On Oprah’s Master Class this past Sunday, Goldie Hawn graced the set and told us of stories and lessons that she had come across in her lifetime.  Like walking the path and being part of the journey, the class gave understanding and clarity to moments in life that most often need to come from someone who has had enough personal understanding to teach the lesson.  This understanding doesn’t always come from age…but it does come from taking a look and learning from your life and “getting it.”  Tonight, an unexpected moment of clarity happened for me…and while I’m still trying to decide what it means, I wanted to write about it…and then, let the process unfold and let it go.

The Lesson:

“It is a great thing to get reconginzed for something that you’ve done but its a moment in time. Living off of those acolades and making that become some total in the part of your importance in life or even your purpose in life, defining who you are…those awards are wonderful but they are never meant to define who you are.  I define myself by my abilty to give. I define myself by my abilty to understand. I define myself by my ethics and by my truth. These are the things that define who I am….” – Goldie Hawn on Oprah’s Master Class

With this…as I carefully typed the words and took notes for the review and recap on the site, I realized that this message didn’t happen to me by chance.  Here is how it spoke to me. 

Moments pass.  Recognition passes.  Days being seen or not seen pass.  People paying you attention or not paying you any attention pass.  Tweets or no tweets pass.  All of the acolades and hoopla in the world for how amazing and wonderful you or your work may be will pass.  If you are defining yourself or your life by what others say or don’t say to you…if you are waiting for someone to say, “Great job! Keep up the good work. Really appreciate it…” or anything else…it doesn’t really matter, because the moment will pass…and it doesn’t define who you are…except as someone who waits…

So, I am seeing two lessons here…

If you are looking for a sign that you are moving in the right direction by waiting for someone to give it to you…then maybe that is your sign.   

Define yourself by who you are, what you believe and what you do in your life to make the world a better place.  Define yourself by what you think….and stop waiting for someone to tell you that you are amazing…or do amazing work…or that you are an amazing  human being…because you can do that for yourself.  Stop waiting. 

Someone once told me…everyone wants to be seen and heard and know that what they are doing matters…but don’t be “that kid” from high-school…the one who follows the cool kids around and wants so badly for them to like them… to just see them… that they beg for attention.  “You are not that kid,” she told me.  Today, I’m turning the corner.  I’m not that kid.  I’m walking in a different direction and suprisingly realizing that I AM the cool kid.