Don’t get me started about praise.

There’s a thing some Accidental entrepreneurs do that makes me a teeny weeny bit crazy.

They dodge praise.

Or they take it in for a moment and then set it aside as an anomaly.

You’d think there was a law against liking yourself, at least publicly.

You may have noticed that it’s pretty darn hard to market and sell your work if you believe that it’s not nice to like yourself.

But it goes much deeper than marketing and sales. When we contract away from praise, we narrow the conduit through which we take in all kinds of positive energy.

That constrains the amount of energy we have to serve others. We limit the amount of fuel that can fill the tank. But, because we’re good people, we serve anyway.

And when the tank runs dry, we burn out.

And then it seems very, very hard to be self-employed.

I’m not suggesting you depend on outside praise as your source of positive energy. That would be just as nuts as pushing it away.

I’m just saying it’s important to keep the conduit open, whether to the flow of human praise or love.

I am suggesting that you open your heart and risk getting excited about how rocking you can be.

I believe down to my toenails that you have something precious to offer. And I believe down to my toenails that it is possible for you to thrive through offering it.

So open the conduit, okay?

Notice where the praise is accurate, and let yourself be nourished by that. Let go for the moment of whether or not you’ll be rocking tomorrow.

Let rocking now be enough.

Because now is all we have anyway. And it’s in this very moment that the world needs you, exactly the way you are.

Right?

Right.

Molly

PS: In case you’re wondering, I know both sides of this story firsthand. I know what it’s like to let the good stuff flow, and what it’ like to clog the flow with innocent and maddening self-absorption.

Letting it flow is better. Do it whenever you can.

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Ed: Brianna Bemel