Your Life is Your Message.
Resist: yes or no?
What will it take to let go
And tap into flow.
Buddhist monk and activist Thich Nhat Hanh said, “Our own life has to be our message.” I have spent days contemplating this quote since I came across it.
As a writer and creative, I love riffing on things and following connections, going with the flow. As an executive coach, communications consultant, and educator, I strive to be concise.
That being the case…What is the message of my life?
As someone who shifts between professions and is actively making that shift again right now — mindfully seeking less consulting work and gratefully taking on creative endeavors like playwrighting and filmmaking— this statement caught me a bit off guard.
It strikes me in the same way that the question of “where do you see yourself 5–10 years from now?” does. I don't know that I have ever been comfortable answering that — mostly because I don’t frame my life that way. Rather, I seek a short-term goal and see where that leads. I am still, after over thirty years as an artist, still learning to trust the process.
I actively seek flow wherever I go. I seek to be present. I seek to inspire others to do the same.
Thich Nhat Hanh also said, “Every thought you produce, anything you say, any action you do, it bears your signature.”
If you have been reading my work, you will see, in a small way, it’s often flawed — it may have a typo here or there. If you have seen me on stage, there are times I have forgotten lines. When I dance, my choreography is often improvised and, well, a bit messy.
For all the years I spent striving for perfection, great clarity descended upon me when a friend and director of mine said, “Perfection is overrated.”
I don’t want the message of my life to be about perfection; I’d prefer it to be about presence.
When I write, I want you to feel me, in the here and now, as if I am speaking to you on your couch. When I perform, I desire to connect with and inspire you. When I settle in — to coach you, or befriend you on an airplane — or sit across from you on my front porch— I pray that you encounter being in the here and the now with me — Flawed, as I am, resisting nothing and experiencing flow.
I seek for my signature to bear signs of creativity & light…wherever I go.
My signature is: Present, not perfect.
If you seek to clarify your message, reach out to me — it’s something I specialize in helping people do.
Catherine Glynn is the CEO and Lead Executive Coach at Voce Veritas, The Founder of A.R.T. (Audacious Raw Theater). She’s in the process of becoming a more disciplined writer. Look for her upcoming book Leadership Distilled in the Spring of 2021.
