Is This A Good Thing?

After working with a brand consultant, she came up with a word for me that I just love.

Unabashed.

When I read it, I smiled. It felt like a compliment. All in without apology. I couldn’t wait to wrap it into my website copy and marketing.

It wasn’t until months later, for some inexplicable reason, that I decided to actually look it up. A quick Google took me to Webster’s dictionary which defines unabashed as unembarrassed or unashamed. Interesting, I thought. Similar, but different enough.

I’ve strived my whole life to create a career free of any limitation that holds me back from being transparent and open-hearted. The striving was never in becoming unabashed, it was always in finding a place where it was safe to be the best of me.

My core value is freedom.

It hurts my heart when someone lets shame dim their light. If I can help someone become free from a belief that holds them back, I’ve lived my purpose. I nudge them out of the nest when they’re ready to fly, waving my jazz hands and saying stuff like, “You are awesome sauce!” and “Yes, you can!”

So, I found it really interesting that the most popular Google query about the word unabashed appearing right under the definition is: Is unabashed good or bad?

Oh, my. Are we really wondering if the unabashed should be ashamed of not feeling shame?

Do you see the trap? Can you feel it?

If your inner critic is telling you to hold back because you might embarrass yourself and then you discover that it is actually fun to try new things and that success lives on the other side of pursued dreams and lessons learned from failure, and that big bold happy dances are your birthright, the next best way to get you to settle down is to have you believing that being unabashed is in itself a bad thing.

Jazz hands kill.

Awesome sauce is poison.

No, no you cannot and should not, so just stop trying.

More and more I think people need unabashed.

There are so many toxic voices telling us why we shouldn’t try or what might happen if we fail or that we’re selfish to dream for our own heart’s desire. There is no reason we can’t do an unapologetic happy dance while we construct a solid business plan. There is no reason we can’t believe in all our possibilities while holding each other accountable. There is no reason we can’t navigate and transform our toughest moments while giving each other pep talks and big fat psychic hugs.

Unabashed is not only good, it is very, very necessary.