#Trust30: What is "Your Work"?

Do your work, and I shall know you. Do your work, and you shall reinforce yourself. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

What is your work? If you think it’s the place you go every day, you’re being too literal. Your “work,” in this case, is that which you pursue with passion. It’s using your talent, whatever that may be. If you use your talent, I will know you – the real you, not the cookie-cutter corporate you or the idealized, sanitized you.

Truly using your talent – “[d]o[ing] your work” – can be frightening. Despite all our cultural talk about the importance of being an individual, we are a nation with a few originals and millions of copies. If you are a copy, you aren’t reinforcing yourself – you are reinforcing the original.

When you stop imitating and start using your talent as you were always intended to, you step away from the crowd and become something original. It can be frightening. Some copies will try to stop you by telling you not to make a fool of yourself. Others will mock you. Most of them will pretend that you haven’t changed at all, even when the evidence is laid before them. However, the originals will recognize, befriend, and encourage you.

And so, here is the challenge Emerson has laid before each of us:

Use your talents, become an original, and discover your true value.

#Trust30: Fear

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I am terrified of heights.

This means that my dream of standing at the top of the Eiffel Tower may never happen.

This fear is not worth more than the experiences I have already missed. I didn’t climb to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa or take the elevator up the St. Louis Arch because I was afraid. It would be ridiculous to allow this fear to continue to rule my life.

I like to think that my fear only affects me, but it doesn’t. Because I’m afraid, my husband doesn’t get to do these things, either. Not that I would stop him – but he doesn’t like to leave me on the ground while he goes up without me. Do I really want to go to Paris and stand at the base of this incredible structure instead of standing on top and seeing the whole of Paris?

My greatest fear has always been that my weight will somehow cause the collapse of whatever structure I am standing on – which is patently ridiculous. With the exception of being taller than most women, I am a normal-sized human being. I’ve watched as bigger men, both in stature and weight, did what I feared to do.

I won’t let this fear stop me anymore. There are cityscapes and vistas I want to see, and I’ll never see them while standing on the ground. I’m done letting this interfere with my life.