Get Busy Loudly Living Or Get Busy Quietly Dying

I spent the majority of my teens certain I was going to live the life of an entertainer and writer. Then I then got older and did what we all do.  Became rationale. Logical. Told myself I wasn't talented enough. That the road was filled with way too many others like me. That I would never succeed.

I spent most of my 20's, 30's and the first half of my 40's proving my worse fears right. I got fat, then skinny, then fat again.  I did drugs, partied and was an all around wild and crazy guy.  I had a fabulous time.  I was like Eric Bogosian from Sex, Drugs, Rock and Roll when his character says "Some of the best times I've had in my life have been on drugs." 

I surrounded myself in jobs and with lovers and friends who censured me and didn't like what I had to offer. I was selling kumquats and they wanted cantaloupes. When I finally left those worlds (and lovers and most of my friends) and started up my coaching business, I felt like Groucho Marks when he resigned from The Friars' Club and said "I don't want to belong to any club that would accept me as one of their members."

Literalists will says he was being self-deprecation, but the truth is he was being ironic. He was making fun of the fact that he was trying to be welcomed by the people who just didn't get him, and that's a huge sign of success.  It's the Golden Key of Happiness because rejection from people means you're living your life story.  

A lot of people go about their very successful careers hiding their story.   They never say how they really feel.  They're always showing you their 'brand' or they pay other people to speak for them, and it's not simply because they're busy, but because they're in hiding.  

They don't cause waves, but I write that saying if we want to cause waves for the sake of causing waves that never works, but if we cause waves as an effect of expressing who we truly are, then the waves we will always, always do good. 

I know lots of politicians and shrinks and coaches and priests and movie stars and famous people, and while they're all doing the best they can, a large portion are showing a front, a facade of themselves. They all tell me the same thing: "I'm worried about what my fans/clients/customers will think of me if I talk openly about my life."  That's not what they think.   They're listening to what other people think and that's the kiss of death.  

It's a risk.  It's true.  It's a risk to put yourself out there and be real and talk about your life story.  But see, the risk isn't what will happen if we talk about our personal lives. The risk is what will happen if we DON'T, and that's the risk of living an unhappy and unfulfilling life. It's a big, fucking risk.   You sure you want to take it for the sake of appearances?  

You can't have a happy ending without a happy journey.  Just doesn't happen.  

Look - people are gonna do what they're gonna do.  You can never, ever control them.   But let's be clear: the kind of clients and fans and coworkers you attract by being a bobble-head version of yourself is exactly how much happiness you're willing to allow into your life.  

Either the people you career with feed you or they don't.   It's entirely up to you.  While we don't need others for our happiness, it's more inspiring to be in an environment that makes the best use of our natural talents.      

You have to value your life story. If you do, then you'll see why sharing it is the most liberating of feelings, and that it can save lives, mostly your own.  I tell my clients to push themselves a little beyond their line of how much they want to show of themselves in life.  They fight me, but after they do it, they realize their doing it for their own expansion, not so someone notices or gives them something in return...like validation or approval.  

You wanna talk freedom? That's freedom. Freedom is not needing anything from anyone and knowing we have all we need on our own.  

I started up my coaching business because I saw how coaching changed my life.  It really did. And I'm the kind of guy who came from shit.  Zero. Zilch.  I came from nothing and I am now at a place of prosperity and health and wealth and it all came when I divulged my true life story.  When I surrendered to being who I truly am.  Before that I was ashamed of it. Now?  With kindness in my heart and prayer hands in front of me I say, "Fuck 'em if they don't like me." Namaste.  

And if you love me, well then.  Let's get this party started, shall we?  

Today?  I've got my beautiful coaching business and a new TV show being shot and my writing is in print and in TV and in the movies and it all expanded the second I started being me everywhere I went.    

Years ago I gave up on my dream, I gave up on living my life story only to learn it's impossible to do that. If we do, we'll forever be haunted and the key to not living a life where you're haunted is to embrace our life story.

Get busy loudly living or get busy quietl dying.  It's your choice.