Ep. 63 | ... and you're stepping into the spotlight

Maybe you're like me and you're stepping into the spotlight.

In this episode I share my  journey of stepping into the spotlight, overcoming fears of people-pleasing, and trusting God’s plan. This is the episode for you if you're ready to stop playing small and staying in the background out of fear or disobedience. We also explore the power of storytelling, authenticity, and faith in living a purpose-driven life.

Want more on this topic? Listen to this episode and this episode.

Want to be a guest on the show? Submit a form on my website (linked below).

Rate, subscribe, and share with a friend! 

ABOUT ME: https://www.aliciawatson.com

STAY CONNECTED:

• IG:  TheAliciaWatson
• YouTube: TheAliciaWatson

*Grab a copy of my book: Secret Donuts: A Journey to Getting Over Your Weight, Aligned with God and into Your Purpose

"In Secret Donuts, Alicia Watson takes us through her story of her obsession with losing weight, something she believed was a necessary step to carrying out her purpose, when in fact her compulsive need to do so was the hindrance."

Transcript

You're listening to Maybe You're Like Me, the transparent musings of a God girl chasing after her purpose. Maybe You're Like Me is a podcast for dreamers and doers who take life's lessons and level up to look more like Christ. We'll connect through super relatable stories, growing pains, and aha moments that most of us share, just not always out loud. I'm your host, Alicia Watson, creative entrepreneur, playwright, author, wife, mother, daughter of the king, and so much more. And I can't help.

But to think that maybe you're like me. Hey, beautiful people. Thank you for joining me for another episode of Maybe You're Like Me with Alicia Watson. It's me, Alicia Watson. I'm glad you're here with me today. So you guys, the tickets have been released for the play that I'm in on May 22nd. It's called Between the Space of Things. It's written and directed by Dr. Mariah Siddott. For the first time in over a decade, I will stand on stage and act again. I'm so excited.

But even before that on March 5th, that's this week, I will perform at an elementary school with Hey Young World, the youth and literacy initiative created by My Ambitions as a Writer, founded by Stellina Goodwin. I'm really excited about both shows, I really am. mean, acting for me is more than an activity, it's another opportunity to connect with people through storytelling, which is my jam. Being able to show people themselves on stage or on the screen is an honor.

We relate through our shared experiences and emotions, I think. I mean, we as people love a good story, whether it's fictional, whether it's contrived like in reality TV, whether it's somebody's real story, testimonials, testimonies, memoirs, biographies, autobiographies, we love stories. Entertainment helps us to communicate and to comprehend, to make sense of life, to not feel so alone. I really think arts are underrated for their ability to influence people.

you know, to transform them, to change their lives. I think one of the reasons that Jesus spoke in parables, I think that's why. Like you can hear something and interpret it totally differently than the next person. But I also believe it's the Holy Spirit's job to reveal the true meaning of the parables. And also any story that we tell today. Have you ever watched something about something else and got a totally different message from it? I think that's the Holy Spirit speaking to you and through you through someone else's art. And I just find it really

Thrilling to be a part of that kind of good work. But we'll talk more about that later. As for me, it can be a scary thing to have all of the attention on you. I feel it's easier when I'm acting on stage or in a show or in a movie because when I do my job right, I disappear into the character and the character receives all of the feedback, all the judgment, the praises, and even the boo-boo tomatoes.

But it's not lost on me that as a performer when the credits roll and the curtains close, people will talk about how I did and that's fine. That's fine. As an introvert and a generally chill person, you won't catch me calling attention to myself in public just for fun. Now I'll cheer you on and hype you up while you call attention to yourself, but that's not my thing. I'm naturally observant. I live in the moment and I even like to share the moment.

If you go through the pics and videos on my phone, you'll find that like 90 % of them are point of view style and only 10 % are selfies. And the selfies are for myself not to share. I just kind of want to look at myself or see how I look for that day. But when I'm documenting something, my life or things that I'm attending or things that are happening, I'm usually just pointing a camera at it. I'm not turning the camera on myself or handing it to someone else to get into the scene. I need to do more of that.

