer. Philanthropy.

It’s all a lie. A very convenient, safe, constructed carefully, lie. And somewhere deep she knows it.

Part 1 is here, Part 3 is here