Work Your Brilliance: the uncommon art of being paid to be yourself

We talk a lot about the wounded inner child — the one who needs healing. But what about the vibrant one? The one who's still shining.

The kid who already knew

When I was in primary school, around nine or ten, I put together a music show. No Google back then — so I spent hours listening to songs over and over, transcribing every lyric by hand so we'd have the words. I rallied the other kids. We put on the show. Later I even sold copies of those carefully written lyrics on the playground.

That me knew what she loved. She was in touch with it. She acted on it.

Somewhere along the way, I lost touch with her. I poured my creativity into more practical things. Efficiency. Systems. Other people's work.

There's a teaching I keep returning to: that the thing you were always fascinated by — from childhood, long before you knew it could be a career — is often the very thing that contains your deepest expertise. Not because you studied it in a classroom, but because you've been living it, turning it over, returning to it your whole life. You have a depth of knowledge in it that formal routes never quite produce.

The vibrant inner child isn't waiting to be healed. She's waiting to be listened to.

She's still in touch with what moves you. She can point you in the right direction now — if you'll let her.

Parker Palmer wrote: before you tell your life what you intend to do with it, listen for what it intends to do with you.

She's been trying to tell you for a long time.

Work Your Brilliance is a daily publication for people living the uncommon art of being paid to be themselves.