I need to have more pictures and videos of myself in these scenarios that I put myself in, you know, just to be a part of things. But instinctually, I like to show what I'm seeing. I want to share the experience, not necessarily share myself. I think that's why I do my job so well. I will document you. I'll document your brand, your story, and I'll do it all without inserting myself into it. Even in conversation, I'm more than happy to listen.

rather than to be listened to, especially when I'm just talking about myself. Now this podcast is different because it's me sharing and actually trying to connect you to you. But again, that's the beauty of the art and the art form. It's connection, it's storytelling, it's something that I love. I think people love talking to me sometimes. It's the only time that they get to talk about themselves and not feel like it's a competition or like they are being one-upped or me-tude after every sentence.

Cause I'm not going to do that. Not often, not with everyone. Usually I'm just listening. I'm interested. Now don't get me wrong. I'm not shy. I don't lack confidence at all. Seriously. I love being me. I think I'm really pretty. I think I'm interesting. I have a strong sense of self and faith in my ability to do things and my ability to grow when I'm weak and my ability to always be improving and getting better or in my ability to help other people do the same.

I'm very thankful for the way that I was created and the way that I think and the way that I create all of that. So you might be thinking, what's the problem then? And the answer I think is simple. I didn't trust people. If I'm being real, that's the reason I've been reluctant to draw attention to myself for a while now, for like years even. The trauma, the disappointment, the deception, the betrayal child. Lord, people are people and they will people.

and it's taken me quite some time to accept that and understand that and move forward in spite of that. But I've grown and I've matured spiritually and I'm in a different mental space now. And maybe you are too. Maybe you'll be by the end of this episode. That's my hope anyway. So maybe you're like me and you're stepping into the spotlight. I'm stepping into the spotlight literally on stage and on screen, but also figuratively through the podcast and promoting the other things that I'm doing because

Will I do a thing? Absolutely. Will I market and promote that thing? No, no, I'm not going to. I'm gonna do it quietly. My social media is dry and abandoned. My friends and family don't even know what I'm doing half the time. I love quiet motion. I'm just doing things that nobody knows. It's like the pre is that Andy drove to hit Dwight. He's just creeping and it's just this quiet. You don't even know it's moving.

That's how I like my emotion, just super quiet. But being in motion, like you don't have to know about it. But that's the problem, right? I really like the astonished look on people's faces when I rattle off finally all the things that I've been doing and all the things that I've done. They usually have no idea. And it's so funny, but it's not. It's so cute, but it's not, it's not. Because they need to know. And not only do they need to know,

They need to have a full understanding. They need to know the ins and outs of what I'm doing so that they can talk you up at tables you're not at and in rooms you aren't in. And when opportunities arise and they know that you will be the perfect fit and especially when there's an opportunity for God to get glory through you, you're blocking your blessings boo. I'll be blocking my blessings. And the sad thing is you're blocking other people's blessings too.

There are people who need to experience you and be blessed by you, your presence, your gifts and talents, your perspective, by what you're doing and what you have to offer. I mentioned before that I didn't trust people and I shouldn't. People are fickle. They can snatch their praise and approval for the smallest of reasons. And let me add, I'm also people. I change my mind about others all the time and for reasons I don't always share. And for reasons that might not even be reasonable, I'm not perfect. I'm not even good.

No one is, right? So you and I really shouldn't put our hope, faith or trust in anyone but the Lord because he is good and he is perfect. And when you do, you learn that we don't need people's praise or approval to be successful, to be loved, to be cared for, to be affirmed, and most importantly, to feel safe. Sometimes a grievement feels safe. Approval feels safe. Popularity feels safe, but true safety is found in him.

