Be the Leader

People of major power and influence have been flooding the news lately, for decidedly the opposite reasons they desire.

But the thing is- apparently it's really not "new" news to many. One particular individual has been conducting himself in this way apparently for decades. Using his power and influence as a celebrity to get what he wanted, while causing extreme and unthinkable harm to others. The amount of trauma that has been inflicted by this man is insurmountable. But everyone was too afraid to come forward. It took a brave young woman, one of the victims of his actions, to set the wheels in motion for his activities to start to be scrutinized by the powers that be. And now people are coming out of the woodwork to corroborate the information and tell their own tales of their experience with him.

At the same time this is happening, we have a presidential candidate running for office that is also guilty of many serious crimes. A man who used his own power and influence, at the harm of others. Once again, a lot of time passed before a lot of this information came out. Why? Fear. We allow people in positions of power and influence to scare us into silence. To be the ones to call the shots. Even when we know the harm they're causing to likely many people. People like this rarely have just one victim.

Both of these situations bring up a lot for me. I was once, many years ago, in the position where I could stay silent and allow nefarious activity to continue to go on at the hands of a perpetrator. I was told to be silent. I knew I couldn't be. It didn't come from a place of confidence in embarking on a terrifying  journey to rectify the situation. It came from a place of fear. Fear of what would happen, how many other victims there would be, if I didn't come forward. I had a choice. I could use the fear to silence me, or to fuel me. I chose the latter. Here's what I've learned. The fear is always going to be there. No matter which path you choose. Often times being a leader is choosing the path that you know is morally right, and moving forward in spite of the fear. It's choosing the unclear path. It's choosing the path less traveled. It takes one person to start the shift. Don't minimize your role. It has to start somewhere, and you are never wrong to do the right thing. Every movement has to start small.

We are all called at different points in our lives, and in different ways, to be a leader. We can answer the call, or not. Sometimes the call is on a large scale, and sometimes it's in a more simple every day way. There is a really big opportunity for all of us coming up in 5 short weeks to be a leader. To stand up against the bullies, the perpetrators, the people who try to fear monger us into allowing them to be in positions of power. We cannot choose the power of fear over the bullies. We must choose the fear over what happens to our world if we don't step up. We must be leaders. We must follow our morales and values, and think about the world we want to live in. The values we uphold. We must think not just about ourselves and our own bank accounts, life experiences, and realize that we are at our core, all one. What harms one person, harms us all.

Join me in being a leader. We need it now more than ever.

XO

p.s. for more of my thoughts on the upcoming election, read “the right to choose” part 1 and part 2.

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