Learning to be honest with yourself is one of the hardest, bravest and most important things you can do in life. If you’ve been following along with posts here on B3 you’ll have seen these words come up a bunch – truth, honesty, acknowledgement. All are essential on this little journey of yours to Master Your YOU. The true, honest to goodness you that loves sewing mittens for kittens, or playing music, or brewing beer. The one who is ready to be real and accept themselves, their reality and follow their heart regardless of the obstacles they feel lie ahead.

I specifically bring up the word honesty today because I would like to discuss it as it relates to us exploring our potential and what we feel most passionate about. Being honest with yourself doesn’t just mean admitting a certain truth about who you are. It means acknowledging that truth, that deep, dreamy desire, giving it life and working to achieve whatever it takes to keep it alive and thriving.

Let me paint this picture for you.

I recently went to my first Coldplay concert (please keep reading, you know I always have a point). Anyway, I went to this concert at a big ol’ stadium in Boston with tens of thousands of people. The band came out with a song to pump everyone up and the whole crowd went wild. I mean, all of those people went crazy (myself included) for these four individuals on stage – it was quite overwhelming. When I say “it” I’m not just referring to those screaming fans. I instead thought about how breathtaking it was that this was not their first show. They’ve been around for years and people still love them this much. I thought about where they started. I thought about their energy – Chris Martin running and jumping and singing all around that huge stage, sweaty as all heck but not giving a crap. I thought about what keeps them going. I thought about the setlist – the same setlist they’ve played at every show on that tour. I thought about the effects, the setups, the breakdowns, the travel, the rehearsals – how many times they’ve sung each and every one of their songs, new or old. I thought about all of those, beyond that stadium, who follow them and their music. I actually had a moment where I said to myself, “They did this themselves. All they did was decide to start. They started somewhere and got here because they stayed true to what they felt passionate about.” They didn’t just have one hit and stop to coast on fame. It took them years to get where they are and I’m sure it’s not something they expected or sought out. It is solely a result of them maintaining honesty with themselves and working their butts off to keep that desire alive and thriving.

The same goes for you.

Whether you long to become the next Coldplay of your generation or the regular Tuesday afternoon gig at your local bar or coffee shop, you still have to work just as hard to deliver. No matter what vision of greatness you’ve whipped up in that beautiful mind of yours, you need to be willing to be HONEST with yourself about what you set forth to do. That includes the hard work, the time, and the effort, that will go into you achieving that level of success you’ve defined. You better be ready to make your fans the darn happiest fans out there. You better play every show like it’s your first and not give up once the going gets good or bad. You better be ready to play those songs you wrote, over and over and over again and still love it everyday. But first, you have to be willing to write the music. You need to start. You need to be honest with yourself.