Paul says this in Galatians 1, 10 through 12. I love it in a message version. He says, do you think I speak this strongly in order to manipulate crowds or court favor with God or get popular applause? If my goal is popularity, I wouldn't bother being Christ's slave. Know this, I am most emphatic here, friends. This great message I deliver to you is not mere human optimism. I didn't receive it through the traditions and I wasn't taught it in some school. I got it straight from God.

received the message directly from Jesus Christ. Paul was a man on a mission. He wasn't worried about how people were perceiving him or what people thought of him. And when he set the record straight, it was only to remind them of why he was there, why he was on a mission and point them back to what was most important. You're not here to convince people of your greatness, but of God's greatness. I'm not here to convince people of my greatness, but of God's greatness. Whether that's explicitly through gospel-focused activities,

or with how you live and show up wherever he places you in whatever role or whatever circumstances. As they say, sometimes your life is the only Bible some people will read. How you love others, how you demonstrate discipline, how you do everything excellently as if working for the Lord. Those things can make people curious about God, the God you serve, and they can make them want to seek him for themselves. And that's like our greatest goal here. Now had to get rid of myself and acknowledge that the root of my hiding

It's still some remnants of people pleasing, even though I say I'm a recovering people pleaser. And because of that fear, the people pleasing is sometimes because of fear. It's not a fear of people per se, but a fear of being perceived, a fear of being wrong, a fear of being misunderstood. I hate when people misunderstand me and what my intentions are when they don't get me, when they don't seek to understand me, when they don't get it. It just irks my nerves when they speak.

with authority about things that they don't know as it relates to me, because I'm an open book, even if I am seemingly shy or quiet or reserved. If you just ask a question, I'm gonna tell you. I'm like any other person. I wouldn't mind talking about myself because I know stories connect. I like connection, but some people never will have a chance to connect with you on that level. They will see what you do.

and look at it through the lens of their own experiences, their own perspective, their own biases, and make judgments and release those judgments out into the world about you and you can do absolutely nothing about it. And that my friends is fine. You're not really in any danger for the most part. Now there are some wackadoos, some people that are truly crazy and some people that you really do.

need to be careful of some security measures and cyber security measures that you really should be taking because everybody's not wrapped too tight. But for the most part, the dangers that our bodies and our nervous systems are telling us are out there are not real. And it's good to protect yourself, but not against the things that God can more easily protect you from. That's something that has taken me years to work through, years to work through.

but I've worked through them. Thankfully, this year especially, I've been focusing more on gratitude and the people who get it and the people who are willing to try to get it. And the fact that it doesn't matter if people get it at all because I just want God to get it, because he can do something with it. And everyone who doesn't get it from here on out just receives thoughts and prayers of peace and comfort, praying that they spend less time worried about or by me and more time seeking Jesus.

Because if God hired me for the position and gave me the assignment, I can look to him for the performance review and the payment, solely him. I used to have a quote that I made up when I was talking about this sometime before, I guess, that people can't grade you on an assignment that they didn't give you. The grade doesn't matter. Like if you're in somebody's class, that's the grade that goes into the grade book. That's the one that matters when it counts towards your GPA.

Some other random teacher walking by who has an opinion on how you're being taught or how you're expressing what you've learned can have an opinion, but the opinion has no bearing on your grades, your grade point average. That's how we look at the assignments that God gives us and what people feel about them. We fear God more than we fear man. We trust God more than we trust man. We honor God more than we honor man. That's a reasonable service. You know, this is sounding familiar. It really, it really is. Like, hold on, let me.

yep. I made an episode about running and hiding in the past and also apparently one about shameless self-promotion. And I will put them in the show notes. This is a thorn for me, clearly. And that's fine. Like, I don't mind talking about it again, because if it's still coming up for me, it's still coming up for someone out there, someone who might not have heard those episodes before, and you might need to hear it from me right now. So I don't mind talking about it. This is a cross that I will continue to carry.

in a way that I will have to continue to die to myself daily, I guess. So instead of worrying about what it means if I mess up or if I'm imperfect or if I don't meet people's expectations or just make people feel away even about the good things about me, I think about God and how I fear him more. How can he take the words I say and the things that I do and work them together for my good and his glory so that even if I mess up or even if the majority of people don't agree with me,

or even if I misspeak or even if I don't know everything or even if I need to change my mind later, he can still do what he needs to do for who he needs to do it for because I'm available. How can what I say and do hit people's ears and hearts in just the right way to accomplish his will? I think about how I shouldn't hide or shrink to make people feel comfortable because that might cause me to miss an opportunity for God to show up and show out.

