In the Legacy Journal, we recently featured a Legacy Story about Dan West, an Ohio farmer with a good idea. How many times have you had a good idea? Maybe you have them all the time. Maybe you stop yourself from having them, or doing anything with them because you think “Who am I to think I could do that?”
Who are you to think you can’t!? I like Marianne Williamson’s reasoning: “You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do.”
Kids get this. They haven’t had the disabling fear, the sense of scarcity, or the experience of “not enough” that precedes thinking they can’t do something. They figure they can do anything, then they become teenagers who are invincible and college students who are idealists! Until the adults in their lives advise them to be “sensible,” to grow up and get a good job. Maybe that’s you? Someone who gave up passion for sensibility? And maybe you even picked a job or a career course that you actually found interesting and challenging … until it wasn’t anymore. When did you lose your own sense of possibility in life?
Want to read more? Click Here
Your article is so spot-on. Fear is the thing that gets in the way for most of us – though it might be different things we’re afraid of. I’ve learned that I can’t THINK my way out of fear, I have to ACT my way out of it. That doesn’t mean “acting as if”, though. That never works for me because I would know I was faking it. Instead, taking action – any action, for that matter – is the only way to shift fear sustainably.
Thanks for the great reminder!
Thanks for the acknowledgement Nina that this resonated with you. Sometimes it doesn’t even matter what the action is, so long as it is just somethign different than what you’ve been doing or what you usually do. It can be small and simple – especially helpful when fear is involved and anything too big feels like the “jumping off a cliff” variety! You are awesome. Cheers, Dolly