Have you listened to the Ted interview with Elizabeth Gilbert? (a new podcast from Ted) It’s ah-mazing + you should stop what you’re doing and listen right now. She talks about creativity (and grief) in the most resonant and beautiful ways… and she makes a really helpful distinction between passion and curiosity:

“Passion asks you to throw it all in the bonfire. Curiosity is way more generous. It says, just give me a little bit of your time and let’s see what we can do.”

Curiosity has always been the starting place for me too. I wonder what would happen if… I wonder if I could… I wonder what it would be like to… We don’t need to know why. We can lean into the mystery.

Decades ago, after many years of going to Glide Memorial in San Francisco (mostly to listen to the gospel choir!) I found myself thinking, “I wonder what it would be like to be part of that swaying mass of sound… “ and so my friend dared me to audition. And I did. And it was hands down, the most terrifying thing I have EVER done. But I got to sing with the choir for a few months and I got to experience that incredible feeling of being part of the music. Inside the music. Full body, holy wow.

In the end, I’m not much of a singer (I was kind of terrible at it!) and it was really stressful to keep it up. I realized that I actually enjoyed listening to the music so much more than I enjoyed singing it. With much relief, I quit. Hallelujah!

It could have felt like a failure, but here’s the thing: It was never about me being a singer in a gospel choir.

I was laid off from my dream job soon after + I knew it was time for me to start my own business. This experience was exactly what I needed to strengthen my courage muscles. Whatever it took for me to audition, to go after something that I wanted so much and yet was so terrified to pursue, was exactly the kind of daring I needed to take the leap and start my business. In fact, compared to singing in a world renowned gospel choir, starting a business started to look easy!

Follow those whispers of curiosity. They are purposeful. If only to delight us + grow us in new ways.

And if you have been thinking, “I wonder if I could start a podcast…” The answer is yes! I will show you how.

Class starts tomorrow. Monday, October 22nd, 2018.