An opportunity for him to show me how much more powerful he is than my fears, than my thoughts, than the notions that run in my head that try to stop me from living out fully what he has instilled and assigned for me to do. Especially when I trust him every step of the way, when that's an option, when it's like the Gideon type of faith where I do it scared.

and I do it with him and I ask him for guidance and I ask him for confirmation and affirmation and he gives it like how much better is your relationship with God when you have that interaction with him. When you say give me a sign Lord and he gives you a sign when you pray your heart is on your face and he shows up when you're fasting and he comes through like that's so much better in experience than just being perfect out the gate and doing everything right.

That's the blessing of having a relationship with him. Listen, you are safe from people's opinions. You're safe from people's expectations and judgment. You're loved, you're powerful, and you're filled with God's Spirit. You are dying to yourself daily, admitting that God's will is best. And when you approach everything with trust in the Lord, remembering his promises, believing that you are an alien here, you can show it fully in the way that he created you.

confidently in the things that he's assigning you. Full of love in the people that he's put in your orbit. Full of surrender, worship, praise, and contentment with a sober mind and a sober view of yourself. I want you to step into the spotlight. Let people read your life and witness how good God is and how good he has been to you. And also, also, let people experience you. Stop.

Gatekeeping yourself, stop hiding your light. Don't wait until things are perfect or until you're ready. Someone might need what you have today. They might need you today. Care more about people and focus on them. Love others as you love yourself. Like lately I've received some really touching messages about this podcast.

I just had to think that if I'd not put out those episodes, even the ones that I felt like, I'm not feeling this today, this one might not hit. Those are the ones that people would come back and say bless them. Wow, what an opportunity. That's the point of this whole thing that people be blessed by them, that it draws them nearer to God, that it helps them to see themselves through the lens that he sees them. What good were they in my head and just in my heart or in my intentions? I'm going to do a podcast. I'm going to

release some episodes, I'm going to whatever. And what good would it be if I stopped every time I missed an episode? I'm going to release. If I miss a Monday, I get too busy, there's technical difficulties, things are happening. I'm going to release a podcast this week because I'm not, I want to be consistent. I don't have to be perfect. I don't have to beat myself up. And if it gets out late, I trust that that's the exact day that whoever needed to hear it, needed to hear it. I'm showing myself grace and I hope you will too.

Show me grace and show yourself grace. Because again, God can take our little and do much with it. God can take our mess ups and do great things with it. God can take our faith and our belief and help our unbelief. Like how good is our God that even your faith isn't necessarily just your responsibility. Like you can have a level of faith and pray for more faith and he'll give it to you. What?

Come on, like how good is he? That's why I'm not tripping about doing all these things right or doing everything. I just want to do the thing. Can I stand before God at the end of my life and say, I used everything that you gave me. No, I won't be able to if I'm waiting to use everything that he gives me until I feel like it's perfect or I feel comfortable doing it or I feel like people finally understand me or love me enough or like me enough or just not focused on me enough that.

I feel safe enough to do it. No, I trust in him more than I distrust people. I have no qualms about knowing that I'm not gonna be liked or loved by everyone. And that's okay. You're not gonna be liked or loved. No one is liked or loved by everyone. Even the most sweet, sincere, amazing person that you know has somebody somewhere turning their nose up at them and spreading a rumor or saying something crazy or who has an experience of them.

that you don't have. Even though they are the same person, they might behave towards them the exact same way they behave towards you, but something within them makes them see that person that you love so dearly differently. But if that person stops showing up just because of the way those people think of them, you wouldn't even benefit from that greatness. And the same can be said about you. The same can be said about me. There's some people who are like, wow, I'm so blessed to have Alicia.

or you in my life. And then there's some people like, I don't get it. I don't get her. I'm missing it. you know, and that's fine. It's absolutely fine. We pray for those people and we keep it moving. Like even with my business, like, you know, some people are entrepreneurs or any kind of business and they say, you know, not everyone's your client. Those people aren't your clients. That's true.

