Stop Waiting For Permission
If you’re waiting for permission you’ll be waiting forever — Smiley Poswolsky
It’s tempting to sit around waiting for permission:
- Permission to try
- Permission to fly
- Permission to dare
- Permission to fail
But as Seth Godin once said to me in an interview, “the internet is an amplifier of people who pick themselves.” It’s an amplifier of people who give themselves permission to do what they want to do. Permission slips aren’t handed out to people who are waiting for them.
Credibility and Authority
Some people feel they don’t have the authority or credibility to give themselves permission.
Authority is something you make up out of thin air, and credibility is something you gain by putting ideas out into the world until those ideas intersect with an audience who resonates with them.
Outer authority is something we learn from (mentors, thought leaders, books, etc). But if we are not careful and we put people and organizations (religion, cults, classes, groups, companies, etc) on pedestals we form a relationship of dependency. And this dependency also causes us to let go of responsibility.
Inner authority is having the courage and conviction to trust yourself, and in the words of spoken word poet Sekou Andrews “trust in in the wings you have built when you take a leap.” The best and healthiest forms of outer authority result in more inner authority in our lives. And with inner authority we give ourselves permission.
Permission Doesn’t Make What You Want to Be
We think that the moment permission is granted we’ll become whatever it is we want to be.
- Funding from a venture capitalist doesn’t make you a founder. Starting a company does.
- A book deal from a publisher doesn’t make you a writer. Sitting down to write and treating prolific writing as a practice does.
- A record deal doesn’t make you a musician. Playing your instrument does.
Most of these things are in motion for a creator long before someone gave them permission. And the paradox is that a permission slip is usually handed to a person after they’ve given themselves permission.
With access to distribution channels, and the ability to make things cheaper, better and faster than ever before, there’s never been a better to time to stop waiting for permission.
Before You Go…
If doing the best work of your life is important to you, you’ll love my free guide: “Optimizing Productivity & Creativity.”
The tactics I’ve packed into this guide allowed me to write over 1 million words in the last 2 years. What could it do for your life’s work? Don’t miss it.
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