Launching Your Career Into the World

A feature article by Tama J. Kieves, Mar 12, 2008         

The following is a book excerpt from THIS TIME I DANCE! Creating the Work You Love (How One Harvard Lawyer Left It All to Have It All!) by Tama J. Kieves (www.ThisTimeIDance.com) reprinted by permission of the author.

I don’t know a better way to march our dreams into the world other than to just march our dreams into the world. You could wait for the world to invite you to the banquet and the ball. Or you could just show up in your red dress and your headdress ready to boogie. I think the red dress is in order. The universe has invited us all to thrive in our lives and no one and nothing is ever holding us back.

I know so many creative soul friends who cloister their abilities like pearls in oyster shells beneath the sea, praying, hoping, sinking, aching and waiting, waiting, waiting. They wait for their chance like some kind of leprechaun to appear in the tall grasses with an embossed invitation from the queen. You are the queen. And it’s not chance that creates our chances.

We have enough opportunities to share, showcase, and refine our talents right in the here and now. Belt out your song over the baked beans at the company picnic now, paint postcards to your friends, practice telling your stories at the Jewish nursing home where somebody’s mother sleeps in loneliness for most of the day, interview a fascinating person for your community newspaper, or design a Web site for a firecracker organization you believe in. Tiny actions taken with huge-heartedness awaken big breaks and breakthroughs. Some of the richest opportunities come in the plainest of circumstances.

Fling those precious pearls like dandelion seeds to the breeze. Let life get wind of you. Sharing your gifts invigorates and promotes them. Talents intensify with use. Meanwhile, guarding your gifts keeps them in the dark where they do not grow or glow. Waiting until “the right time” usually means waiting in your sea cave until you have achieved artistic perfection in this lifetime— which you will never do; and this can make it tricky to attract a clientele. There is a time to go inward. But then comes the time to no longer hide your love.

Alice, a former nurse and budding photographer, says she realized one day that the National Geographic wasn't going to ship her off on safari until she logged some mileage on her own khakis and camera. So she assigned herself an expedition, shooting cactus flowers in the dawn of a California desert. She bought an airline ticket, a dozen rolls of film, and a journal with a sunrise on the cover. Later, she titled and matted and framed the prints as though they were destined for gallery walls. She labeled them with her biography and vision statement, and distributed them as Christmas presents to family, friends, and some acquaintances. Alice presented her art as art instead of as an apologetic hobby she’d stuffed in her closet and hid from the world’s awaiting embrace.

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Months later, an assistant to a travel magazine editor studied a photograph she liked in the bathroom of her hairdresser’s house at a New Year's Eve party. Three months later, the editor of the magazine gave Alice an assignment and a reason to believe in a destiny filled with sunrises. “Did you ever observe to whom the accidents happen? Chance favors only the prepared mind,” noted scientist Louis Pasteur.

Years ago, when I decided to start creativity coaching, I sweet-talked a few friends, even begged and bribed some, to sit with me on my seen-better-days, beige couch and let me work my seedling magic on them. I just couldn’t wait to help creative people honor their inspired dreams. Yet throughout each session, I flourished when our work together unlocked a hidden wonder. My experimentation matured into expertise and even more enthusiasm for my work. Later, these “clients” became walking advertisements for me that attracted real, non-bribed business. I started an entrepreneurial momentum by starting in an innocent moment.

So can you. Start somewhere, anywhere, and the magnetism of heartfelt action will take you to the next destination. Just hop on the train. Our world needs your inklings and original abilities, your caring hands, and customized pipeline to the infinite and sublime. There are whispers and pleas in the air calling your name. Please don’t hold yourself back any longer, waiting in isolation for your invitation. The hours that you “give away” will give you back golden soul feathers in your cap, hands-on training, a spiral notebook of contacts, fire in the belly, smoke signals in the heart, and friends in the field. You just can’t beat that rate of exchange.

So gorge yourself on experience. Experience is power. Experience is exposure. Experience leads to experience which leads to expertise and glowing auras. And, boy, when you’re talking glowing auras, there’s no telling what you’ll attract after that.

It’s easier to assume your place in the world than you think.

Opportunity always rushes to experience. And we can give ourselves experience at any moment—by giving of our gifts.

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