Some people won't get it. Some people won't see the value in what you provide. But man, when I get my people, the people I'm supposed to be working with, the feedback I get for the work I do for them, it feels so purposeful. It feels so aligned. It feels so great because it's like a domino effect. As I make myself and my wisdom, my knowledge, my creativity available to them, they get to do the work that they love to do for others.

and share all of their great attributes with others. And then from there, I have no idea how far my yes ripples out. Those others that they shared it with, who are they sharing it with and so on and so forth. But God knows, God sees, God planned for it all. He aligned it at just the right time with just the right people for such a time as this. You do not know the impact of your stepping into the spotlight. And you won't know until you do step into the spotlight.

So whatever your spotlight might be, my friends, step up and into the spotlight. Be okay with the attention. Be okay with all eyes on you because the light on you is really just reflecting off of God. Shine it back onto him because that's the point. We're humble to be exalted by the one who deserves the exaltation, by the one who is above it all.

So give him glory, redirect the attention back onto him like Paul did. Like I'm not working for you guys. I'm not working for your approval. If you approve me, great. If you don't, great. But please approve of God. That's going to do you some good. That's going to do me some good. As believers, that's where our hearts should be. Of what we know of people, even if we don't trust them, that's fine. We trust God. We care more about the one who can toss us and our souls into hell.

Like who can kill us and toss us into hell? Everybody else. They matter so much less in that sense, but he loves them so much and he loves us so much. And so from the love that he has for us, we can spread that to others so that they can experience his love too. And for us, might mean we step into the spotlight. That might mean we stop playing small. That might mean we stop hiding our lights.

can't be the best kept secret anymore. You can't be the exclusive anymore. Like exclusive use only be discerning. Yes. Don't be silly. Don't be foolish. Right? Be wise, but be obedient above all and trust that we're God guides he provides. And that means even protection, even a shield when, people are hurling rocks at you because you're up on a platform and fully visible that visibility.

is what's going to bring you the opportunities. Like I was looking in my journal the other day from like November and I said, Lord, I need help. And what I heard back was get visible. Now that's not what I actually, I want is very specific help with these things. But he was reminding me that everything I'm asking for comes through me being obedient and taking the actions that he wants me to take, whether I'm gaining lessons, whether I'm gaining.

connections, whether I'm gaining provisions, whether I'm gaining growth, you know, I'm growing in maturity through the things that I do. Like I can't change if I don't change. And a change that needs to take place is to get visible. We've hidden long enough. We've isolated long enough. We've rejected long enough. Like there's some space where you will reject others first so that they don't get to reject you. Like how are you hating from inside the club?

and not letting anybody in. Like, and then also some people ain't even trying to get in the club. You just, you're just exclusive for no reason because you're protecting yourself. Like, yes, we find our people. We have our inner circle. We have our people that are close to us that are safe for us, but that does not give us a right to exclude everyone else. You love everyone else, even our enemies. We love them because that's what it means to look like.

to look like his children. We make peace. We draw people in. We make people feel loved and comfortable because we are loved. We have a good, good father. He knows how to love us. He's not traumatized us if we accept. We accept the love that he has for us and try to understand the things that we experience. From that maturity, we can be better people and more loving people and more open people.

We have to heal first. And a part of your healing comes through the amount of faith that you have sometimes. The seeking that you do at times, the understanding of who God is and why he might do the things that he do, that maybe discipline that you're feeling is discipline in a good way. It's not a punishment. It's not suffering for the sake of punishment and suffering. Like you might be feeling the product of sinful nature.

of being in a sinful world. But what you experience going through it is the love and the protection and the kindness and the grace and the mercy of our Father. But it takes seeking Him. It takes Holy Spirit revelation to see that, to feel that, to embrace that, to accept that. And when you get there, then you're able to pour out. That's filling your cup. You we say you can't pour from an empty cup. That part is filling your cup. You're a living sacrifice.

