• My message is so simple – yet so hard for many
• Live your life and love your life
• Don’t hold yourself back because you are not perfect
  • Because you think you don’t look right
  • Or don’t have the skills required
  • Or whatever else you think is missing
• Lean into your life and live it fully
• When life knocks on your door, open it
• Don’t say – not yet – come back later – like many people do
• Our self-consciousness
• Our fears
• Our worries
• Push them aside
• When the opportunities arise
  • To swim
  • To dance
  • To get naked
  • To sing
  • To laugh
  • To speak up
  • To dream
  • To question
  • To look someone into the eyes
• Then do it
• Its life calling on you to participate
• Despite your not-readiness that’s really just an illusion
• To enjoy life we don’t need anything
• Definitely not perfection
• Or the right figure
• Or the newest car
• We simply need to open the door and step into it
• Sometimes this may require stepping over others who are trying to hold us back
• Sadly, there are people, sometimes our own family members, that point out limitations
  • Obstacles as to why we cannot do or achieve what others can
• Then we need to remember
• This is your life – and they are not in charge of it
• When joy calls
• When you long for something that’s right in front of you
• When a long-awaited opportunity is finally here
• Then you go and take it
• Despite what others say
• What your ego says
• and all the other little voices that want to hold you back
•  
• This week we talked about assertiveness
• An important episode
• I encourage you – if you missed it – to check it out
• Being assertive means to Speak up for yourself
• And it also means to live and enjoy your life
• As soon as we hold back because of fear of what others might think, we become passive
• And, as Lamott tells us, we will regret it later
• We will look back and wish we had lived more fully, more openly, and with less care about what others might think
• Don’t let it happen my friends
• And if you want to hear more from Anne Lamott – check out her amazing TED talk

12 truths I learned from life and writing