Now You Know You Can

"Now you know you can."

These words were uttered to actor, Jeff Daniels by Script Supervisor, Kim Berner after he gave the speech of a lifetime in the film, "The Newsroom."
Leading up to this take, Jeff knew that this speech, the kind that actors live for, something that you can pour your heart and soul into, also had the potential of turning his career around.

No pressure.

He worked tirelessly on this speech, to the point of learning it backward.

Kim's encouragement and statement of the simple truth gave him further permission to go on and continue to give great performances, and even play around with it, in subsequent takes.  

Now you know you can.

What have you done this year, or in the past 5 or even 10 years, that seemed big, risky, outside of your comfort zone but also so in your zone of genius, that once you did it, it was as if you woke up to a new version of yourself?

The version that knows that “you can?”

For me, it was writing my book, Approaching Improv - Communication and Connection in Business and Beyond.

Since it’s been published, I’ve told friends that it almost feels as if the me of right now had nothing to do with it. It was the “me” a year ago who sat down each day, committed to achieving her daily word count. And now, the “me” of today, just gets to enjoy the fruits of her labor.

But that’s not true. I have to remind myself that I did that!

Now I know I can.

Please share your “Now you know you can” in the comments!

*If you’d like to hear this story in its entirety, check out Jeff Daniel’s latest project on Audible, “Alive and Well Enough, an Audio Memoir.”