Expanding your identity | Amy Walker | TEDxPhoenixville

Amy Walker, an artist of many media, is insatiably interested in the unique juice that fuels the human spirit. She dedicates her life to awakening the full potential within herself and others. Her online videos have garnered over 20 million views on YouTube and beyond, from the viral "21 Accents," to memorable characters, songs, stories and musings on being human.

This talk is the second segment of Amy's three-part talk, "Expanding Your Identity to Embody Your Potential."

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx.

I'm Amy Walker and I'm a believaholic.

(Audience) Hi, Amy.

Thank you.

I believe that you are capable
of anything you set your mind to.

When people ask me
to teach them a new skill,

they're really asking for me
to believe that they're capable of it.

They want to do it.

They just don't quite think
that they can, yet.

And so I show them,
over and over, that it is possible.

In small enough increments,
I help them expand their identity

so that even though they begin by saying,

"Oh, I'm just taking lessons,"

gradually, they'll expand their identity

to include the title
"I'm a singer," "I'm an actor," etc.

I did not begin this way.

At the tender age of 14,

I was your above-average student
with below-average confidence.

Depressed, apologetic, and not popular.

It wasn't until the end
of my middle-school internment,

(Laughter)

the eighth-grade dance,

that all that began to change.

I'd somehow managed to squeeze my way

into the impenetrable circle
of popular people.

Clearly out of my element,

I began doing what I always did then
and looked around for someone to copy.

But as I perused all those faces,
with too much dark lipliner,

I noticed that these popular people,
who always know what they're doing, right,

were looking around
for someone else to follow.

So I just closed my eyes
and said to myself,

"Amy Frances Walker,
doesn't matter what they think.

Music is in your blood.
You've been singing since the highchair.

Surely, you can dance.

You just don't realize it yet.

So you reach into your heart,
and you feel the pulse of that music

and let it carry your body into dance."

And as I opened my eyes,
I noticed that they were all following me.

Suddenly, I had the opportunity to become

"She who knows how to dance
at social gatherings."

(Laughter)

It was a big deal for a 14-year-old,
grunge-era fashion casualty.

(Laughter)

And so we encounter a crossroads:

The opportunity to be

or not to be

something we've been
longing to experience.

I used to look at
a beautiful person and think,

"She is so gorgeous.
I could never look like that."

Of course, as we all know,

the entire world is only allowed
2000 beauty points, total.

(Laughter)

And since Beyoncé and Juliette Binoche
are obviously 900 points each,

I must be like a point zero-zero-two
or something, right?

But if I can look at a rotting leaf
in a way that I see the beauty in it,

clearly, beauty is not a substance.

It's not a material
that only certain things are made of.

Things like:

"Raindrops on roses
and whiskers on kittens,

and Julie Andrews
because we're all smitten,

beauty is found in all manner of things,

beauty's the way you behold how it sings."

(Applause)

I began to practice seeing
the abundance of beauty around me.

The more deeply I observed
beauty singing in every form,

the more I began to see it in myself.

I started rewriting a bunch of old labels
I'd been carrying for a long time:

not thin enough, not pretty enough,
not talented enough, not good enough.

It's a challenge to break
old judgment patterns

you've been identifying with for so long,

often without even being aware of them.

It can be scary.

I've had to abandon the relative comfort

of who I think I am

for the possibility of whom I may become.

It can be hard.

It can require courage, you know.

But as a wise fish once said,

(Laughter)

"Just keep swimming.

Swimming, swimming. What do we we do?

We swim, ha hahaha.
I thank you, Alan and Pixar."

(Laughter) (Applause)

Dory.

Courage is not the absence of fear;

it's when you just keep swimming
and sing louder than the voice of doubt.

And so as you watch these speakers today,

I invite you to practice seeing

the beauty and the potential
in each one of them,

even beyond the wonders
that they present today.

As you offer them an opportunity to grow,

you'll find that empowerment
reflected back to you

because they're all here
to share what they've learned

that you might take it
to new heights on your own path.

Thank you.

(Applause)