Sunday Night With John: What Makes You So Special?

Somewhere, out there in the world, there is a person who is in need of your voice, your take on the world, your artistic interpretation, or your strung-together-words that imagine a better future or a path through a difficult time. On many different occasions, I have enjoyed a late night conversation with a friend(s) about life, my public speaking, my Sunday Night with John blog, and my attempts to overcome the fear that my material and work are not good enough for public consumption. The conversation eventually boils down to, what makes you so special, and overcoming my fear of sharing my thoughts with the world.

I’m well aware there are people in my orbit, some of them I may even consider a friend, that look at my public speaking, my blogs, and my message, and make fun of it, tear it down, or even worse do not acknowledge its existence.  Heck, there are well over 6 billion people in the world.  Most of them have never heard of John Paul Derryberry. So what’s the point of putting this message out there and opening myself up to criticism, to being rejected, to being ignored by most of the world?

I was sitting in Iron Mountain, Michigan, this past Sunday, after being a groomsman in one of my best friend's wedding. We were invited there by a friend of my parents before we all started the seven-hour long haul home to Iowa City, Iowa. As we chatted about the weekend’s highs and lows, there was a break in the conversation and the mother looked at me and said, “I love your Sunday Night’s with John, they make me think.” And, boom, there it is, why I spend time sharing my view of the world with audiences and readers.  I just never know who is going to come across it and read it and have it leave a mark on them. This created an idea about how to better interpret the world:  that thought inspires actions and actions lead to change.

I have never sought to be perfect. I enjoy life’s warts. I have only ever strived to be better. My writing from the first blog to now is better. My talks from 12 years ago to now are better. I myself, from the start of all this till now, am better.  There will always be people who laugh, put down, and ignore Share Emotions Emotions Matter, and Sunday Night with John. I do not look for its value in those people. Every time that voice in the back of my head whispers, "what makes you so special,"  I close my eyes, take a deep breath and remember interactions like the one in a greasy-spoon breakfast joint in Michigan. I do not do this for the masses. I do this for that one person who needs to hear or read my words so they can to tackle life the next day.  There is the worth. I need to know my message has value. Those interactions spur me on to craft my next blog, my next speech.

So whatever your muse is --writing, drawing, music, or art-- find a space and share it with the world because somewhere out there in the world there is a person who is in need of your voice, your take on the world, your artistic interpretation, or your strung-together-words that imagine a better future or a path through a difficult time.  You just never know who is going to come across your creation and have it leave a mark on them. Your view of the world can lead them to a thought about how to better interpret the world, and that thought can inspire actions, and those actions can lead to change. So what makes you so special?  The answer is You!