Try again. Is there volume now? Oh, if anyone’s watching, they can tell me there’s volume. That’s so strange. Courage. It’s an interesting topic, courage. [Cam 00:00:20] can you hear me? Because I just did a live and no one could hear me. Give me a thumbs up if you can hear me. Any volume?
Yeah. Okay so now I can get rid of the dickie mask. How do I do that? Or maybe I like it. Do we like the mask? Ironic. I was doing a live all about being the courage to be me. And turning up just straight out of the bath, having had a beautiful peel-off face mask. It’s like you take that face mask off and you feel like you just peeled off a layer of everything. It’s awesome. I’ll take the glasses off now. Oh, that’s better. And then there was no volume, and it was a really good live. Now I’ve got to try and remember everything all over again. Can we dance with a top hat? No. Okay.
So the courage to be you. Well, just do it and go back and read my lips on the other video if you … Do I need to go into it all again? I’ll go into it all again.
So what is the courage to be you? Well, the courage to be you is showing up like this at 8:30 on a Saturday night. With no makeup on, a ten dollar T-shirt and pajama pants. And I never would have done it a year ago. I didn’t think there was a courageous bone in my body. Yet my friends would probably tell you that there was. I was too afraid to show up anywhere less than what I thought Samantha Leith had to be. And that was face, frock, boobs up, makeup, hair, whatever I happened to be doing that I needed to be in mode for at that particular night.
And doing these lives made me realize that just showing up is all that’s actually needed. Showing up as you. If people want to listen to you, if people care about you, if people want to be your friend, if people want to be your lover, if people want to buy something from you, showing up, as you is the best thing you can do for them, and for you. It’s a win-win situation.
And it took I don’t know how many months it was of this, and writing, “I am brave,” every single day in my journal, to let go of so much of that stuff. Of thinking I had to have the perfect script. To thinking that I couldn’t say no to a dinner party, because Oh my God, they might not invite me again.
I couldn’t say yes to a chance that I wanted to take, because I might not be perfect enough. “Oh shit no, I better not do it because I might fail.” “Oh no, I better not try and do that, because I might not be smart enough.” “Oh no, better not do that because I’m too old.” “Oh no, better not do that.” “Oh God, I could never not wear foundation, because I’ve got rosacea.”
And you know what? If you knew me a year ago, you wouldn’t have thought any of those things actually went through my mind. Because I was so good at being Samantha Leith at walking the talk and doing what I thought I actually needed to do.
And now I don’t anymore. Now I just show up. If I want to wear makeup, I wear makeup. And I do everything with the courage to be me in that moment. I do everything based on how I feel in that moment. What I want out of that moment.
Now don’t get me wrong. That’s not a narcissistic, “I’m doing everything the way I want to do it.” I obviously always have other people’s considerations in there. Haven’t turned into a bitch, but it’s no longer my first port of call, everybody else. Or being the me that I thought I needed to be for everything.
So I just want to encourage all of you to take teeny tiny little chances on being more courageous. Now for you, that might not mean doing a Facebook live every day. For you, that might not mean undertaking studying something you’re really interested in.
For you, that might mean cooking something new. For you, that might mean when your husband says to you, “Oh, we got dinner at the in-laws,” you say, “You know what? I’m actually going to go out with my girlfriends that night. You have a great time.”
It might mean going up to your boss and saying, “Actually I deserve a pay rise. I think we need to talk about it.” Anything that puts you outside your comfort zone is courageous. They don’t have to be big things. And the most courageous thing you can do is show up 100% as yourself, every single day. So we remove … Oopsie. We remove the funny mask, and we show up as ourselves. That is the most courageous thing anyone can ever, ever, ever do. Be you.
Happy Saturday night guys. And I will see you all tomorrow for Q&A Sunday.