Last night I was awarded the Citizen of the Year Award by Halo Business Networking.
To be honest, I didn’t think much about the event before hand. I was busy doing my thing. (In fact all yesterday afternoon I was doing the exciting task of combining and categorizing the volunteer, sponsor, and team lists into organized email data base.) I didn’t even remember what the award was called.
It may surprise you, but it is my habit to shy away from accolades. I don’t like to toot my own horn. Hero Work is about something bigger than me and therefore I prefer to shine the light else where.
Part of this comes from my natural introverted nature.
But part of it also comes from my past beliefs about myself–that I’m a nobody with little power. This part says, “Who do you think you are? You are an impostor. People will point at you and call you a braggart. Better to play it safe. Better to be small. Better to be insignificant.”
This is an old view, an old voice. I think it’s time to let that go. I think it’s time to take ownership of a new level of power. This level is already here. It’s just that there are parts of myself that haven’t caught up yet.
So with this in mind I say to myself, “Bravo Paul. Holy smokes, Citizen of the Year is amazing. Good job! Well earned!”