When I first drew the Spirit@Work® Card effectiveness I thought of how much depth there was to this card. It permeates every layer of my life. I thought it to be the perfect card to follow inspiration.
This is what the book shared:
Our role as leaders is to treat each other as sacred, to inspire and be effective at the same time.
and,
We are effective when we “come out” and stop being “closet humans”, and become authentic beings instead. Only then can we reveal our true emotional and spiritual selves, and when we do, a remarkable thing will happen. For the first time, our masks will fall and others will recognize us for who we truly are.
Those are powerful sentences! They’re also very scary!
It has taken me years to be able to get to where I am today, and I’m barely scratching the surface. Being authentic and coming out takes a lot of courage, especially for someone who has been keeping secrets since they were children. There were consequences if we shared those secrets.
Sharing those secrets would certainly allow people to recognize us for who we truly are. But, at what price? I wasn’t the bad guy in my story. Bad things happened to me. Things that society considers bad enough that the perpetrator can go to jail for it. As a six year old child who is told they will be punished for being bad if they tell, they are as bad as the abuser in their minds. For me personally, I believed I was solely the bad person. It never occurred to me that I wasn’t. How do you talk about your experiences when you’re coming from that space? And, it compounds as you get older.
It takes a lot of courage to let our masks fall.
From the poem:
Guided by my Soul, I seek to redefine effectiveness.
and,
Courage, be with me, as I shift my focus.
The deeper I go into this practicum and seriously implementing the Spirit@Work® Cards I find that I’m changing. I’m terrified of what people will say or think when they read my book, or discover the truth of my childhood. As I write certain passages of my book, my body trembles with the memories. Events that happened decades ago. It’s all there, deep within the fabric of my being. Part of me desperately wanting to be heard; part of me terrified to tell.
So I have to ask myself, “How effective do I want to be?” That can only be answered in the willingness to come out, and the depth to which I am willing to share my story. The choice is mine. Do I have the courage?
Higher Ground Leadership Principles®, The Spirit@Work Cards®, and the Castle Principles® are registered trademarks of the Secretan Center.