Hi, I’m Reid! I write about my life experiences and how we can all live in brave new ways. Dare You is a reader-supported publication. To receive weekly posts and support my work, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
I’m currently on a flight home from a girls trip in Connecticut. Out of all the little TVs on the backs of the seats, mine is the one that has chosen not to work. It’s not hard to see it as a sign that I should write instead. After all, writing comes easily to me, and I feel entertained by the act of doing it. I wonder why it took me so long to gather the courage to share my writing with you. Now that this newsletter has been hitting your inbox for almost a year, and the act of writing it each week has become a part of my life, it’s easy for me to forget how scary it was in the beginning to share something so personal with friends, strangers, and probably a few people who secretly dislike me.
Choosing to share your creations with the world is a brave act. Whether it be your writing, art, work of any kind, it’s actually super scary. You put a lot on the line and have to get comfortable real fast with not only people disliking your creations but actually disliking you. You also have to be okay with putting a lot of time and effort into something without expecting anything in return. At times, it feels as if I’m writing into the void and wonder if anyone is even reading this at all. But I keep doing it anyway.
Sharing my thoughts with others through the medium of writing wasn’t something I did for any big outcome, but because deep down, I had the inkling that other people felt the same way I did, and the idea of what I had to say connecting with even just one other person was enough to risk being judged by all.
Yes, I hope what I write provides value to other people, but I don’t feel like I write entirely for my audience or solely for myself either. If I wrote only for myself, the reader might have trouble finding value and be left guessing how this might apply to their own life. And if I wrote entirely for my audience, then my writing would just be plain boring because it would lack my own perspective. So, you develop your new voice that is of you but now not entirely your own. Your voice is now the reader’s as it lives within them now. Free to be built upon, dissected, and transmuted into whatever the reader sees fit. And in a way, knowing this makes sharing my writing with you less scary because we are collaborating now.
There is beauty in doing something entirely for yourself without seeking validation or profit in return… but I do believe there is also great liberation when you finally decide to share your art that has been such a big part of your life for so long. It is inspiring to see other people being brave and sharing their work… we benefit as much as they do. If you have even the slighting feeling in your gut to share your secret work with the world, explore that. By sharing your work, it will take on a whole new life on it’s own. You will have more reason to challenge yourself and let your craft evolve, and thats a pretty cool thing to witness.
-Reid