Remember when you were a kid?
A few feet tall, little fingers, little toes, messy hair, zero idea of what fashion was.
I remember my childhood pretty well. I loved to draw. Any given day, if there was paper with a blank space in front of me, and I had a pen or pencil, I’d go to work. Soon that blank space would be filled with costumed heroes and Transformers waging an eternal war of ink and graphite.
And I’d be so proud. I’d step back, the edge of my right palm dirtied from the artwork, and I’d just take it in for a moment. But it wasn’t enough for me to see it and know. I wanted to share it. I had to share it. So I’d run around to my mom or dad or aunt or grandpa, and I’d lift my freshly crafted masterpiece in the air, and I’d proclaim “Look what I made!”
There’s something so innocent about that.
A child taking pride in their work. That desire to share it with others.
It’s beautiful.
But somewhere along the line, we lose that. Some of us, at least. We stop sharing. We get insecure about what we’ve produced. Or maybe we just stop producing things worth sharing. We’re caught up in day jobs to pay bills to buy things to district us from the fact that we’re not doing the things we actually want to be doing.
Or maybe you’re afraid of being one of those people.
“I’m not going to spam people’s Facebook with my crap.”
“It’s not that good anyway.”
“So and so is always sharing their stuff, and it’s so annoying.”
“If people want to know, they’ll ask me.”
There’s a deeper issue there. Because either you don’t have the confidence you should have in yourself, or you’re not performing at a level you should be. Neither of those are healthy. You should be doing something you’re proud of. Something that’s good. Something that’s great.
And when you do, it’s okay to be proud of it.
It’s Okay to Take Pride in Your Work.
Whatever caused you to think it’s not okay to be proud of a job well done, you need to get that out of here. Now.
Even God, when He finished creating the heavens and the earth stepped back and was like “This is good.” Then He made animals and man and He was like “This is pretty good too.”
And granted, He’s God. Everything He does is “good”. But if we’re made in His image, then I have to believe that we can make good things too. And we can step back and say that they’re good.
So if it’s good, why not share it?
It’s Okay to Share Your Work.
You made something? You think it’s good? You’re proud of your work? Share it! A work unshared has no more value to the world than an unused idea inside your head.
And if you’re truly not making anything worth sharing….
That’s a pretty big red flag in itself. If you look at the past year of your life, and there’s not one thing that you could point to and be like “look, I did that! That was me!”, then it’s possible you’re moving in the wrong direction. Or maybe, you’re just not trying hard enough.
Now then….
Since Sharing is Caring…
Yesterday, at work, I was putting together this instructional document. Not super exciting stuff, but in the middle of it all, I paused and decided to rewrite a page on this example website we were using. By rewriting the page, I mean I pretended to be Nicholas Cage for about 30 minutes and crafted one of the more ridiculous things I’ve written.
Click here to check it out, and you’ll see what I’m talking about.
I can be a pretty harsh critic of myself, so it’s not often this happens, but I’m legitimately proud of what I wrote here. I know it’s stupid and ridiculous, and that’s exactly why it’s beautiful. And it when it was done and I clicked saved, I felt exactly like 6 year old Tim again, running around wanting to show everyone what I made.
So I decided to.
It reminded me that I love writing. That I’m good at writing. That I want to reach people with my writing.
And I think that’s exactly what I needed.
In our own ways, I think it’s what all of us need from time to time.
(Minor note, there is such thing as over promotion and spamming social feeds. So take it easy… 🙂 )
What’s something you’ve made recently that you’re proud of? Would you use Nicolas Cage’s web services? Share your thoughts below! I’m sure they’re great thoughts, totally worth sharing!
(speaking of sharing, feel free to click one of those sharing links below to share this post)
