Pleased to act.

I achieved a life-long dream.

After much deliberation, in my early 30's, I mustered the courage to audition for a local production of the musical “Oliver!” It had been exactly 20 years since I last auditioned for a play and, in fact, it had been “Oliver!” that I had auditioned for as an awkward middle schooler two decades before.

My first experience with the theater was an unfortunate turning point. As a self-conscious teenager, struggling to manage some additional stressors at the time, I completely flopped during my audition. Sparing you the gory details, the experience was enough to cause me to swear off acting for the rest of my life.

But creative passions lingered and, for many years, I regretted my decision to play it “safe.”

Eleanor Roosevelt had clear opinions regarding fear that I have always found inspiring. “Do one thing every day that scares you” is a thought that has long been attributed to her. The quote was always uniquely positioned itself as a magnet on my mother’s refrigerator and each time I walked into her house, I was reminded that acting is what scared me.

So, when I learned that “Oliver!” was going to be performed in our local theater, I instinctively knew it was time to take action. Perhaps another quote from Eleanor - “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do” - was also inspiration.

And, in the process of taking action, I also learned a few things about acting:

• We have each been actors under some circumstance of our life, for example, when we’ve put on a confident air, despite feeling small on the inside. We all know how to access feelings that can shape what we present to the world.

• When you let go of being self-conscious, a play is a chance to play, to explore another world, and another part of you.

All these years later, I am pleased that I acted. Pleased that I gave myself another chance to try something I’ve always loved. It’s never too late to try again and, for me, the outcome of the audition isn’t nearly as important as was the process of trying.

Coaching inquires: What actions are waiting to be expressed in your life? What dreams could be re-evaluated? What is possible for you now, in a new time and space?