You're offering yourself as a living sacrifice. And even as you live, you continue to grow. You continue to experience grace and mercy and prosperity from him. Like the blessing of the Lord brings wealth and it doesn't come with a painful toil. That's in Proverbs. He wants us to prosper. He wants us to be okay. Even as we're here. I know we're looking forward to a home, our home, going home. But even as we're here,

We're prospering, even as we're here, we're growing, we're leveling up. We're looking like Christ and we're helping other people do it too. He's positioning us for whatever. It might be a big thing and it might just be the thing that you need to affect a few people in your orbit. The small town you live in, the small church you go to, your small family, just your family unit.

All this work he's doing in and through you might be just to raise that child that he gave you. And that child would be the one to change the world in some way. But your job is just as important because like Samson's parents, you have to ask like, what is it that you want me to do with this child that's going to rescue us after this 40 years of suffering? His mom was obedient. They asked the angel for instructions on how to raise their baby. They didn't ask.

How you know about to have a baby? Who are you? They didn't question. They have faith. They have faith enough to say, okay, all right, ask him to come back. That was Manoa. He said to his wife, ask him to come back so I can ask him what it is and how it is that we're supposed to take care of this child. They trusted. They believed the first time. The angel said, this is what's going to happen. And they acted and they were diligent and they were obedient. She did not.

drink fermented drink. did not cut his hair. They didn't eat unclean animals. I think there was something else that she wasn't supposed to do. They didn't do it. And he grew in favor with the Lord. He was strong and he was mighty and he was a true thorn in the Philistine side. And God worked through him to do some mighty things. Now he had some mishaps along the way. He got himself

involved with women that didn't have his best interests at heart.

But God still used him. Like he killed more people in death than he did while he was alive. And he was the beginning of the deliverance of the Israelites from the Philistines. You don't know the impact of your assignment.

and may not go 100 % perfectly.

It may even end up breaking your heart. pretty sure. I know that the story said that his brothers came and got him. I don't know if his parents were there still alive or whatever for Samson. But yeah, the assignment that God gives you might still break your heart because people are people and they're going to people. And just as you have expectations for other people, your children included, your family, your parents, they can disappoint you too. But even that.

It's not enough for you to not do what God told you to do, to be who God told you to be, to say what God told you to say. You have to step into whatever that spotlight is. And it's audience one on top of that. So when we're thinking about stepping into the spotlight, we're not thinking about all the eyeballs that will be on us. We're thinking about God's eyeballs being on us. Cause that's the audience that we're, that we're stepping into the spotlight for.

Just an audience of one. And his applause and his ovation is what matters. That's what we're working towards. We want to hear him say, bravo, encore, well done. Encore, yeah, encore is the one. We want to go encore. We want to continue this performance in heaven with him. And we can, thankfully. But yeah, while we're here, we want to please him. So yeah, friends, step into the spotlight.

Step up into that spotlight, whatever it is. Do not fear, do not be afraid. Do not worry, do not let the attacks of the enemy stop you from stepping into that spotlight. Well, that's all I have for you today. If you're like me, I'd love for you to leave me a review on Apple Podcasts. I really do love reading your reviews. I haven't received many lately. So check in and let me hear what you're thinking about the show.

If you know someone who's like us, send this episode to them or any of our previous episodes. Like I said, I'll link the two episodes that are very similar to this one into the show notes. If you want to listen even more to this message today, if you need a little bit more encouragement, further listening, it will be in the show notes. I do have a website. So if you want to go to my website, you can.

Sign up to be a guest on the podcast. I think that after I hit 100 episodes and that'll be probably in about 20 a little bit over 25 more episodes I want to start having guests. So if you're like me and if you think you'd be like my listeners I'd like to hear your story I want to share more stories here make more connections and help people to see that they're not alone through the podcast So feel free to reach out submit your story or send it to someone that you think might be a good fit for the show

And with that, I hope you have a fabulous week. K? Bye!