You take up space. Act like it.

I hope you’re using your existence to take up space! I hope you’re using your voice, body, brain and heart to take up space!

If you’re an OG podcast listener you know that I like to reference the movie The Other Guys (more than I probably should tbh). There’s a scene in it where Mark Wahlberg’s character is frustrated and screams I’m a peacock you gotta let me fly!

So it won’t be a shock when I say: You’re a peacock, my friend. You’ve gotta let yourself fly!

You have to take up space!

How? By refusing to be small any longer.

You might not think you're an extraordinary human. You might think you’re a simple person.

You work your job.

You like a good Netflix session.

You vacation twice a year.

You budget your expenses.

You pay your taxes.

You don’t over indulge in life.

You might think that relative to other louder people, you're small. You might thank your voice and your actions don’t really matter.

I don’t care how talentless you think you are! I don’t care if you can’t count to 10, tie your shoes or if you can’t tell left from right… you take up space!

Physically you take up space. When you’re in an elevator, in line at the store, walking down the sidewalk, at the gym or at a bar… you take up space.

You take up space with the energy you exude. When you smile, hug someone, shake someone’s hand, wave at someone… you take up space.

When you speak up you take up space. Your voice carries weight and energy and comes from the very depth of your being… you take up space.

So why do you allow yourself to feel small?

It’s time to take up space! Speak up! Act! Stop saying things like I can't change that. It’s just the way things are. There are just some things I can’t change and instead start saying I can change this. I will change this. I will not be small anymore.

You take up space my friend! Don’t worry if you’re too extra, too loud, too opinionated or too weird. Don’t become smaller for others so they can feel comfortable around you.

It's really quite a crazy thing!

We literally shrink ourselves so that others can feel more comfortable around us. How nuts is that?! It's over-thinking that leads us to do this.

Am I being too loud? Am I being too extra? Am I being too needy? Am I being too stubborn? 

That is how we end up feeling small.

We bite our tongue. We suppress our voice. We don’t declare our presence. We don’t take up the space we so rightfully should be taking up. We dull our shine. We say sorry when we don’t mean it. 

We stay quiet when we shouldn't! We hide. We become afraid to claim our space. We make ourselves small so others feel comfortable.

Enough! Now is the time to make others feel uncomfortable with the space you take up.

So I say… stop biting your tongue and dulling your shine.

Let your sense of rebellion out. Don’t repress what you feel or what you know is right.

Now is the time to turn off that customer service voice of yours and take up some freakin’ space!

Turn off that customer service voice that says I’m so sorry about that. It’s ok! F*** that!

You’re a peacock! You have the ability to take up space, so act like it.

That is more powerful than you might ever imagine.