Duly Noted: I Choose on Monday (I choose) to be authentic in everything I do.

Inspired by lyrics from the India.Arie song, "I Choose," every Monday we'll offer you a way to give the ordinary week that follows a little extra. The song is posted below, we'd suggest playing it while reading... enjoy.

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"(I choose) to be authentic in everything I do."

I used to attend this discussion group every week and one day we were talking about “showing up.” The moderator asked us about the last time we didn’t show up completely. I didn’t get it. Either you’re there or you’re not, right? Not what he meant.

He asked us “when was the last time you withheld a, or many, parts of yourself in a setting because you didn’t want to be seen as something else or you didn’t want to give off a certain impression.”

Whitney “Don’t call it a Comeback” Houston just made her comeback (or are we not supposed to be using that word?) and in her big interview with Oprah, she talked about when married to Bobby the Infamous Brown, she would often try to downplay her own fame. She would find herself, this larger than life star, trying to be smaller. She wouldn’t fully show up.

How often do we subconsciously just not show up? When you come into a meeting, you maybe pull yourself back, don’t allow your wonderful ideas to come out. When you’re on a date, you try to be as much of what you think the other person wants, regardless of what you tuck away. How often have you walked into a room of mostly strangers and shut down all the extraordinary parts of yourself, to blend in and just be a quiet bump on a log? Oh, maybe these are all just me. That’s fine. I’ll be that guy.

I’ve had to challenge myself to “show up” more frequently than I have in the past. Not that I hide in the shadows, I think you can figure that I’m not often accused of being shy. With me though, I tend to like to be a chameleon in as many place as I can be. I can fit in to man places without being noticed (aside from being 6’3”). I’ve noticed about myself (uh oh, getting vulnerable) that I do that in an effort to protect myself. I don’t want to stand out too much, because he who pokes his head out can have it cut off. But I choose to show up. As black. As a man. As Christian. As gay. As a student. As an entrepreneur. As a son. As a partner. As a friend.

Show up today, then periodically pause and ask yourself: “Have I shown up?”

Now - I’ve got to show up for work, or I won’t have work to show up for. Peace!

j.