Why do we wait so long to see that something is relevant today?
Now think about yourself…

– Gail Conrad

Opening (with music):

Hello and welcome to the Wildscape Podcast, sharing tales of stepping into the unknown to create more art, beauty, and magic in your life. I’m your host, Gail Conrad, and today you’re listening to:

YOUR UNSUNG HEROES (music ends).

Hello everyone!

First off, I just want to say thank you for tuning in and also, I loved receiving your responses to my last episode.

But today, I’m going in a very different direction. I’m going to talk about your UNSUNG HEROES, which might sound mysterious, but stay with me here.

In fact, let’s do treat this as a mystery. And to begin, I have a question:

If you had a bright shiny container, and in it you put all the things you care most about and feel most proud about in your life—your finest accomplishments,

What would you put in?

For some people, it might be their family, their children or their work, the company they’ve built from the ground up and love. It could be your partner in life, or a special group of friends, or the projects that you feel proud of.

Take a moment and think, what you would put into this shiny container…

Okay, now here’s my next question:

What did you leave out?

I ask because–well, I can best explain by sharing something about my own personal answers, and I’ll put it this way:

What I’ve always spent enormous time and energy on, are my creative projects. And I’ve probably got a big fat briefcase of the ones that I’ve accomplished and am very proud of. They go right into my big, bright, shiny container.

But I will admit, I’ve got an even bigger container. In my mind, it sometimes looks like a ratty duffel bag, filled with the ones that didn’t happen: the 40-page proposals, prototype designs, films and workshop presentations that I worked ever so hard on, but which never saw the light of day, or maybe, just couldn’t take all the way.

Shall I consider this my bag of loser projects? The failures? The ones I don’t like to talk about because I loved them so much, spent so much time and energy on, put so much blood sweat and tears into and—they didn’t happen.

The ones which friends say about: you gave it your all, but I might be thinking, it didn’t happen. End of story – period!

Or it is the end of the story?

Now think again what you put into your 2^nd container, for this is where today’s story really begins.

For what I’d like to talk about is what I’ll call the DNA of these so-called loser or failed endeavors. Think of it as their genealogy, or even as your alternative ancenstry.com.

Whatever you put in that 2nd container, I’m going to call your Unsung Heroes, but remember, I said this might act like a mystery, so to go forward, I actually need to backtrack.

And “track” might be the perfect word, so I can give you a clue. Think about this:

You touch a glass.

Or you walk on the sand.

Say you call a wrong number, or even—you lie on a bed.

Whatever you do, you leave an imprint and an impact—I’ll call this a trail, even when you touch something for a moment.

And most often, we feel pretty neutral about these actions.

We agree that we leave these trails. Right?

Sometimes we physically see it: the footprints, the fingerprints, the call log on our phone.

Other times, the evidence is less visible but still we’re used to thinking, okay—even if I don’t at first see it, under a microscope, I or the experts can.

Or like in a crime scene using ultra-violet light: that’s when it pops up—the trace of blood on the wall.

So far, all accepted. You might think, of course I know about these trails!

But let’s take another scenario, one that uses a very different kind of tracking, like when a child goes missing, say—in the mountains, or in the woods.

When parents can’t find their child, and all traditional means of searching, including using our human physical senses, doesn’t work, they sometimes turn to trackers and dogs, or even highly attuned sensitives—some people call them psychics, to help pinpoint where the child may be.

A dog’s sense of smell picks up on all sorts of invisible things. It’s much more powerful than our human sense of smell, so trackers will give a dog something the child just wore, like a sweater or shoe.

A gifted sensitive might use their clairvoyance to help find the child, but often, they too, take something the child wore or held all the time, like a ring, a stuffed animal, or a special hat.

And why these kinds of things?

Because, these are the child’s favorite things.

They’re something the child wears or plays with all the time. They’re loved, they’re cherished, connected to strong thoughts and emotions.

And here’s the thing—

They create a link. They’re imbued with the child’s essence; I’ll call it their energy, and it’s these less visible, but all-powerful energetic trails that I want to talk about next.

Try out this next clue:

Think back to yourself as a child. Pick one toy or favorite object that you loved the most.

How much time did you spend with it?

Think of how you played with it, where you kept it, how you might have fought with some other mean kid if they tried to grab it, or destroy it, or—childhood can be violent—maybe YOU accidentally dismembered it. Perhaps you talked to it.

