Hiding Out Vs. Showing Up, by Dr. Brad Swift

Recently I had the opportunity to conduct a Sunday On Purpose at the Unity Center in Greenville, South Carolina. Like most of these events, this one included my giving the message during the morning service, followed by a potluck lunch and a Living On Purpose workshop.

Except this Sunday was different from all the others because my mother-in-law, Jean, had been invited by my wife to attend the service. Now, I love my mother-in-law and since my mother's passing several years ago, she's become much like a mother to me.

But in the close to 20 years we've known each other, she's never heard me speak... Until this fateful Sunday in January. And I realized that there are places in my life where I've been hiding out. One of those places has been with Jean. Oh, she's known kind of what I do for a living, but not really. We've never really talked about it and I'd certainly never invited her to hear me speak.

But I'm glad, so very glad that Ann did. Because, although it was a bit daunting having Jean sitting there in the front row as I shared about my 'dark night of the soul' experience in which I almost took my own life, at the end of the service, Jean walked up to me and gave me a big hug, and said, 'Brad, this is your ministry, isn't it?'

Yes, it is.

And since that Sunday On Purpose, I've been noticing that there are places in my life where I 'show up' and other places where I 'hide out' -- places where I fully express myself and allow my life to be shaped by my true purpose, and places where I allow the fear, lack and struggle of my Inherited Purpose to suppress my true nature.

How about you? Where are you showing up and where are you hiding out? What would it be like to take on one or two of those 'hiding places' and take strides to show up? Is it risky? Yes. Is it really worth it? Most definitely.

There's another place I realize I've been hiding out. For over ten years, I've had the immense pleasure of building a business that is a true expression of my life purpose. In the last few years I've coached a number of people in 1-on-1 coaching relationships how they can use a Blueprint for Building a Business On Purpose.

But overall, I've been much too quiet about it. And this is the year I put a stop to that.

How about you?


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