Finding your voice is worth every bit of the struggle it demands.

It is the key to knowing what step to take next in your creative path.  It gives you the ability to validate your dreams, to consider stepping into the unknown again (and again and again).  It’s no wonder that the commitment to “finding your voice” is such a struggle met with endless challenge.  I have often felt that those of us who endured much pain, most assuredly have a voice that needs to be heard.  Why else would so much pain try to silence it? And yet the battle to make our voice heard can be terrifying when we don’t believe we have anything worth sharing.

Whether we are defying critics, unhelpful friends, or our own worst critic that lives within us, we can’t give up.   We must NOT give up.  But the road can sometimes feel lonely.  The years of listening to critics or all the negative voices in our heads, often feel more real than the voice of a loved one who supports you.  For these reasons and more, I’m always searching for inspiration.

Finding inspiration, staying inspired, is a big piece to me continuously strengthening and unfolding the depth of my own voice.  And inspiration is often much closer than I realize, like next door.

You might remember my neighbor Rohan and his pet fish from one of the Disney Junior episodes.  Well our other next door neighbors have a teenage son named Ryan.  Our family this summer got to see Ryan perform one of the lead roles in the classic musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.  Our jaws dropped.  Brian, Blaze, Pascaline and I all sat in complete awe when Ryan took the stage and started to sing and dance.

When Disney asked if I would be interested in supporting their contest for youth to “Find Your Voice”, I thought of Ryan.  I LOVE the opportunity to incorporate young people into anything I can with what we do, and Ryan seemed like the perfect fit!  (You’ll see what I mean in his video!)  He just left this week for the theater program at a prestigious college across country, but he first had an afternoon to spend with me and Brian.  He was the first to say that he had to press in and find his voice; he had to defy what the critics said.

If you are feeling alone on your journey today, I invite you to watch this video of Ryan’s story.  You will be so inspired.  Even though he is only a beginning freshmen in college, his heart has so much to share–and wait till you hear him sing.  (Little background, Disney needed people to sing one of three songs from the Little Mermaid for this contest.  I hesitated to tell Ryan because I wasn’t sure what he would say.  See for yourself what his response was.)

I also asked Ryan if he’d participate in this with me because I feel like he is such an inspiration to tweens and teens who are going through some of what he experienced.  Will you share this (scroll to the bottom of post for the video) with any kids that you know who are in need of encouragement.  We all need to know we are not alone.

We all are worthy of finding our voice.

xo,

m

*Stay Tuned because We are Introducing Our New 2nd Year Teachers This Week in a CRAZY, FUN WAY!  Keep a look out!  I can’t wait!!!!

**We are down to ONE SPOT LEFT in our upcoming Seattle CONFIDENCE Workshop next weekend!  I know it belongs to someone special!  Can’t wait to meet you!  Grab your spot here!