Be you.

Through sharing ourselves, we make the world a better place.

Be vulnerable. Be open. Speak from the heart. 

There are many ways of describing communicating in an open and honest way. And somehow, we can tell when someone does it. 

The most obvious example is when people sing. Sometimes the lyrics just speak to us. You can hear the longing, the passion, the pain, the dreams. That is why we love rock stars so much. They express things in a way that resonates powerfully because it is authentic and real. It hurts so good. 

So why aren’t we all rock stars? I think it is because true authenticity is actually really difficult. 

Know yourself.

Perhaps the hardest part of speaking with a clear and true voice is having the self-knowledge to do so. As a guy who has spent more than three decades with myself, I can speak from personal experience that self knowledge takes time. 

I consider myself a somewhat introspective guy, and I am still working hard to really understand myself. I know I have some strengths and weaknesses, but I learn about new ones (mainly weaknesses) all the time. 

The older I get, the more I look back on my earlier “self-knowledge” with amusement. Fortunately, I think this is pretty common and understandable. 

Think about it. We choose our own friends, based on who we like and who likes us. Our families are required to love us and tell us we are great, and in a professional setting, being nice is part of getting ahead. 

We aren’t exactly showered with critical feedback from people around us, and so I think it is unfortunately common to find people who never really look in the mirror.

Share yourself.

Some people make fun of the fact that Twitter is nothing but 140 characters, but I think this misses a powerful aspect of what platforms like Twitter and now Medium provide. 

By encouraging us to share our thoughts, our impressions, our perspectives, our ideas - these platforms open up parts of ourselves to the rest of the world. 

This has many effects - one is that we can learn from one another. But perhaps equally as importantly, as we share our thoughts with others, we learn about ourselves. 

Stepping out into the middle of the dance floor when everyone is circled around you is an exhilarating experience. At first there is fear, but as you shut up and dance, you realize that is where the magic happens. By letting go and letting the music take control, the feeling becomes contagious - the smiles emerge in the crowd. 

Writing here and elsewhere is kind of like that. We share part of ourselves in front of the crowd. 

Doing so is a little scary - what will people think? do they care? does it even matter what I say? 

And sometimes, it falls on deaf ears or maybe you stumble. 

But over time, the more you share, the more you discover your own voice. 

This process - being open, being afraid, embracing the fear, taking a chance, learning about ourselves and each other - is an incredibly powerful process because it allows us to discover and share our own common humanity. 

The more we find our inner voice, the more this voice resonates with others, because they can hear aspects of it within themselves. The more they nod their head and sing along with the lyrics you sing or the more they smile as they see the joy in your eyes while you dance like no one is looking. 

Making these human connections - bridging political, ethnic, geographic, religious, and many other divides - allows us to see that we are really all the same at our core. 

We are all just individuals living our lives on this pale blue dot. 

In this realization, even if momentary, lies the hope that we can and will continue to work together to make this journey better. 

I’m starting with the man in the mirror. 

I’m asking him to change his ways. 

And no message could have been any clearer. 

If you wanna make the world a better place

Take a look at yourself, and then make a change.