What pops up?

I bet there’s a slew of thoughts and emotions, and at least one super-vivid story, and this is just one now very lit-up trail.

Now let’s go back, not to your accomplishments in the bright shiny container, but to wherever you put the other stuff—you know, that 2nd container—the not-so-happy/not-so-proud stuff—the stuff you left out.

And okay, you might be thinking:

No! I’d much rather remember dismembering my childhood toy, or perhaps you’re hoping we can just forget it—keep this stuff in the attic, the basement, or the bottom of the river, wherever you consigned it to death.

But hold on. Stay with me here.

Just pick out one thing, from that 2^nd container, because you’re going to get a break.

Here’s your next clue:
You might change your mind-set about this event.

I invite you to rewind, not to the moment when everything went south, meaning—feels painful, maybe fell apart, but back to that time when you felt most hopeful, most excited about what you were doing.

Take a moment and remember how you felt.

And okay—I’ll do it too.

But remember, we are rewinding, so me—the minute I back-track enough and touch that place, well—I laugh, because, what I pull out of my 2^nd container—my so-called loser duffel bag, is this theatrical project.

I even have a great photo of it, and I revisit this film shoot I did, with a bunch of wild punk-looking dancers on a Brooklyn, New York roof.

I’m doing this shoot as a promo, for an all-choreographed Broadway show.

When this photo is taken, I don’t yet know that the show won’t happen. That awful moment comes five years later, when the last producer who said yes says NO.

When this photo is shot, I feel only excitement and optimism. I feel ready to take off and fly, because creating anything on a rooftop is one of my favorite things. That’s why I laugh!

And just thinking about it, I get a blast of energy, and I realize—this project didn’t die, in fact, I can track it—it leaves a living and breathing trail.

The proof?
Years later it leads me to Los Angeles, where I design all kinds of experiences for public places, including on rooftops!

And I think:
I still love creating these kinds of adventures, and then I get it, that even though my work keeps changing, every time I create something new, I pass some of this energy—I’ll call it the DNA of this project, on.

Now back to you.

What did you pick, and where did you rewind to?

What might happen if you literally bask and linger in that moment, that earlier feeling of excitement and hope?

Here’s my last clue:

You discover your own Unsung Hero.

I say unsung, because you never truly honored it before. You never, to use the classic phrase, sang its praises.

And Hero because:

Well, look at all you went through: the time, energy, & passion you spent to create this in your life, even if it didn’t work out.

I also use the word Hero because as you embody this feeling, you literally re-ignite this trail—your journey, and you might see wow—it does have value! It’s not just a visit down memory lane.

This trail and whatever happened is worthy of recognition, by you.

We humans have a habit of honoring a hero decades or centuries later. That’s when we finally we see the light and realize, oh yeah, right—they did important stuff.

And why do we wait so long?

I’d say, that’s when we finally get it—their relevance.

We see how much value the person and their actions have to us today.

Just think of the 2016 award-winning film, Hidden Figures.

It tells the story of the African American women, all brilliant mathematicians, who literally were “the brains” of the United States space race, to launch the 1^st American into orbit in 1962.

These women made breakthroughs in science and in race and gender relations.  Still, how many people knew about them until the film came out? Fifty-four years later…

Why do we wait so long, to see that something is relevant today?

Now think about yourself.

Remember the trail that a child leaves, when they love and play and focus on anything long enough.

When you honor one of your own unsung heroes, you tap into all the excitement and energy that you first had when you began that endeavor.

You’re not trying to repeat the same thing again, but—

You DO take that trail and re-ignite the best of it.

And guess what?

You not only honor yourself and what you’ve done, but the real magic is –

You can pay it forward.

You can pass it on to whatever you decide to do next.

This isn’t a clue.

It’s a challenge!

I dare you.

Thank you.

—
I’m Gail Conrad, your host of the Wildscape Podcast, and I want to say thank you for listening today.

The opening music is by Chip Barrow, and if you’d like to comment or contact me directly, you can go to gailconrad.com.

That’s gailconrad.com

I’d love to hear from you, and also—I’d love for you to share this podcast with friends.

So spread the word, and I look forward to the next time we connect. Bye for now.

Will you honor your Unsung Heroes today?