Now is the Time to Get Moving

Shut up, and sit down. Welcome to Being On Stage, the only podcast that gives you motivation, inspiration, and confidence to be better on stage. No matter how you entertain, sing, dance, band, comedian, public speaking, MC, drag, burlesque, performance art, or street performer, this is the show for you. Hey, rock stars, what's going on? It is Reggie Dawson, your host of the show. Welcome to the Being On Stage podcast, and if you've been listening before, welcome back. Always great to have you stop by. This year, we started homeschooling my daughter. She's 14, she's going into high school. And so we took the brave step to homeschool her as she's going through her most intense adolescent years ever. We have plenty of social activities planned for her, so not to fret, not to fret, she will have social activity. But anyways, in doing so, you know, we've been looking at science and stuff like this. And listen, I'll get to the performing. You know I'll get there. If you've listened before, you know I start with a story, I hook in performing, and I gotcha! Ha! Alright, anyways, so we're homeschooling my daughter, and we're looking at the science stuff and everything. And we're looking at this thing called Big History Project. And it's about. You know, based on the Big Bang Theory and evolution, which I don't. It doesn't matter what you believe, truthfully. Learning is learning. So, we're learning it this semester, and one of the things that I've learned from this, you know, regardless what, you know, how you feel about creation and evolution and everything, is things keep moving forward. Like, even if you're not paying attention, things keep moving forward. So the premise here is, you know, when the universe was created, it was made of atoms, and they crashed in together. And they eventually formed stars, which crashed into each other to form planets, and suns, and galaxies, and then life. And, you know, it goes through the story of evolution. But what I got from this is that everything is always in motion, and always moving forward. And the same thing happens in our lives, you know? Everything's always in motion. Everything's always moving forward. And what's awkward. I don't want to say awkward. Sometimes I struggle to find the right word. That ever happen to you? You just, like, can't seem to find the right word, so you say one that kind of sort of fits. So what's strange, I guess we'll say, about this, is we do have a choice in that, you know, for ourselves. The world's going to keep moving. The world's going to keep changing. People are going to keep growing. You know, flowers are going to bloom in spring, and they're going to, you know, the leaves are going to fall in autumn. And, you know, life is going to continue to move on and grow. And the same thing with the Earth, you know? No matter what you believe, the Earth is going to keep on going and going and going. And whether you believe, you know, global warming and climate change, which I'm not getting into that. Or no matter what you believe, things are going to continue to go on. And if you make the choice to stand still, you're really holding yourself back. Like, you are creating a bigger problem for yourself than anything else you'll face. You're kind of standing in your own way when you make the choice. And if you make the choice to stay stagnant, as human beings, like, we're a living, breathing thing, you know? We're a living, breathing organism, if you will. And part of being that is we have to continue moving forward in our journey. We have to continue moving forward in our life. We were not built like a flower to stand in one spot, to be in one spot the rest of our life. We weren't built like a tree. We were built different. We were built to do something in our lives. And especially as performers, you know, we were built to share something with the world. And it doesn't matter what you do to perform. You can sing. You can play music. You can dance. You could be a juggler. You could be a magician, a comedian, a speaker, you know? Whatever you do on stage, we were built to share something, a talent or an idea or an emotion with the world, your audience. You know, and when you make the choice to stand still and to not move forward with that or in that and to just settle and become complacent where you are, you're I mean, you're kind of acting out against nature, dude, not to, you know, hey, it's I mean, listen, hipster, no hipster. I don't judge. I'm a half a millennial hipster combined with. I was raised by a baby boomer, so I have that Gen X mentality, but I'm actually a millennial, so I'm in that like crossbreed. It's pretty cool place to be. And anyways, that's neither here nor there. So. You're acting against nature, though, you're you're you're acting against how you were built. And how your brain was built and just how everything about you is supposed to function is to move you forward in your path. You're you're you have a purpose. To be on stage, you you have that. Position to share something with the world, you have that talent that you can put out there and. Yes, there are times when you get to be selfish about it and there are it is an amazing life to live to get to do this thing in front of people and kind of have that sense of admiration in a way in that I'm not saying this is not a thing about being cocky or egotistical. Like. Don't don't go there. The point here is it's OK to to feel admired. I mean, listen, look at the people that have done great things in the world. They're admired. Even people that haven't done great things in the world are admired. So it's OK to feel admired. Well, you get to share this this magical, entertaining thing with the world and put a part of you out there and kind of leave your mark in a way that others don't get to. But you got to step up to the plate. You know, you got to step up the plate and and make that commitment and continue that drive to go. That's just it. You have to go. Next steps are tough sometimes, but there's resources for you. There's YouTube. There's Google. There's me. You can listen. Let me just slide this in here while I can. I'll remind you. I have a calendar. You can just go jump on it. And I'm we can talk through what's going on, what you need to crush, where your next step is, you know, get you moving forward. Go, my friend. Go get on stage. Be fantastic. Connect with your audience. Make your performance an experience. And if you haven't got on stage before, if you're if you're, you know, sitting there thinking about, oh, my God, what are people going to think of me? Or I don't think I'm good enough. And that's the top two reasons people don't get on stage is what are people going to think of me? And I don't think I'm good enough. And both of those reasons are absolute. Bull crap. And yes, I almost cussed on a podcast. Oh, saved it. We call that dadgik in my house when I just do something amazing and I want to feel a little cocky about it. I call it dadgik. So but those those two those two things, I'm not good enough and people are going to think I'm crap. That's that's bull. That's absolutely like that's that's a line you feed yourself to hold yourself back. Why? You you were made to do something. Special. You have this thing you do. Oh, and it does upset me when people call it a thing, by the way. So no offense, but you have this amazing talent that you do and maybe you do need to work on it and that's fine. But why aren't you pushing forward with that? Why aren't you going after things that you deserve or go after things that you don't even know if you deserve? I mean, sometimes you get lucky. Sometimes you have to work for it. And all the time you have to work for it. I should say not sometimes. You were built to go. You were built to do something, to put something out there and to share it with the world. And. You got to you just have to do it. I'm getting intense here, aren't I? Like, I'm like, you should see. I keep saying I'm going to do it. I keep saying I'm going to do a live podcast on my Facebook page and I keep not doing it. But one day you get this. If you haven't liked this. It's on Facebook. Just being on stage. It's on Facebook. And same thing with Instagram. But you guys don't understand. Like when I'm sitting here, like I'm tensing up and I'm like clenching my fists and I'm making faces and everything. Like I am live. Anyways. Oh, sorry. But you you back to what I was saying. You have to do it. You have to move forward. You have to put yourself out there. You have to step up to the plate and swing the bat. If you never do, you'll never know. Oh, I. I know that from somewhere and I'm sure it's a movie or a quote or some Chinese proverb and I'm not taking credit for it, but it remains. If you never do it, you will never know. You hear about all these people that have these regrets because they never did something. What? Why? Why? Go do it. You want permission? Here's permission. I'll sign a permission slip for you. I'll write one up just like I do for my daughter's field trips. You have permission to go for it. You're good enough. And if you don't think you're good enough, practice a couple of times and still go for it. And if you still don't think you're good enough, call me or I'll call you. Hop on the calendar. I'll call you and I'll explain to you why you need to be on stage and how you're good at it and how you're good enough and how it doesn't really give. It doesn't really matter what you people think of what you're doing. The fact is that you're doing it. And to quote my current favorite movie, The Greatest Showman, they don't know it yet, but they're going to love you. Keep on shining.