i’ll be honest. i didn’t know who penelope trunk was a few months ago. a friend said she was a fab writer, and as an aspiring fab writer myself, i figured i should click on over.
hooked. on. sentence. one.
imagine my delight when i discovered she was going to be speaking at south by southwest. imagine my heartache when i discovered she was speaking at the same time as kathy sierra.
oh well. i could get the kathy podcast later.
after an amazingly brutal career advice conversation with the crowd (i love this woman even more now) i stood in line to bid a fond (and admittedly nervous) hello. something she had said earlier about people being afraid to be amazing and great really resonated with some things i’m internalizing at the moment.
so my question for her at the end?
“what would you say to someone who’s afraid to be great?”
“well, uh, you have some food in your teeth.”
lovely. bloody spinach dip. $^@%#!
“you need to surround yourself with people who will tell you that you have food between your teeth.”
she encouraged me to find people who fail, so i can learn. she inspired me to set huge, ginormous goals. to find people who dream big too.
**
now, i know i am not the only one who’s struggling with that fear – the fear of being great. and if you have asked the why and the how of overcoming that fear…
don’t worry.
the fact you are asking that question in itself means you care.
and you will be great.
(that’s the last little bit she told me).
and with the smallest little bit of oomph in my heart, i said thank you, we said goodbye, and i scurried off to the bathroom to pick the spinach out of my teeth.
Comments
28 responses to “the brazen spinach dip and fear”
that’s so fun.
i love her writing too.
That’s exactly why I don’t eat spinach dip. And neither should anyone else.
that is awesome advice. we all need people to tell us we have spinach in our teeth.
I am internalizing this struggle which is similiar to your post…why are we afraid to be vulnerable and transparent, the helpee instead of the helper?
I tend to have stuff hanging out of my nose more than the spinach deal. —So where are these kind of people today, i lost most of them when the 70’s disappeared!?
Andy’s current series…
I Want To Be Great
Should resonate with you.
Los
I’m right there with you Anne. I have no fear of failing – it’s easy to do. Succeeding is far more scary because of what it opens up and the responsibility that comes with it. I don’t think people put off things because they are scared they might fail, I think they don’t live up to the person (leader, husband, wife, parent, etc.) that God has called them to be because they’re afraid of what that will bring. Go back and look at Saul in 1 Samuel. God annoited him the 1st king of Israel and to lead the nation but when it came time to publicly face his people and take on the mantle of leadership the Bible says he hid himself among the baggage (1 Sam 10:22 – NIV). What baggage are we hiding behind that keeps us from being great?
scott, great thought on the baggage!
anne, that’s for posting. you already are great in my book. just the fact that you are you and that you share that with the world here is a GREATNESS very rarely seen.
being real. so important.
Great advice. It’s funny that she and you would be writing about this right now. It’s something that I have been thinking about myself lately. Not about being great, but about what holds us back from truly being the people we are and deep down, the people that we want to be. I want to be great. I think I just hate what I see as I try to get or be there. You know?
Great is such an awesome word. It can mean so many things to so many people, each different. Change the world or just one life, it is all great isn’t it?
For what it’s worth, this may well be my favorite post of yours. Thanks for sharing!
It takes a REAL WOMAN to point out, as I call it…“BUGS ON THE GRILL! If you see food on the pearls.. HELP A SISTA” or BROTHA” OUT people!
”Ahh Fear! The friend and Foe of Life! Think about this… Peter stepped out of the boat AFRAID…but he kept putting one foot in front of the other… in complete terror of failure and sinking! God wants us to just be willing! Walk when Fear strikes! I think it is healthy for us to have a small taste of fear in our lives because with a healthy morsel of fear we will always recognize HOW MUCH we need GOD!
Chris is preaching this weekend on THIS EXACT THING! Awesome. Don’t miss it.
Spinach gone?
Dive in Anne – the environment of success is much warmer than that of defeat. Problem is the water of failure is usually clear and clean – you can see where you’ll end up if you fail. However, the air of success is ususally murkey and cloudy and you can’t always see the outcome clearly. I can promise you this – once you succeed and get above the clouds, God’s sun shines brightly!
“you need to surround yourself with people who will tell you that you have food between your teeth.” – that is great!
i absolutely want the right people in my life who will lovingly (but firmly) tell me when they can see that something is amiss with me that i seem not to have noticed. it might not be a fun thing to say (or hear), but it is worth it.
I want to be great. I want to be everything God intended for me to be. But I am afraid of several things.
Missing the boat completely.
Focusing too hard.
Not focusing hard enough.
Failing so much that my failures become my “great” asset.
Just being mediocre.
I am with Scott – failing is easy and I seem to be real good at it. It’s succeeding in God’s will that I am afraid I will never do.
believe it! Thanks for sharing! so out what she said:
finding people who fail, setting goals, and finding people who dream big—
where do you stand on these three bits-o-wisdom?
anne:
i think i’m afraid that i’m not gonna be great.
its the quarter-life crisis, ya know?
Wow! That’s definitely a struggle of mine – and I do love the baggage comment above.
I’ve always SEEN success – never experienced it.
Great post – I’ll be looking into Trunk’s work, thanks!
Yes!
I’m going through a lot of this too right now in my life… the “nakedness” of being great is very, very alarming.
Here’s to becoming great!!!
so excited about this! and i haven’t been here because china apparently doesn’t like blogspot BUT i really like the new web design :)
I am not sure if she still writes for Yahoo Finance or not, but many of her articles were not well received there.
Never eat spinach dip or oreo’s in public. That’s my rule of thumb.
Great post, Anne. The spinach-in-the-teeth aspect is really good, and what I think is even more profound is the “fear of being great.” Imagining ourselves as being “great” seems to be a contradiction to our spiritual beliefs – we’re supposed to be humble, not proud – right? And to the fear of being “proud,” we add the fear of failure – because if we are seen as “great,” then it seems as though the stakes for failure are higher. One way I’ve learned to deal with both is to continually reassure myself that neither my greatness nor my failure is entirely a result of my greatness….it is only by God working through me that I can do great things, and it is by his work through my failures that he develops Christ’s character in me (and thus makes me “greater”). :)
Just read your twitter about being barf inducing I mean where in the world did someone post such an odd comment? Sorry Anne – you know the internet is a huge ecosystem with interesting areas of bottom feeders as well as all the striving for the light growth seekers. Maybe it is global snarking? a side effect of too much heat on the ‘net? BTW – the spinach in the teeth kind of friends are a blessing -their support gives us the step stools to reach our next level.
I’ll be totally honest, Im not even sure what it means to be “afraid of being great.”
Would reading your blog and a few others be considered as “surrounding yourself” with people that aspire to be great?
Loved this… chewing on it… and trying to avoid any leftovers in my teeth!