141: The ten seconds that changed everything.

Three delights + My birthday wish

Dear Friends, I have a birthday wish. Please read on to find out what it is and how you can make it come true.

Photo by Frank Oosterbaan on Unsplash

Let’s start with this: three morsels of delight.

1. Warm days followed by cool evenings. Ideal September weather.

2. The return of zucchini bread. What was once a bottomless supply managed to vanish! But its return after an absence made each crumb so much sweeter.

3. My beloved white and rose gold Crown pen, my morning pages companion, is back in action. I love how smoothly it glides across the cream paper.

   
   

And now, on changing our lives in a matter of seconds.

♥️♥️♥️

"Dreams are fun when they are distant. The imagination loves to play with possibilities when there is no risk of failure.

But when you find yourself on the verge of action, you pause. You can feel the uncertainty of what lies ahead. Thoughts swirl. Maybe this isn't the right time? Failure is possible now.

In that moment—in that short pause that arises when you stand face to face with your dream—is the entirety of life. What you do in that pause is the crucible that forges you."

-James Clear

***

I once spoke to Bernadette Jiwa about famous authors I idolized:

Elizabeth Gilbert

,

Cheryl Strayed

, Anne Lamott, and many others beloved for the gorgeous personal stories they write.

“Hmm, I don’t see you as different. Your writing is just as beautiful,” Bernadette, a masterful storyteller and well-published author, answered thoughtfully.

“Those famous people were lucky to get picked by big publishers. You picked yourself. And picking yourself is harder,” she said.

I blushed at the compliment and felt grateful for her confidence in me.

“. . . in that short pause . . .is the entirety of your life.”

Have you ever thought of life like that? How it boils down to what we make of the pauses? Ten crucial seconds? That’s a shocking idea, and it rings so true.

When I read the James Clear quote above, I suddenly understood the gift of perspective Bernadette had offered me months ago.

I wanted to be an author, just like those famous people. I entered that pause, felt the terror, and took one step after another until I published a book—when it would’ve been easier not to.

Bernadette knows how dreams of being an author become real. It’s not by getting picked, as many believe—but by picking ourselves when we’re in the furnace of that short pause, doubting and sweating.

Our dreams are not waiting on timing, a sponsor, a funder, or the cultural tide to shift.

Our dreams are waiting on us.

They are waiting for us to say “Yes to me.”

They are waiting for us to pick ourselves, one excruciating pause at a time, time and again, and call that life.

A dream life.

***

I turn a year older on September 13 (today in some parts of the world, tomorrow in others.)

My birthday wish for us here in Nudgeland is to become masters of the short pause, to emerge from the crucible saying, “Yes to me.”

This coming year, I want to live where all citizens pick themselves. That’s a kinder, brighter, more beautiful world than most of us live in now, and I want to build this place with you today, tomorrow, and the day after that.

Please tell me how you’ll pick yourself today, and I’ll carry your note in my heart all year.

Permission slip of the week.

Pick yourself even if nobody else does. Pick yourself.

P.S. Want to hear something tender and strong? Check out this Karen O and Willie Nelson cover of the David Bowie and Queen classic, Under Pressure.