Why you must share your ideas

"Like writing, talking is painful because we expose our ideas for evaluation; however, like writing, talking is powerful because our ideas may, in fact, have value and require expression."

- Novelist Min Jin Lee

How radical and terrifying it still feels to so many of us to consider that our ideas may, in fact, have value, and require expression. 

If self-expression takes you outside your comfort zone, know that 1) you are not alone, and 2) every time you share an idea, you change the world. Once an idea is out there, you never know how or where it will travel, or to what effect.

If you think, "Oh, but my ideas not powerful," trust me when I tell you, with love, that you are, simply, wrong. 

Ideas are inherently powerful, and they are especially powerful the more powerfully they are expressed. 

“Oh,” you think, “there’s my out. I’m not a powerful communicator.”

Well.

First, let’s look at whether you’re a reliable judge. After all, you didn’t want to share your ideas in the first place.

Second, everyone has superpowers, and if communication isn’t one of yours, help is available, in the form of friends and community members, writing classes, public speaking trainings, and on and on. Working with me is a form of help. It would move me deeply to help you find and raise your voice, so that the world can benefit from your ideas.

No one benefits from your silence, least of all you. We are born into this world with power, and it’s up to us to step into that power and share it — to become the full expression of ourselves. This is true no matter our station in life, no matter whether a company or institution has officially ordained us as a leader or if we are simply and profoundly in a position, like everyone, to lead from within our ordinary lives.

If your life passes and you haven’t become the fullest expression of yourself, you have robbed yourself of part of the glory of being alive, and you have robbed the rest of us of the chance to experience the unique dimension that you, and only you, can add to our lives, and to the world.

So c’mon. Tell yourself that those voices that would have you stay silent are tricksters, demons, and listen instead to the voice of love that tells you:

It’s your turn at the mic.